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diff --git a/.gitattributes b/.gitattributes new file mode 100644 index 0000000..6833f05 --- /dev/null +++ b/.gitattributes @@ -0,0 +1,3 @@ +* text=auto +*.txt text +*.md text diff --git a/21765-0.txt b/21765-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..240901a --- /dev/null +++ b/21765-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13416 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Publius Ovidius Naso + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at +www.gutenberg.org. If you are not located in the United States, you +will have to check the laws of the country where you are located before +using this eBook. + +Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid + Vol. I, Books I-VII + +Author: Publius Ovidius Naso + +Translator: Henry Thomas Riley + +Release Date: June 8, 2007 [eBook #21765] +[Most recently updated: June 28, 2021] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: UTF-8 + +Produced by: Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team + +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID *** + + + + + [Transcriber’s Note: + + In the original text, words and phrases supplied by the translator + were printed in _italics_. In this e-text they are shown in {braces}. + Italics in the notes and commentary are shown conventionally with + _lines_, boldface by =marks=. + + Line numbers from the original Latin poem were printed as headnotes + on each page. For this e-text, only the line numbers of each complete + “Fable†are given. Line numbers used in footnotes are retained from + the original text; these, too, refer to the Latin poem and are + independent of line divisions in the translation. + + Parts of this e-text use material from another edition of the Riley + translation of the _Metamorphoses_: George Bell (London, 1893). + Details are given at the end of the text, before the Errata. Each + segment of the introductory material is individually identified.] + + + + + THE + METAMORPHOSES OF OVID + + Vol. I--Books I-VII + +LITERALLY TRANSLATED WITH NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS + + by + HENRY T. RILEY, M.A. + + With an Introduction by + EDWARD BROOKS, JR. + + + + + Copyright, 1899, By David McKay + + Press Of + Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [From Bell edition.] + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological +narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so ingeniously framed, as to +embrace a large amount of information upon almost every subject +connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of +antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the +learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful +translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied +information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets +of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume. + +To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of +necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting +to the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in +Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and +Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable +light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen +Mythology. + +In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally +adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few +instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes; +at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been +carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to +punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in +adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each +passage the intended meaning of the writer. + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the +English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn’s excellent Catalogue of the +Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole +of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five +translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the +Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the middle of +the last century, which professes to be “as near the original as the +different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;†and to be +“printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen.†A few +moments’ perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not +the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, while, +by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained +nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by “critical, +historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best +Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes, +entirely new;†but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations +will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the +early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities +of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so +recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up +of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more +literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which +was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh +edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to +fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being “as literal as +possible,†still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the +fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early +part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at +explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the +requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too +much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words, +“have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of +regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school,†he has, in +many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of +the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes; +but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a +few of them are adduced: the word “nitidus†is always rendered “neat,†+whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a +temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders “horridus,†“in a rude +pickle;†“virgo†is generally translated “the young lady;†“vir†is +“a gentleman;†“senex†and “senior†are indifferently “the old blade,†+“the old fellow,†or “the old gentleman;†while “summa arx†is “the very +tip-top.†“Misera†is “poor soul;†“exsilio†means “to bounce forth;†+“pellex†is “a miss;†“lumina†are “the peepers;†“turbatum fugere†is +“to scower off in a mighty bustle;†“confundor†is “to be jumbled;†and +“squalidus†is “in a sorry pickle.†“Importuna†is “a plaguy baggage;†+“adulterium†is rendered “her pranks;†“ambages†becomes either “a long +rabble of words,†“a long-winded detail,†or “a tale of a tub;†+“miserabile carmen†is “a dismal ditty;†“increpare hos†is “to rattle +these blades;†“penetralia†means “the parlour;†while “accingere,†more +literally than elegantly, is translated “buckle to.†“Situs†is “nasty +stuff;†“oscula jungere†is “to tip him a kiss;†“pingue ingenium†is a +circumlocution for “a blockhead;†“anilia instrumenta†are “his old +woman’s accoutrements;†and “repetito munere Bacchi†is conveyed to the +sense of the reader as, “they return again to their bottle, and take the +other glass.†These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure +the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses. + +In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,] +entitled “Ovid’s Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, and, according +to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and the verse +will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used according +to the directions in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster, and more +fully in the book called, ‘Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar school, +chap. 8.’†Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a +translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book, +executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity is now the +only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first +Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,†was published in 1839, +which had been already preceded by “a selection from the Metamorphoses +of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal +translation,†published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian +system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and +consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. + +For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and +allusions, explanations have been added, which are principally derived +from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius, +Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the +historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number +of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid, +published by the Abbé Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the +last century; who has, therein, and in his “Explanations of the Fables +of Antiquity,†with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the +works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely +to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome. + +This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement +of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to +enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects +presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances, space +has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference +to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the +explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of +critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of +Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very positive +result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Müller, Buttmann, and many +other scholars of profound learning. + + + + + A SYNOPTICAL VIEW + of the Principal Transformations Mentioned in + THE METAMORPHOSES. + + [From Bell edition, omitting Books VIII-XV.] + + +BOOK I. + +Chaos is divided by the Deity into four Elements: to these their +respective inhabitants are assigned, and man is created from earth and +water. The four Ages follow, and in the last of these the Giants aspire +to the sovereignty of the heavens; being slain by Jupiter, a new race of +men springs up from their blood. These becoming noted for their impiety, +Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon into a wolf, but destroys the whole +race of men and animals by a Deluge, with the exception of Deucalion and +Pyrrha, who, when the waters have abated, renew the human race, by +throwing stones behind them. Other animated beings are produced by heat +and moisture: and, among them, the serpent Python. PhÅ“bus slays him, and +institutes the Pythian games as a memorial of the event, in which the +conquerors are crowned with beech; for as yet the laurel does not exist, +into which Daphne is changed soon after, while flying from PhÅ“bus. On +this taking place, the other rivers repair to her father Peneus, either +to congratulate or to console him; but Inachus is not there, as he is +grieving for his daughter Io, whom Jupiter, having first ravished her, +has changed into a cow. She is entrusted by Juno to the care of Argus; +Mercury having first related to him the transformation of the Nymph +Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on which his eyes are placed by Juno in +the tail of the peacock. Io, having recovered human shape, becomes the +mother of Epaphus. + + +BOOK II. + +Epaphus, having accused Phaëton of falsely asserting that PhÅ“bus is his +father, Phaëton requests PhÅ“bus, as a proof of his affection towards his +child, to allow him the guidance of the chariot of the Sun for one day. +This being granted, the whole earth is set on fire by him, and the +Æthiopians are turned black by the heat. Jupiter strikes Phaëton with a +thunderbolt, and while his sisters and his kinsman Cyenus are lamenting +him, the former are changed into trees, and Cyenus into a swan. On +visiting the earth, that he may repair the damage caused by the +conflagration, Jupiter sees Calisto, and, assuming the form of Diana, he +debauches her. Juno, being enraged, changes Calisto into a bear; and her +own son Arcas being about to pierce her with an arrow, Jupiter places +them both among the Constellations. Juno having complained of this to +Oceanus, is borne back to the heavens by her peacocks, who have so +lately changed their colour; a thing which has also happened to the +raven, which has been lately changed from white to black, he having +refused to listen to the warnings of the crow (who relates the story of +its own transformation, and of that of Nyctimene into an owl), and +having persisted in informing PhÅ“bus of the intrigues of Coronis. Her +son Æsculapius being cut out of the womb of Coronis and carried to the +cave of Chiron the Centaur, Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of Chiron, is changed +into a mare, while she is prophesying. Her father in vain invokes the +assistance of Apollo, for he, in the guise of a shepherd, is tending his +oxen in the country of Elis. He neglecting his herd, Mercury takes the +opportunity of stealing it; after which he changes Battus into a +touchstone, for betraying him. Flying thence, Mercury beholds Herse, the +daughter of Cecrops, and debauches her. Her sister Aglauros, being +envious of her, is changed into a rock. Mercury returns to heaven, on +which Jupiter orders him to drive the herds of Agenor towards the shore; +and then, assuming the form of a bull, he carries Europa over the sea to +the isle of Crete. + + +BOOK III. + +Agenor commands his son Cadmus to seek his sister Europa. While he is +doing this, he slays a dragon in BÅ“otia; and having sowed its teeth in +the earth, men are produced, with whose assistance he builds the walls +of Thebes. His first cause of grief is the fate of his grandson Actæon, +who, being changed into a stag, is torn to pieces by his own hounds. +This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, who hates not only Semele, the +daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of Jupiter, but all the house of +Agenor as well. Assuming the form of Beroë, she contrives the +destruction of Semele by the lightnings of Jupiter; while Bacchus, being +saved alive from his mother’s womb, is brought up on the earth. Jupiter +has a discussion with Juno on the relative pleasures of the sexes, and +they agree to refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both +sexes. He gives his decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno +deprives him of sight; and, by way of recompense, Jupiter bestows on him +the gift of prophesy. His first prediction is fulfilled in the case of +Narcissus, who, despising the advances of all females (in whose number +is Echo, who has been transformed into a sound), at last pines away with +love for himself, and is changed into a flower which bears his name. +Pentheus, however, derides the prophet; who predicts his fate, and his +predictions are soon verified; for, on the celebration of the orgies, +Bacchus having assumed a disguise, is brought before him; and having +related to Pentheus the story of the transformation of the Etrurian +sailors into dolphins, he is thrown into prison. On this, Pentheus is +torn in pieces by the Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid +to the rites of Bacchus. + + +BOOK IV. + +Still Alcithoë and her sisters, neglecting the rites, attend to their +spinning, during the festivities, and pass the time in telling stories; +and, among others, that of Pyramus and Thisbe, by whose blood the +mulberry is turned from white to black, and that of the discovery of the +intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the information of the Sun. They also +tell how the Sun assumed the form of Eurynome, that he might enjoy her +daughter Leucothoë; how Clytie, becoming jealous of her sister, was +transformed into a sun-flower; and how Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had +become united into one body. After this, through the agency of Bacchus, +the sisters are transformed into bats, and their webs are changed into +vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, in her hatred and indignation, sends +one of the Furies to her, who causes her to be struck with insanity, on +which she leaps into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but by +the intercession of Venus, they become sea Deities, and their Sidonian +attendants, who are bewailing them as dead, are changed into rocks. +Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies +to Illyria, together with his wife, where they are both transformed into +serpents. Of those who despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the +grandfather of Perseus, who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon +Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a +mountain, and having liberated Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into +coral, and afterwards marries her. + + +BOOK V. + +A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims +Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him; and together with PrÅ“tus, he +and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now +leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The +Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were +transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the +subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of +animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of +Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an +owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa into a spring, of +Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptolemus. + + +BOOK VI. + +Influenced by the example of the Muses, Pallas determines on the +destruction of Arachne. She enters with her into a contest for the +superiority in the art of weaving. Each represents various +transformations on her web, and then Arachne is changed into a spider. +Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from preferring her own lot to +that of Latona; on account of which, all her children are slain by +Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. On learning this, +while one person relates the transformation by Latona of the Lycian +rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was flayed by +Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of ivory. To +console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come from the +adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are attacked by +hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries Progne, the +daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, takes back +with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife’s sister; and having +committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is transformed into +a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a nightingale, and Progne +becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these wondrous events dies of +grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, Orithyia, is ravished by +Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and Zethes, who are of the +number of the Argonauts on the following occasion. + + +BOOK VII. + +Jason, by the aid of Medea, having conquered the bulls that breathe +forth flames, having sowed the teeth of a serpent, from which armed men +are produced, and having lulled the dragon to sleep, recovers the Golden +Fleece. Medea, accompanying Jason to Greece, restores Æson to youth by +the aid of drugs; and promising the same to Pelias, having first, as a +specimen, changed a ram into a lamb, by stratagem she kills him. Passing +through many places made remarkable by various transformations, and +having slain her children, she marries Ægeus, when Theseus returns home, +and narrowly escapes being poisoned by her magic potions. Minos +interrupts the joy of Ægeus on the return of his son, and wages war +against him; having collected troops from all parts, even from Paros, +where Arne has been changed into a jackdaw. Minos endeavours to gain the +alliance of Æacus, who, however, refuses it, and sends the Myrmidons, +(who have been changed into ants from men after a severe pestilence), +under the command of Cephalus to assist Ægeus. Cephalus relates to +Phocus, the son of Æacus, how, being carried off by Aurora and assuming +another shape, he had induced his wife Procris to prove faithless; and +how he had received from her a dog and a javelin, the former of which, +together with a fox, was changed into stone; while the latter, by +inadvertence, caused the death of his wife. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [By Edward Brooks, Jr., from McKay edition.] + +P. Ovidius Naso--commonly known as Ovid--was born at Sulmo, about, +ninety miles from Rome, in the year 43 B.C. His father belonged to an +old equestrian family, and at an early age brought his son to Rome, +where he was educated under the most distinguished masters. Very little +is known of the poet’s life, except that which is gathered from his own +writings. After finishing his education at home he visited Athens, in +company with the poet Macer, for the purpose of completing his studies, +and before returning visited the magnificent cities of Asia Minor and +spent nearly a year in Sicily. + +Although as a young man Ovid showed a natural taste and inclination for +poetical composition, he was by no means encouraged to indulge in this +pursuit. His father thought that the profession of law was much more apt +to lead to distinction and political eminence than the vocation of a +poet. He therefore dissuaded his son from writing poetry and urged him +to devote himself to the legal profession. Compliance with his father’s +wishes led him to spend much time in the forum, and for a while poetry +was abandoned. Upon attaining his majority, he held several minor +offices of state; but neither his health nor his inclinations would +permit him to perform the duties of public life. Poetry was his love, +and in spite of the strong objections of his father, he resolved to +abandon the law courts and devote himself to a more congenial +occupation. He sought the society of the most distinguished poets of the +day, and his admiration for them amounted almost to reverence. He +numbered among his intimate friends the poets Macer, Propertius, +Ponticus and Bassus, while Æmilius Macer, Virgil’s contemporary, used to +read his compositions to him, and even the fastidious Horace, it is +said, occasionally delighted the young man’s ear with the charm of his +verse. + +Ovid was married three times. His first wife he married when little more +than a boy, and the union does not seem to have been a happy one, though +it was probably due to no fault of the wife. His second wife seems also +to have been of blameless character, but his love for her was of short +duration. His third wife was a lady of the great Fabian house and a +friend of the Empress Livia. She appears to have been a woman in every +way worthy of the great and lasting love which the poet lavished upon +her to the day of his death. + +Up to the age of fifty Ovid had lived a life of prosperity and +happiness. Though not a wealthy man, his means were such as to permit +him to indulge in the luxuries of refined life, and his attainments as a +poet had surrounded him with a circle of most desirable friends and +admirers. He had even obtained the favor and patronage of the royal +family. About the year 8 A.D. he, however, incurred the great +displeasure of Augustus, and was ordered by him to withdraw from Rome +and dwell in the colony of Tomi, on the shore of the Euxine sea. Leaving +behind him a wife to whom he was devotedly attached he obeyed the edict +of his emperor and entered upon an exile from which he was destined +never to return. He died in banishment at Tomi in the year 18 A.D. + +The exact reason for Ovid’s banishment has never been clear, though +there have been many conjectures as to the cause. About two years +previous to his exile Ovid had published a composition which had greatly +displeased Augustus, on account of its immoral tendency. Almost +coincident with this publication was the discovery of the scandal +relating to Julia, daughter of the emperor. It is probable that the +proximity of these two events tended to intensify the imperial +displeasure, and when some time later there was made public the intrigue +of the emperor’s granddaughter, the indignation of Augustus gave itself +vent in the banishment of Ovid. + +The writings of Ovid consist of the _Amores_ in three books; the _Heroic +Epistles_, twenty-one in number; the _Ars Amatoria_; the _Remedia +Amoris_; the _Metamorphoses_, in fifteen books; the _Fasti_, in six +books; the _Tristia_, in five books; the _Epistles_, in four books, and +a few minor poems. In the following pages will be found a translation of +the _Metamorphoses_. + + + + + + +THE METAMORPHOSES. + + + + +BOOK THE FIRST. + + +THE ARGUMENT. [I.1-4] + +My design leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies.[1] Ye +Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) favor my attempts,[2] and bring +down the lengthened narrative from the very beginning of the world, +{even} to my own times.[3] + + [Footnote 1: _Forms changed into new bodies._--Ver. 1. Some + commentators cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being + used for ‘corpora mutata in novas formas,’ ‘bodies changed into + new forms;’ and they fancy that there is a certain beauty in the + circumstance that the proposition of a subject which treats of the + changes and variations of bodies should be framed with a + transposition of words. This supposition is perhaps based rather + on the exuberance of a fanciful imagination than on solid grounds, + as if it is an instance of Hypallage, it is most probably quite + accidental; while the passage may be explained without any + reference to Hypallage, as the word ‘forma’ is sometimes used to + signify the thing itself; thus the words ‘formæ deorum’ and + ‘ferarum’ are used to signify ‘the Gods,’ or ‘the wild beasts’ + themselves.] + + [Footnote 2: _Favor my attempts._--Ver. 3. This use of the word + ‘adspirate’ is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they + fill the ship’s sails, were properly said ‘adspirare.’ It has been + remarked, with some justice, that this invocation is not + sufficiently long or elaborate for a work of so grave and + dignified a nature as the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 3: _To my own times._--Ver. 4. That is, to the days of + Augustus Cæsar.] + + +FABLE I. [I.5-31] + + God reduces Chaos into order. He separates the four elements, and + disposes the several bodies, of which the universe is formed, into + their proper situations. + +At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, +were the only face of nature throughout the whole universe, which men +have named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass,[4] and nothing {more} than +an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not harmonizing, +heaped together in the same spot. No Sun[5] as yet gave light to the +world; nor did the Moon,[6] by increasing, recover her horns anew. The +Earth did not {as yet} hang in the surrounding air, balanced by its own +weight, nor had Amphitrite[7] stretched out her arms along the +lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also +was the sea and the air; {and} thus was the earth without firmness, the +sea unnavigable, the air void of light; in no one {of them} did its +{present} form exist. And one was {ever} obstructing the other; because +in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the moist with the +dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with {those} devoid of +weight. + +To this discord God and bounteous Nature[8] put an end; for he separated +the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and +distinguished the clear heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after he +had unravelled these {elements}, and released them from {that} confused +heap, he combined them, {thus} disjoined, in harmonious unison, {each} +in {its proper} place. The element of the vaulted heaven,[9] fiery and +without weight, shone forth, and selected a place for itself in the +highest region; next after it, {both} in lightness and in place, was the +air; the Earth was more weighty than these, and drew {with it} the more +ponderous atoms, and was pressed together by its own gravity. The +encircling waters sank to the lowermost place,[10] and surrounded the +solid globe. + + [Footnote 4: _A rude and undigested mass._--Ver. 7. This is very + similar to the words of the Scriptures, ‘And the earth was without + form and void,’ Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.] + + [Footnote 5: _No Sun._--Ver. 10. Titan. The Sun is so called, on + account of his supposed father, Hyperion, who was one of the + Titans. Hyperion is thought to have been the first who, by + assiduous observation, discovered the course of the Sun, Moon, and + other luminaries. By them he regulated the time for the seasons, + and imparted this knowledge to others. Being thus, as it were, the + father of astronomy, he has been feigned by the poets to have been + the father of the Sun and the Moon.] + + [Footnote 6: _The Moon._--Ver. 11. PhÅ“be. The Moon is so called + from the Greek φοῖβος, ‘shining,’ and as being the sister of + PhÅ“bus, Apollo, or the Sun.] + + [Footnote 7: _Amphitrite._--Ver. 14. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Doris, and the wife of Neptune, God of the Sea. Being + the Goddess of the Ocean, her name is here used to signify the + ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 8: _Nature._--Ver. 21. ‘Natura’ is a word often used by + the Poet without any determinate signification, and to its + operations are ascribed all those phenomena which it is found + difficult or impossible to explain upon known and established + principles. In the present instance it may be considered to mean + the invisible agency of the Deity in reducing Chaos into a form of + order and consistency. ‘Et’ is therefore here, as grammarians term + it, an expositive particle; as if the Poet had said, ‘Deus sive + natura,’ ‘God, or in other words, nature.’] + + [Footnote 9: _The element of the vaulted heaven._--Ver. 26. This + is a periphrasis, signifying the regions of the firmament or upper + air, in which the sun and stars move; which was supposed to be of + the purest fire and the source of all flame. The heavens are + called ‘convex,’ from being supposed to assume the same shape as + the terrestrial globe which they surround.] + + [Footnote 10: _The lowermost place._--Ver. 31. ‘Ultima’ must not + be here understood in the presence of ‘infima,’ or as signifying + ‘last,’ or ‘lowest,’ in a strict philosophical sense, for that + would contradict the account of the formation of the world given + by Hesiod, and which is here closely followed by Ovid; indeed, it + would contradict his own words,--‘Circumfluus humor coercuit + solidum orbem.’ The meaning seems to be, that the waters possess + the lowest place only in respect to the earth whereon we tread, + and not relatively to the terrestrial globe, the supposed centre + of the system, inasmuch as the external surface of the earth in + some places rises considerably, and leaves the water to subside in + channels.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient philosophers, unable to comprehend how something could be + produced out of nothing, supposed a matter pre-existent to the Earth + in its present shape, which afterwards received form and order from + some powerful cause. According to them, God was not the Creator, but + the Architect of the universe, in ranging and disposing the elements + in situations most suitable to their respective qualities. This is the + Chaos so often sung of by the poets, and which Hesiod was the first to + mention. + + It is clear that this system was but a confused and disfigured + tradition of the creation of the world, as mentioned by Moses; and + thus, beneath these fictions, there lies some faint glimmering of + truth. The first two chapters of the book of Genesis will be found to + throw considerable light on the foundation of this Mythological system + of the world’s formation. + + Hesiod, the most ancient of the heathen writers who have enlarged upon + this subject, seems to have derived much of his information from the + works of Sanchoniatho, who is supposed to have borrowed his ideas + concerning Chaos from that passage in the second verse of the first + Chapter of Genesis, which mentions the darkness that was spread over + the whole universe--‘and darkness was upon the face of the deep’--for + he expresses himself almost in those words. Sanchoniatho lived before + the Trojan war, and professed to have received his information + respecting the original construction of the world from a priest of + ‘Jehovah,’ named Jerombaal. He wrote in the PhÅ“nician language; but we + have only a translation of his works, by Philo Judæus, which is by + many supposed to be spurious. It is, however, very probable, that from + him the Greeks borrowed their notions regarding Chaos, which they + mingled with fables of their own invention. + + +FABLE II. [I.32-88] + + After the separation of matter, God gives form and regularity to the + universe; and all other living creatures being produced, Prometheus + moulds earth tempered with water, into a human form, which is animated + by Minerva. + +When thus he, whoever of the Gods he was,[11] had divided the mass {so} +separated, and reduced it, so divided, into {distinct} members; in the +first place, that it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up +into the form of a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured +around it, and to grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround +the shores of the Earth, encompassed {by it}; he added also springs, and +numerous pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed +downwards, with slanting banks. These, different in {different} places, +are some of them swallowed up[12] by {the Earth} itself; some of them +reach the ocean, and, received in the expanse of waters that take a +freer range, beat against shores instead of banks. + +He commanded the plains,[13] too, to be extended, the valleys to sink +down, the woods to be clothed with green leaves, the craggy mountains to +arise; and, as on the right-hand side,[14] two Zones intersect the +heavens, and as many on the left; {and as} there is a fifth hotter than +these, so did the care of the Deity distinguish this enclosed mass {of +the Earth} by the same number, and as many climates are marked out upon +the Earth. Of these, that which is the middle one[15] is not habitable +on account of the heat; deep snow covers two[16] {of them}. Between +either these he placed as many more,[17] and gave them a temperate +climate, heat being mingled with cold. + +Over these hangs the air, which is heavier than fire, in the same degree +that the weight of water is lighter than the weight of the earth. Here +he ordered vapors, here too, the clouds to take their station; the +thunder, too, to terrify the minds of mortals, and with the lightnings, +the winds that bring on cold. The Contriver of the World did not allow +these indiscriminately to take possession of the sky. Even now, +(although they each of them govern their own blasts in a distinct tract) +they are with great difficulty prevented from rending the world asunder, +so great is the discord of the brothers.[18] Eurus took his way[19] +towards {the rising of} Aurora and the realms of Nabath[20] and Persia, +and the mountain ridges exposed to the rays of the morning. The Evening +star, and the shores which are warm with the setting sun, are bordering +upon Zephyrus.[21] The terrible Boreas invaded Scythia,[22] and the +regions of the North. The opposite quarter is wet with continual clouds, +and the drizzling South Wind.[23] Over these he placed the firmament, +clear and devoid of gravity, and not containing anything of the dregs of +earth. + +Scarcely had he separated all these by fixed limits, when the stars, +which had long lain hid, concealed beneath that mass {of Chaos}, began +to glow through the range of the heavens. And that no region might be +destitute of its own {peculiar} animated beings, the stars and the forms +of the Gods[24] possess the tract of heaven; the waters fell to be +inhabited by the smooth fishes;[25] the Earth received the wild beasts, +{and} the yielding air the birds. + +{But} an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to receive +higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest,[26] was still +wanting. {Then} Man was formed. Whether it was that the Artificer of all +things, the original of the world in its improved state, framed him from +divine elements;[27] or whether, the Earth, being newly made, and but +lately divided from the lofty æther, still retained some atoms of its +kindred heaven, which, tempered with the waters of the stream, the son +of Iapetus fashioned after the image of the Gods, who rule over all +things. And, whereas other animals bend their looks downwards upon the +Earth, to Man he gave a countenance to look on high and to behold the +heavens, and to raise his face erect to the stars. Thus, that which had +been lately rude earth, and without any regular shape, being changed, +assumed the form of Man, {till then} unknown. + + [Footnote 11: _Whoever of the Gods he was._--Ver. 32. By this + expression the Poet perhaps may intend to intimate that the God + who created the world was some more mighty Divinity than those who + were commonly accounted Deities.] + + [Footnote 12: _Are some of them swallowed up._--Ver. 40. He here + refers to those rivers which, at some distance from their sources, + disappear and continue their course under ground. Such was the + stream of Arethusa, the Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in Argolis, + the Alpheus in Peloponnesus, the Arcas in Spain, and the Rhone in + France. Most of these, however, after descending into the earth, + appear again and discharge their waters into the sea.] + + [Footnote 13: _He commanded the plains._--Ver. 43. The use here of + the word ‘jussit,’ signifying ‘ordered,’ or ‘commanded,’ is + considered as being remarkably sublime and appropriate, and + serving well to express the ease wherewith an infinitely powerful + Being accomplishes the most difficult works. There is the same + beauty here that was long since remarked by Longinus, one of the + most celebrated critics among the ancients, in the words used by + Moses, ‘And God said, Let there be light, and there was light,’ + Genesis, ch. i. ver. 3.] + + [Footnote 14: _On the right-hand side._--Ver. 45. The “right hand†+ here refers to the northern part of the globe, and the “left hand†+ to the southern. He here speaks of the zones. Astronomers have + divided the heavens into five parallel circles. First, the + equinoctial, which lies in the middle, between the poles of the + earth, and obtains its name from the equality of days and nights + on the earth while the sun is in its plane. On each side are the + two tropics, at the distance of 23 deg. 30 min., and described by + the sun when in his greatest declination north and south, or at + the summer and winter solstices. That on the north side of the + equinoctial is called the tropic of Cancer, because the sun + describes it when in that sign of the ecliptic; and that on the + south side is, for a similar reason, called the tropic of + Capricorn. Again, at the distance of 23½ degrees from the poles + are two other parallels called the polar circles, either because + they are near to the poles, or because, if we suppose the whole + frame of the heavens to turn round on the plane of the + equinoctial, these circles are marked out by the poles of the + ecliptic. By means of these parallels, astronomers have divided + the heavens into four zones or tracks. The whole space between the + two tropics is the middle or torrid zone, which the equinoctial + divides into two equal parts. On each side of this are the + temperate zones, which extend from the tropics to the two polar + circles. And lastly, the portions enclosed by the polar circles + make up the frigid zones. As the planes of these circles produced + till they reached the earth, would also impress similar parallels + upon it, and divide it in the same manner as they divide the + heavens, astronomers have conceived five zones upon the earth, + corresponding to those in the heavens, and bounded by the same + circles.] + + [Footnote 15: _That which is the middle one._--Ver. 49. The + ecliptic in which the sun moves, cuts the equator in two opposite + points, at an angle of 23½ degrees; and runs obliquely from one + tropic to another, and returns again in a corresponding direction. + Hence, the sun, which in the space of a year, performs the + revolution of this circle, must in that time be twice vertical to + every place in the torrid zone, except directly under the tropics, + and his greatest distance from their zenith at noon, cannot exceed + 47 degrees. Thus his rays being often perpendicular, or nearly so, + and never very oblique, must strike more forcibly, and cause more + intense heat in that spot. Being little acquainted with the extent + and situation of the earth, the ancients believed it + uninhabitable. Modern discovery has shown that this is not the + case as to a considerable part of the torrid zone, though with + some parts of it our acquaintance is still very limited.] + + [Footnote 16: _Deep snow covers two._--Ver. 50. The two polar or + frigid zones. For as the sun never approaches these nearer than + the tropic on that side, and is, during one part of the year, + removed by the additional extent of the whole torrid zone, his + rays must be very oblique and faint, so as to leave these tracts + exposed to almost perpetual cold.] + + [Footnote 17: _He placed as many more._--Ver. 51. The temperate + zones, lying between the torrid and the frigid, partake of the + character of each in a modified degree, and are of a middle + temperature between hot and cold. Here, too, the distinction of + the seasons is manifest. For in either temperate zone, when the + sun is in that tropic, which borders upon it, being nearly + vertical, the heat must be considerable, and produce summer; but + when he is removed to the other tropic by a distance of 47 + degrees, his rays will strike but faintly, and winter will be the + consequence. The intermediate spaces, while he is moving from one + tropic to the other, make spring and autumn.] + + [Footnote 18: _The brothers._--Ver. 60. That is, the winds, who, + according to the Theogony of Hesiod, were the sons of Astreus, the + giant, and Aurora.] + + [Footnote 19: _Eurus took his way._--Ver. 61. The Poet, after + remarking that the air is the proper region of the winds, proceeds + to take notice that God, to prevent them from making havoc of the + creation, subjected them to particular laws, and assigned to each + the quarter whence to direct his blasts. Eurus is the east wind, + being so called from its name, because it blows from the east. As + Aurora, or the morning, was always ushered in by the sun, who + rises eastward, she was supposed to have her habitation in the + eastern quarter of the world; and often, in the language of + ancient poetry, her name signifies the east.] + + [Footnote 20: _The realms of Nabath._--Ver. 61. From Josephus we + learn that Nabath, the son of Ishmael, with his eleven brothers, + took possession of all the country from the river Euphrates to the + Red Sea, and called it Nabathæa. Pliny the Elder and Strabo speak + of the Nabatæi as situated between Babylon and Arabia Felix, and + call their capital Petra. Tacitus, in his Annals (Book ii. + ch. 57), speaks of them as having a king. Perhaps the term + ‘Nabathæa regna’ implies here, generally, the whole of Arabia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Are bordering upon Zephyrus._--Ver. 63. The region + where the sun sets, that is to say, the western part of the world, + was assigned by the ancients to the Zephyrs, or west winds, so + called by a Greek derivation because they cherish and enliven + nature.] + + [Footnote 22: _Boreas invaded Scythia._--Ver. 34. Under the name + of Scythia, the ancients generally comprehended all the countries + situate in the extreme northern regions. ‘Septem trio,’ meaning + the northern region of the world, is so called from the ‘Triones,’ + a constellation of seven stars, near the North Pole, known also as + the Ursa Major, or Greater Bear, and among the country people of + our time by the name of Charles’s Wain. Boreas, one of the names + of ‘Aquilo,’ or the ‘north wind,’ is derived from a Greek word, + signifying ‘an eddy.’ This name was probably given to it from its + causing whirlwinds occasionally by its violence.] + + [Footnote 23: _The drizzling South Wind._--Ver. 66. The South Wind + is especially called rainy, because, blowing from the + Mediterranean sea on the coast of France and Italy, it generally + brings with it clouds and rain.] + + [Footnote 24: _The forms of the Gods._--Ver. 73. There is some + doubt what the Poet here means by the ‘forms of the Gods.’ Some + think that the stars are meant, as if it were to be understood + that they are forms of the Gods. But it is most probably only a + poetical expression for the Gods themselves, and he here assigns + the heavens as the habitation of the Gods and the stars; these + last, according to the notion of the Platonic philosophers being + either intelligent beings, or guided and actuated by such.] + + [Footnote 25: _Inhabited by the smooth fishes._--Ver. 74. + ‘Cesserunt nitidis habitandæ piscibus;’ Clarke translates ‘fell + to the neat fishes to inhabit.’] + + [Footnote 26: _Could rule over the rest._--Ver. 77. This strongly + brings to mind the words of the Creator, described in the first + chapter of Genesis, ver. 28. ‘And God said unto them--_have + dominion_ over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, + and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.’] + + [Footnote 27: _Framed him from divine elements._--Ver. 78. We have + here strong grounds for contending that the ancient philosophers, + and after them the poets, in their account of the creation of the + world followed a tradition that had been copied from the Books of + Moses. The formation of man, in Ovid, as well as in the Book of + Genesis, is the last work of the Creator, and was, for the same + purpose, that man might have dominion over the other animated + works of the creation.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Ovid, as in the book of Genesis, man is the last work of + the Creator. The information derived from Holy Writ is here presented + to us, in a disfigured form. Prometheus, who tempers the earth, and + Minerva, who animates his workmanship, is God, who formed man, and + ‘breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.’ + + Some writers have labored to prove that this Prometheus, of the + heathen Mythology, was a Scriptural character. Bochart believes him to + have been the same with Magog, mentioned in the book of Genesis. + Prometheus was the son of Iapetus, and Magog was the son of Japhet, + who, according to that learned writer, was identical with Iapetus. He + says, that as Magog went to settle in Scythia, so did Prometheus; as + Magog either invented, or improved, the art of founding metals, and + forging iron, so, according to the heathen poets, did Prometheus. + Diodorus Siculus asserts that Prometheus was the first to teach + mankind how to produce fire from the flint and steel. + + The fable of Prometheus being devoured by an eagle, according to some, + is founded on the name of Magog, which signifies ‘a man devoured by + sorrow.’ Le Clerc, in his notes on Hesiod, says, that Epimetheus, the + brother of Prometheus, was the same with the Gog of Scripture, the + brother of Magog. Some writers, again, have exerted their ingenuity to + prove that Prometheus is identical with the patriarch Noah. + + +FABLE III. [I.89-112] + + The formation of man is followed by a succession of the four ages of + the world. The first is the Golden Age, during which Innocence and + Justice alone govern the world. + +The Golden Age was first founded, which, without any avenger, of its own +accord, without laws, practised both faith and rectitude. Punishment, +and the fear {of it}, did not exist, and threatening decrees were not +read upon the brazen {tables},[28] fixed up {to view}, nor {yet} did the +suppliant multitude dread the countenance of its judge; but {all} were +in safety without any avenger. The pine-tree, cut from its {native} +mountains, had not yet descended to the flowing waves, that it might +visit a foreign region; and mortals were acquainted with no shores +beyond their own. Not as yet did deep ditches surround the towns; no +trumpets of straightened, or clarions of crooked brass,[29] no helmets, +no swords {then} existed. Without occasion for soldiers, the minds {of +men}, free from care, enjoyed an easy tranquillity. + +The Earth itself, too, in freedom, untouched by the harrow, and wounded +by no ploughshares, of its own accord produced everything; and men, +contented with the food created under no compulsion, gathered the fruit +of the arbute-tree, and the strawberries of the mountain, and cornels, +and blackberries adhering to the prickly bramble-bushes, and acorns +which had fallen from the wide-spreading tree of Jove. {Then} it was an +eternal spring; and the gentle Zephyrs, with their soothing breezes, +cherished the flowers produced without any seed. Soon, too, the Earth +unploughed yielded crops of grain, and the land, without being renewed, +was whitened with the heavy ears of corn. Then, rivers of milk, then, +rivers of nectar were flowing, and the yellow honey was distilled from +the green holm oak. + + [Footnote 28: _Read upon the brazen tables._--Ver. 91. It was the + custom among the Romans to engrave their laws on tables of brass, + and fix them in the Capitol, or some other conspicuous place, that + they might be open to the view of all.] + + [Footnote 29: _Clarions of crooked brass._--Ver. 98. ‘Cornu’ seems + to have been a general name for the horn or trumpet; whereas the + “tuba†was a straight trumpet, while the ‘lituus’ was bent into a + spiral shape. Lydus says that the ‘lituus’ was the sacerdotal + trumpet, and that it was employed by Romulus when he proclaimed + the title of his newly-founded city. Acro says that it was + peculiar to the cavalry, while the ‘tuba’ belonged to the + infantry. The notes of the ‘lituus’ are usually described as harsh + and shrill.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The heathen poets had learned, most probably from tradition, that our + first parents lived for some time in peaceful innocence; that, without + tillage, the garden of Eden furnished them with fruit and food in + abundance; and that the animals were submissive to their commands: + that after the fall the ground became unfruitful, and yielded nothing + without labor; and that nature no longer spontaneously acknowledged + man for its master. The more happy days of our first parents they seem + to have styled the Golden Age, each writer being desirous to make his + own country the scene of those times of innocence. The Latin writers, + for instance, have placed in Italy, and under the reign of Saturn and + Janus, events, which, as they really happened, the Scriptures relate + in the histories of Adam and of Noah. + + +FABLE IV. [I.113-150] + + In the Silver Age, men begin not to be so just, nor, consequently, so + happy, as in the Golden Age. In the Brazen Age, which succeeds, they + become yet less virtuous; but their wickedness does not rise to its + highest pitch until the Iron Age, when it makes its appearance in all + its deformity. + +Afterwards (Saturn being driven into the shady realms of Tartarus), the +world was under the sway of Jupiter; {then} the Silver Age succeeded, +inferior to {that of} gold, but more precious than {that of} yellow +brass. Jupiter shortened the duration of the former spring, and divided +the year into four periods by means of winters, and summers, and +unsteady autumns, and short springs. Then, for the first time, did the +parched air glow with sultry heat, and the ice, bound up by the winds, +was pendant. Then, for the first time, did men enter houses; {those} +houses were caverns, and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with +bark. Then, for the first time, were the seeds of Ceres buried in long +furrows, and the oxen groaned, pressed by the yoke {of the ploughshare}. + +The Age of Brass succeeded, as the third {in order}, after these; +fiercer in disposition, and more prone to horrible warfare, but yet free +from impiety. The last {Age} was of hard iron. Immediately every species +of crime burst forth, in this age of degenerated tendencies;[30] +modesty, truth, and honor took flight; in their place succeeded fraud, +deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering for acquisition. +The sailor now spread his sails to the winds, and with these, as yet, he +was but little acquainted; and {the trees}, which had long stood on the +lofty mountains, now, {as} ships bounded[31] through the unknown waves. +The ground, too, hitherto common as the light of the sun and the +breezes, the cautious measurer marked out with his lengthened boundary. + +And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due +sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the Earth; and +riches were dug up, the incentives to vice, which the Earth had hidden, +and had removed to the Stygian shades.[32] Then destructive iron came +forth, and gold, more destructive than iron; then War came forth, that +fights through the means of both,[33] and that brandishes in his +blood-stained hands the clattering arms. Men live by rapine; the guest +is not safe from his entertainer, nor the father-in-law from the +son-in-law; good feeling, too, between brothers is a rarity. The husband +is eager for the death of the wife, she {for that} of her husband. +Horrible stepmothers {then} mingle the ghastly wolfsbane; the son +prematurely makes inquiry[34] into the years of his father. Piety lies +vanquished, and the virgin Astræa[35] is the last of the heavenly +{Deities} to abandon the Earth, {now} drenched in slaughter. + + [Footnote 30: _Age of degenerated tendencies._--Ver. 128. ‘Vena’ + signifies among other things, a vein or track of metal as it lies + in the mine. Literally, ‘venæ pejoris’ signifies ‘of inferior + metal.’] + + [Footnote 31: _Now as ships bounded._--Ver. 134. ‘Insultavere + carinæ.’ This line is translated by Clarke, ‘The keel-pieces + bounced over unknown waves.’] + + [Footnote 32: _To the Stygian shades._--Ver. 139. That is, in deep + caverns, and towards the centre of the earth; for Styx was feigned + to be a river of the Infernal Regions, situate in the depths of + the earth.] + + [Footnote 33: _Through the means of both._--Ver. 142. Gold forms, + perhaps, more properly the sinews of war than iron. The history of + Philip of Macedon gives a proof of this, as he conquered Greece + more by bribes than the sword, and used to say, that he deemed no + fortress impregnable, where there was a gate large enough to admit + a camel laden with gold.] + + [Footnote 34: _Prematurely makes inquiry._--Ver. 148. Namely, by + inquiring of the magicians and astrologers, that by their skill in + casting nativities, they might inform them the time when their + parents were likely to die, and to leave them their property.] + + [Footnote 35: _Astræa._--Ver. 150. She was the daughter of Astræus + and Aurora, or of Jupiter and Themis, and was the Goddess of + Justice. On leaving the earth, she was supposed to have taken her + place among the stars as the Constellation of the Virgin.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Poet here informs us, that during the Golden Age, a perpetual + spring reigned on the earth, and that the division of the year into + seasons was not known until the Silver Age. This allusion to Eden is + very generally to be found in the works of the heathen poets. The + Silver Age is succeeded by the Brazen, and that is followed by the + Iron Age, which still continues. The meaning is, that man gradually + degenerated from his primeval innocence, and arrived at that state of + wickedness and impiety, of which the history of all ages, ancient and + modern, presents us with so many lamentable examples. + + The limited nature of their views, and the fact that their exuberant + fancy was the source from which they derived many of their alleged + events, naturally betrayed the ancient writers into great + inconsistencies. For in the Golden Age of Saturn, we find wars waged, + and crimes committed. Saturn expelled his father, and seized his + throne; Jupiter, his son, treated Saturn as he had done his father + Uranus; and Jupiter, in his turn, had to wage war against the Giants, + in their attempt to dispossess him of the heavens. + + +FABLE V. [I.151-162] + + The Giants having attempted to render themselves masters of heaven, + Jupiter buries them under the mountains which they have heaped + together to facilitate their assault; and the Earth, animating their + blood, forms out of it a cruel and fierce generation of men. + +And that the lofty {realms of} æther might not be more safe than the +Earth, they say that the Giants aspired to the sovereignty of Heaven, +and piled the mountains, heaped together, even to the lofty stars. Then +the omnipotent Father, hurling his lightnings, broke through +Olympus,[36] and struck Ossa away from Pelion, that lay beneath it. +While the dreadful carcasses lay overwhelmed beneath their own +structure, they say that the Earth was wet, drenched with the plenteous +blood of her sons, and that she gave life to the warm gore; and that, +lest no memorial of this ruthless race should be surviving, she shaped +them into the form of men. But that generation, too, was a despiser of +the Gods above, and most greedy of ruthless slaughter, and full of +violence: you might see that they derived their origin from blood. + + [Footnote 36: _Olympus._--Ver. 154. Olympus was a mountain between + Thessaly and Macedonia. Pelion was a mountain of Thessaly, towards + the Pelasgic gulf; and Ossa was a mountain between Olympus and + Pelion. These the Giants are said to have heaped one on another, + in order to scale heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The war of the giants, which is here mentioned, is not to be + confounded with that between Jupiter and the Titans, who were + inhabitants of heaven. The fall of the angels, as conveyed by + tradition, probably gave rise to the story of the Titans; while, + perhaps, the building of the tower of Babel may have laid the + foundation of that of the attempt by the giants to reach heaven. + Perhaps, too, the descendants of Cain, who are probably the persons + mentioned in Scripture as the children ‘of men’ and ‘giants,’ were the + race depicted under the form of the Giants, and the generation that + sprung from their blood. See Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 2, 4. + + +FABLE VI. [I.163-215] + + Jupiter, having seen the crimes of this impious race of men, calls a + council of the Gods, and determines to destroy the world. + +When the Father {of the Gods}, the son of Saturn, beheld this from his +loftiest height, he groaned aloud; and recalling to memory the polluted +banquet on the table of Lycaon, not yet publicly known, from the crime +being but lately committed, he conceives in his mind vast wrath, and +such as is worthy of Jove, and calls together a council; no delay +detains them, thus summoned. + +There is a way on high,[37] easily seen in a clear sky, and which, +remarkable for its very whiteness, receives the name of the Milky {Way}. +Along this is the way for the Gods above to the abode of the great +Thunderer and his royal palace. On the right and on the left side the +courts of the ennobled Deities[38] are thronged, with open gates. The +{Gods of} lower rank[39] inhabit various places; in front {of the Way}, +the powerful and illustrious inhabitants of Heaven have established +their residence. This is the place which, if boldness may be allowed to +my expression, I should not hesitate to style the palatial residence of +Heaven. When, therefore, the Gods above had taken their seats in the +marble hall of assembly; he himself, elevated on his seat, and leaning +on his sceptre of ivory, three or four times shook the awful locks[40] +of his head, with which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to +tremble. Then, after such manner as this, did he open his indignant +lips:-- + +“Not {even} at that time was I more concerned for the empire of the +universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavoring to lay +his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a +dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock, and sprang from a +single origin. Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever +Nereus[41] roars on all sides of the earth; {this} I swear by the Rivers +of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the earth. All methods +have been already tried; but a wound that admits of no cure, must be cut +away with the knife, that the sound parts may not be corrupted. I have +{as subjects}, Demigods, and I have the rustic Deities, the Nymphs,[42] +and the Fauns, and the Satyrs, and the Sylvans, the inhabitants of the +mountains; these, though as yet, we have not thought them worthy of the +honor of Heaven, let us, at least, permit to inhabit the earth which we +have granted them. And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will +be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has formed +a plot against {even} me, who own and hold sway over the thunder and +yourselves?†+ +All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for +vengeance on one who dared such {crimes}. Thus, when an impious band[43] +{madly} raged to extinguish the Roman name in the blood of Cæsar, the +human race was astonished with sudden terror at ruin so universal, and +the whole earth shook with horror. Nor was the affectionate regard, +Augustus, of thy subjects less grateful to thee, than that was to +Jupiter. Who, after he had, by means of his voice and his hand, +suppressed their murmurs, all of them kept silence. Soon as the clamor +had ceased, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter again broke +silence in these words: + +“He, indeed, (dismiss your cares) has suffered {dire} punishment; but +what was the offence and what the retribution, I will inform you. The +report of the iniquity of the age had reached my ears; wishing to find +this not to be the truth, I descended from the top of Olympus, and, +a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. ’Twere an endless task to +enumerate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered; the +report itself was below the truth.†+ + [Footnote 37: _There is a way on high._--Ver. 168. The Poet here + gives a description of the court of heaven; and supposing the + galaxy, or Milky Way, to be the great road to the palace of + Jupiter, places the habitations of the Gods on each side of it, + and adjoining the palace itself. The mythologists also invented a + story, that the Milky Way was a track left in the heavens by the + milk of Juno flowing from the mouth of Hercules, when suckled by + her. Aristotle, however, suspected what has been since confirmed + by the investigations of modern science, that it was formed by the + light of innumerable stars.] + + [Footnote 38: _The ennobled Deities._--Ver. 172. These were the + superior Deities, who formed the privy councillors of Jupiter, and + were called ‘Di majorum gentium,’ or, ‘Di consentes.’ Reckoning + Jupiter as one, they were twelve in number, and are enumerated by + Ennius in two limping hexameter lines:-- + + ‘Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, + Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.’] + + [Footnote 39: _The Gods of lower rank._--Ver. 173. These were the + ‘Dii minorum gentium,’ or inferior Deities.] + + [Footnote 40: _Shook the awful locks._--Ver. 179. This awful nod + of Jupiter, the sanction by which he confirms his decrees, is an + idea taken from Homer; by whom it is so vividly depicted at the + end of the first book of the Iliad, that Phidias, in his statue of + that God, admired for the awful majesty of its looks, is said to + have derived his conception of the features from that description. + Virgil has the same idea in the Æneid, book x; ‘Annuit, et totum + metu tremefecit Olympum.’] + + [Footnote 41: _Nereus._--Ver. 187. He was one of the most ancient + of the Deities of the sea, and was the son of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 42: _The Nymphs._--Ver. 192. The terrestrial Nymphs were + the Dryads and Hamadryads, who haunting the woods, and the + duration of their existence depending upon the life of particular + trees, derived their name from the Greek word δÏῦς, ‘an oak.’ The + Oreades were nymphs who frequented the mountains, while the Napeæ + lived in the groves and valleys. There were also Nymphs of the sea + and of the rivers; of which, the Nereids were so called from their + father Nereus, and the Oceanitides, from Oceanus. There were also + the Naiads, or nymphs of the fountains, and many others.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thus when an impious band._--Ver. 200. It is a + matter of doubt whether he here refers to the conspiracies of + Brutus and Cassius against Julius Cæsar, or whether to that + against Augustus, which is mentioned by Suetonius, in the + nineteenth chapter of his History. As Augustus survived the latter + conspiracy, and the parallel is thereby rendered more complete, + probably this is the circumstance here alluded to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is to be presumed, that Ovid here follows the prevailing tradition + of his time; and it is surprising how closely that tradition adheres + to the words of Scripture, relative to the determination of the + Almighty to punish the earth by a deluge, as disclosed in the sixth + chapter of Genesis. The Poet tells us, that the King of heaven calls + the Gods to a grand council, to deliberate upon the punishment of + mankind, in retribution for their wickedness. The words of Scripture + are, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, + and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil + continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the + earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, ‘I will + destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man + and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it + repenteth me that I have made them.’†--Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 5, 6, 7. + + Tradition seems to have faithfully carried down the fact, that, amid + this universal corruption, there was still at least one just man, and + here it attributes to Deucalion the merit that belonged to Noah. + + +FABLE VII. [I.216-243] + + Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in order to discover if it is Jupiter himself + who has come to lodge in his palace, orders the body of an hostage, + who had been sent to him, to be dressed and served up at a feast. The + God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf. + +I had {now} passed Mænalus, to be dreaded for its dens of beasts of +prey, and the pine-groves of cold Lycæus, together with Cyllene.[44] +After this, I entered the realms and the inhospitable abode of the +Arcadian tyrant, just as the late twilight was bringing on the night. +I gave a signal that a God had come, and the people commenced to pay +their adorations. In the first place, Lycaon derided their pious +supplications. Afterwards, he said, I will make trial, by a plain proof, +whether this is a God, or whether he is a mortal; nor shall the truth +remain a matter of doubt. He then makes preparations to destroy me, when +sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death; this mode of testing the truth +pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the +throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the +Molossians,[45] and then softens part of the quivering limbs, in boiling +water, and part he roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had +placed these on the table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house +upon the household Gods,[46] worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself +takes to flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he +howls aloud, and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from +himself, and through its {usual} desire for slaughter, it is directed +against the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are +changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and he still +retains vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same, +the same violence {appears} in his features; his eyes are bright as +before; {he is still} the same image of ferocity. + +“Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish; +wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys[47] reigns. You would +suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel +that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my +determination.†+ + [Footnote 44: _Together with Cyllene._--Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or + Cyllene, was a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was + hence called by the poets Cyllenius. Lycæus was also a mountain of + Arcadia, sacred to Pan, and was covered with groves of + pine-trees.] + + [Footnote 45: _Of the Molossians._--Ver. 226. The Molossi were a + people of Epirus, on the eastern side of the Ambracian gulf. Ovid + here commits a slight anachronism, as the name was derived from + Molossus, the son of Neoptolemus, long after the time of Lycaon. + Besides, as Burmann observes, who could believe that ‘wars could + be waged at such an early period between nations so distant as the + Molossi and the Arcadians?’ Apollodorus says, that it was a child + of the same country, whose flesh Lycaon set before Jupiter. Other + writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his + grandson, that was slain by him.] + + [Footnote 46: _Upon the household Gods._--Ver. 231. This + punishment was awarded to the Penates, or household Gods of + Lycaon, for taking such a miscreant under their protection.] + + [Footnote 47: _The savage Erinnys._--Ver. 241. Erinnys was a + general name given to the Furies by the Greeks. They were three in + number--Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra. These were so called, + either from the Greek á¼”Ïις νοῦ, ‘the discord of the mind,’ or from + á¼Î½ τῇ á¼”Ïα ναίειν, ‘their inhabiting the earth,’ watching the + actions of men.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If Ovid is not here committing an anachronism, and making Jupiter, + before the deluge, relate the story of a historical personage, who + existed long after it, the origin of the story of Lycaon must be + sought in the antediluvian narrative. It is just possible that the + guilty Cain may have been the original of Lycaon. The names are not + very dissimilar: they are each mentioned as the first murderer; and + the fact, that Cain murdered Abel at the moment when he was offering + sacrifice to the Almighty, may have given rise to the tradition that + Lycaon had set human flesh before the king of heaven. The Scripture, + too, tells us, that Cain was personally called to account by the + Almighty for his deed of blood. + + The punishment here inflicted on Lycaon was not very dissimilar to + that with which Cain was visited. Cain was sentenced to be a fugitive + and a wanderer on the face of the earth; and such is essentially the + character of the wolf, shunned by both men and animals. Of course, + there are many points to which it is not possible to extend the + parallel. Some of the ancient writers tell us, that there were two + Lycaons, the first of whom was the son of Phoroneus, who reigned in + Arcadia about the time of the patriarch Jacob; and the second, who + succeeded him, polluted the festivals of the Gods by the sacrifice of + the human race; for, having erected an altar to Jupiter, at the city + of Lycosura, he slew human victims on it, whence arose the story + related by the Poet. This solution is given by Pausanias, in his + Arcadica. We are also told by that historian, and by Suidas, that + Lycaon was, notwithstanding, a virtuous prince, the benefactor of his + people, and the promoter of improvement. + + +FABLE VIII. [I.244-312] + + Jupiter, not thinking the punishment of Lycaon sufficient to strike + terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, on account of the universal + corruption, to extirpate them by a universal deluge. + +Some, by their words approve the speech of Jupiter, and give spur to +him, {indignantly} exclaiming; others, by {silent} assent fulfil their +parts. Yet the {entire} destruction of the human race is a cause of +grief to them all, and they inquire what is to be the form of the earth +in future, when destitute of mankind? who is to place frankincense[48] +on the altars? and whether it is his design to give up the nations for a +prey to the wild beasts? The ruler of the Gods forbids them making these +enquiries, to be alarmed (for that the rest should be his care); and he +promises, {that} from a wondrous source {he will raise} a generation +unlike the preceding race. + +And now he was about to scatter his thunder over all lands; but he was +afraid lest, perchance, the sacred æther might catch fire, from so many +flames, and the extended sky might become inflamed. He remembers, too, +that it was in the {decrees of} Fate, that a time should come,[49] at +which the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven, seized {by the +flames}, should be burned, and the laboriously-wrought fabric of the +universe should be in danger of perishing. The weapons forged by the +hands of the Cyclops are laid aside; a different {mode of} punishment +pleases him: to destroy mankind beneath the waves, and to let loose the +rains from the whole tract of Heaven. At once he shuts the North Wind in +the caverns of Æolus, and {all} those blasts which dispel the clouds +drawn over {the Earth}; and {then} he sends forth the South Wind. With +soaking wings the South Wind flies abroad, having his terrible face +covered with pitchy darkness; his beard {is} loaded with showers, the +water streams down from his hoary locks, clouds gather upon his +forehead, his wings and the folds of his robe[50] drip with wet; and, as +with his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds, a crash arises, and +thence showers are poured in torrents from the sky. Iris,[51] the +messenger of Juno, clothed in various colors, collects the waters, and +bears a supply {upwards} to the clouds. + +The standing corn is beaten down, and the expectations of the +husbandman, {now} lamented by him, are ruined, and the labors of a long +year prematurely perish. Nor is the wrath of Jove satisfied with his own +heaven; but {Neptune}, his azure brother, aids him with his auxiliary +waves. He calls together the rivers, which, soon as they had entered the +abode of their ruler, he says, “I must not now employ a lengthened +exhortation; pour forth {all} your might, so the occasion requires. Open +your abodes, and, {each} obstacle removed, give full rein to your +streams.†{Thus} he commanded; they return, and open the mouths of their +fountains,[52] and roll on into the ocean with unobstructed course. He +himself struck the Earth with his trident, {on which} it shook, and with +a tremor laid open the sources of its waters. The rivers, breaking out, +rush through the open plains, and bear away, together with the standing +corn, the groves, flocks, men, houses, and temples, together with their +sacred {utensils}. If any house remained, and, not thrown down, was able +to resist ruin so vast, yet the waves, {rising} aloft, covered the roof +of that {house}, and the towers tottered, overwhelmed beneath the +stream. And now sea and land had no mark of distinction; everything now +was ocean; and to that ocean shores were wanting. One man takes +possession of a hill, another sits in a curved boat, and plies the oars +there where he had lately ploughed; another sails over the standing +corn, or the roof of his country-house under water; another catches a +fish on the top of an elm-tree. An anchor (if chance so directs) is +fastened in a green meadow, or the curving keels come in contact with +the vineyards, {now} below them; and where of late the slender goats had +cropped the grass, there unsightly sea-calves are now reposing their +bodies. + +The Nereids wonder at the groves, the cities, and the houses under +water; dolphins get into the woods, and run against the lofty branches, +and beat against the tossed oaks. The wolf swims[53] among the sheep; +the wave carries along the tawny lions; the wave carries along the +tigers. Neither does the powers of his lightning-shock avail the wild +boar, nor his swift legs the stag, {now} borne away. The wandering bird, +too, having long sought for land, where it may be allowed to light, its +wings failing, falls down into the sea. The boundless range of the sea +had overwhelmed the hills, and the stranger waves beat against the +heights of the mountains. The greatest part is carried off by the water: +those whom the water spares, long fastings overcome, through scantiness +of food. + + [Footnote 48: _To place frankincense._--Ver. 249. In those early + ages, corn or wheaten flour, was the customary offering to the + Deities, and not frankincense, which was introduced among the + luxuries of more refined times. Ovid is consequently guilty of an + anachronism here.] + + [Footnote 49: _That a time should come._--Ver. 256. Lactantius + informs us that the Sibyls predicted that the world should perish + by fire. Seneca also, in his consolation to Marcia, and in his + Quæstiones Naturales, mentions the same destined termination of + the present state of the universe. It was a doctrine of the Stoic + philosophers, that the stars were nurtured with moisture, and that + on the cessation of this nourishment the conflagration of the + universe would ensue.] + + [Footnote 50: _The folds of his robe._--Ver. 267. ‘Rorant pennæ + sinusque,’ is quaintly translated by Clarke, ‘his wings and the + plaits of his coat drop.’] + + [Footnote 51: _Iris._--Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess + of the rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot + fail to remind us of the ‘bow set in the cloud, for a token of the + covenant between God and the earth,’ on the termination of Noah’s + flood.--Gen. x. 14.] + + [Footnote 52: _The mouths of their fountains._--Ver. 281. The + expressions in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words + of the 11th verse of the 7th chapter of Genesis, ‘The fountains of + the great deep were broken up.’] + + [Footnote 53: _The wolf swims._--Ver. 304. One commentator remarks + here, that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf + swimming among the sheep without devouring them. Seneca is, + however, too severe upon our author in saying that he is trifling + here, in troubling himself on so serious an occasion with what + sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely means to say, that the + beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that they forget their + carnivorous propensities.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated + happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last + Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have + overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative + the tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have + preserved. He says, that the sea joined its waters to those falling + from heaven. The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), ‘All the + fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven + were opened.’ In speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left + uncovered, the tradition here followed by Ovid probably referred to + Mount Ararat, where Noah’s ark rested. Noah and his family are + represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Both Noah and Deucalion were + saved for their virtuous conduct; when Noah went out of the ark, he + offered solemn sacrifices to God; and Pausanias tells us that + Deucalion, when saved, raised an altar to Jupiter the Liberator. The + Poet tells us, that Deucalion’s deluge was to be the last: God + promised the same thing to Noah. Josephus, in his Antiquities, Book + i., tells us, that the history of the universal deluge was written by + Nicolas of Damascus, Berosus, Mnaseas, and other ancient writers, from + whom the Greeks and Romans received it. + + +FABLE IX. [I.313-366] + + Neptune appeases the angry waves; and he commands Triton to sound his + shell, that the sea may retire within its shores, and the rivers + within their banks. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved + from the deluge. + +Phocis separates the Aonian[54] from the Actæan region; a fruitful land +while it was a land; but at that time {it had become} a part of the sea, +and a wide plain of sudden waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards +the stars, with two tops, by name Parnassus,[55] and advances beyond the +clouds with its summit. When here Deucalion (for the sea had covered all +other places), borne in a little ship, with the partner of his couch, +{first} rested; they adored the Corycian Nymphs,[56] and the Deities of +the mountain, and the prophetic Themis,[57] who at that time used to +give out oracular responses. No man was there more upright than he, nor +a greater lover of justice, nor was any woman more regardful of the +Deities than she. + +Soon as Jupiter {beholds} the world overflowed by liquid waters, and +sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and sees +that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both +guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; +and the showers being removed by the North Wind, he both lays open the +earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. The rage, too, of +the sea does not continue; and his three-forked trident {now} laid +aside, the ruler of the deep assuages the waters, and calls upon the +azure Triton standing above the deep, and having his shoulders covered +with the native purple shells;[58] and he bids him blow[59] his +resounding trumpet, and, the signal being given, to call back the waves +and the streams. The hollow-wreathed trumpet[60] is taken up by him, +which grows to a {great} width from its lowest twist; the trumpet, +which, soon as it receives the air in the middle of the sea, fills with +its notes the shores lying under either sun. Then, too, as soon as it +touched the lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being +blown, sounded the bidden retreat;[61] it was heard by all the waters +both of earth and sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was +heard. Now the sea[62] {again} has a shore; their channels receive the +full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The +ground rises, places increase {in extent} as the waters decrease; and +after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain the +mud left upon their branches. + +The world was restored; which when Deucalion beheld to be empty, and how +the desolate Earth kept a profound silence, he thus addressed Pyrrha, +with tears bursting forth:--“O sister, O wife, O thou, the only woman +surviving, whom a common origin,[63] and a kindred descent, and +afterwards the marriage tie has united to me, and {whom} now dangers +themselves unite to me; we two are the whole people of the earth, +whatever {both} the East and the West behold; of all the rest, the sea +has taken possession. And even now there is no certain assurance of our +lives; even yet do the clouds terrify my mind. What would now have been +thy feelings, if without me thou hadst been rescued from destruction, +O thou deserving of compassion? In what manner couldst thou have been +able alone to support {this} terror? With whom for a consoler, {to +endure} these sorrows? For I, believe me, my wife, if the sea had only +carried thee off, should have followed thee, and the sea should have +carried me off as well. Oh that I could replace the people {that are +lost} by the arts of my father,[64] and infuse the soul into the moulded +earth! Now the mortal race exists in us two {alone}. Thus it has seemed +good to the Gods, and we remain as {mere} samples of mankind.†+ + [Footnote 54: _The Aonian._--Ver. 313. Aonia was a mountainous + region of BÅ“otia; and Actæa was an ancient name of Attica, from + ἄκτη, the sea-shore.] + + [Footnote 55: _By name Parnassus._--Ver. 317. Mount Parnassus has + two peaks, of which the one was called ‘Tichoreum,’ and was sacred + to Bacchus; and the other ‘Hypampeum,’ and was devoted to Apollo + and the Muses.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Corycian Nymphs._--Ver. 320. The Corycian + Nymphs were so called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount + Parnassus; they were fabled to be the daughters of Plistus, + a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia, + in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to + have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She + was the daughter of CÅ“lus and Terra, and was the first to instruct + men to ask of the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she + took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, ‘that which is + just and right.’] + + [Footnote 58: _The native purple shells._--Ver. 332. ‘Murex’ was + the name of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much + valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the + meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the + purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the + Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with + the shells of the murex, perhaps as a substitute for scales.] + + [Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several + Tritons, or minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief + Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who + always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was + wont to proclaim by the sound of his shell. He was usually + represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body + resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated + with the tail of a fish.] + + [Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The + ‘Buccina,’ or, as we call it, ‘the conch shell,’ was a kind of + horn, or trumpet, made out of a shell, called ‘buccinum.’ It was + sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining + the original form of the shell. The twisted form of the shell was + one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later + times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the + shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the + watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence + called ‘buccina prima,’ ‘secunda,’ etc. It was also blown at + funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down + to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding + ‘buccinæ’ were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.] + + [Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. ‘Canere receptus’ + was ‘to sound the retreat,’ as the signal for the soldiers to + cease fighting, and to resume their march.] + + [Footnote 62: _Now the sea._--Ver. 343. This and the two following + lines are considered as entitled to much praise for their + terseness and brevity, as depicting by their short detached + sentences the instantaneous effect produced by the commands of + Neptune in reducing his dominions to a state of order.] + + [Footnote 63: _A common origin._--Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was + the father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and + Epimetheus being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense + that he styles her ‘sister,’ she being really his cousin.] + + [Footnote 64: _The arts of my father._--Ver. 363. He alludes to + the story of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay, + and animated them with fire stolen from heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three brothers, + kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each retaining + his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world divided + between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of Neptune. + Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the seas; and + Ovid here represents him as being so employed. + + +FABLE X. [I.367-415] + + Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth by casting stones behind + them, in the manner prescribed by the Goddess Themis, whose oracle + they had consulted. + +He {thus} spoke, and they wept. They resolved to pray to the Deities of +Heaven, and to seek relief through the sacred oracles. There is no +delay; together they repair to the waters of Cephisus,[65] though not +yet clear, yet now cutting their wonted channel. Then, when they have +sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes[66] and their heads, they +turn their steps to the temple of the sacred Goddess, the roof of which +was defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were standing without +fires. Soon as they reached the steps of the temple, each of them fell +prostrate on the ground, and, trembling, gave kisses to the cold +pavement. And thus they said: + +“If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, if +the wrath of the Gods is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by what art +the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy assistance, O most +gentle {Goddess} to our ruined fortunes.†The Goddess was moved, and +gave this response: “Depart from my temple, and cover your heads,[67] +and loosen the garments girt {around you}, and throw behind your backs +the bones of your great mother.†For a long time they are amazed; and +Pyrrha is the first by her words to break the silence, and {then} +refuses to obey the commands of the Goddess; and begs her, with +trembling lips, to grant her pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of +her mother by casting her bones. In the meantime they reconsider the +words of the response given, {but} involved in dark obscurity, and they +ponder them among themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes +the daughter of Epimetheus with {these} gentle words, and says, “Either +is my discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no +sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones in +the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to throw +behind our backs.†Although she, descended from Titan,[68] is moved by +this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in doubt; +so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm will +it do to try? + +They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, and +cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who could +have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness {of the thing?}) began +to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and by degrees to +become soft; and when softened, to assume a {new} form. Presently after, +when they were grown larger, a milder nature, too, was conferred on +them, so that some shape of man might be seen {in them}, yet though but +imperfect; and as if from the marble commenced {to be wrought}, not +sufficiently distinct, and very like to rough statues. Yet that part of +them which was humid with any moisture, and earthy, was turned into +{portions adapted for} the use of the body. That which is solid, and +cannot be bent, is changed into bones; that which was just now a vein, +still remains under the same name.[69] And in a little time, by the +interposition of the Gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of the +man, took the shape of a man, and the female {race} was renewed by the +throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able to +endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are sprung. + + [Footnote 65: _The waters of Cephisus._--Ver. 369. The river + Cephisus rises on Mount Parnassus, and flows near Delphi.] + + [Footnote 66: _Poured on their clothes._--Ver. 371. It was the + custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to + sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among + the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of + worship, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch, + that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby + interrupt the performance of the rites.] + + [Footnote 68: _Descended from Titan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the + race of the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of + Titan and Terra.] + + [Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual + propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word ‘vena,’ + as signifying either ‘a vein’ of the body, or a ‘streak’ or ‘vein’ + in stone, according to the context.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river + Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so + great a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed. + Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they + remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were + preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable, + probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word + ‘Eben,’ or ‘Aben,’ which signifies either ‘a stone,’ or ‘a child.’ The + Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word λάος, which means + people, formerly also signified ‘a stone.’ + + The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have + added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from + stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to + Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted sacrifices + in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when + Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the + reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife + Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he + received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity. + + +FABLE XI. [I.416-451] + + The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many + monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with + his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he institutes the + Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius. + +The Earth of her own accord brought forth other animals of different +forms; after that the former moisture was thoroughly heated by the rays +of the sun, and the mud and the wet fens fermented with the heat; and +the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in the +womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, assumed some {regular} +shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile[70] has forsaken the oozy +fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the +fresh mud has been heated with the æthereal sun, the laborers, on +turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some +just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see +{still} imperfect, and {as yet} destitute of {some} of their limbs; and +often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part is coarse +earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due mixture, +they conceive; and all things arise from these two. + +And although fire is the antagonist of heat, {yet} a moist vapor creates +all things, and this discordant concord is suited for generation; when, +therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late deluge, was +thoroughly heated by the æthereal sunshine and a penetrating warmth, it +produced species {of creatures} innumerable; and partly restored the +former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, indeed, might +have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, thou enormous +Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a {source of} terror to this +new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain didst thou occupy. + +The God that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, +but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed +with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, {as} the +venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time +might not efface the fame of the deed, he instituted sacred games,[71] +with contests famed {in story}, called “Pythia,†from the name of the +serpent {so} conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered +in boxing, in running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a +crown of beechen leaves.[72] As yet the laurel existed not, and PhÅ“bus +used to bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with {garlands from} +any tree. + + [Footnote 70: _The seven-streamed Nile._--Ver. 423. The river Nile + discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable + for its inundations, which happen regularly every year, and + overflow the whole country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the + extraordinary fertility of the soil of that country; for when the + waters subside, they leave behind them great quantities of mud, + which, settling upon the land, enrich it, and continually + reinvigorate it.] + + [Footnote 71: _Instituted sacred games._--Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias, + in his Corinthiaca, tells us that they were instituted by + Diomedes; others, again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and + others, by Amphictyon, or Adrastus. The Pythian games were + celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissæan plain, which contained a + race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre, in + which the musical contests took place. They were once held at + Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, because the + Ætolians were in possession of the passes round Delphi. They + were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were + perhaps only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn + in honor of the Pythian God, accompanied by the music of the + cithara. In later times, gymnastic and equestrian games and + exercises were introduced there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad, + the Pythian games had been celebrated at the end of every eighth + year; after that period they were held at the end of every fourth + year. When they ceased to be solemnized is unknown; but in the + time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held.] + + [Footnote 72: _Crown of beechen leaves._--Ver. 449. This was the + prize which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian + games. In later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor + was a laurel chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of + his victory.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical + principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated + the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles, + which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately + disappeared. + + If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it + is probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the + neighborhood of Parnassus, and molested those who passed that way for + the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the name + of Apollo, or being a priest of that God, by his destruction liberated + that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the + institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi. + Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and + instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The + event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened + much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was + not known at Delphi. The Goddess Themis then delivered oracles there, + which, previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth. + + +FABLE XII. [I.452-567] + + Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river Peneus, + she flies from him. He pursues her; on which, the Nymph, imploring the + aid of her father, is changed into a laurel. + +Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, was the first love of PhÅ“bus; whom, not +blind chance, but the vengeful anger of Cupid assigned to him. + +The Delian {God},[73] proud of having lately subdued the serpent, had +seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, “What +hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that +{better} befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring wounds to +the wild beasts, {wounds} to the enemy, who lately slew with arrows +innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres {of land} +with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to excite I know not +what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to praises {properly} +my own.†+ +To him the son of Venus replies, “Let thy bow shoot all things, PhÅ“bus; +my bow {shall shoot} thee; and as much as all animals fall short of +thee, so much is thy glory less than mine.†He {thus} said; and cleaving +the air with his beating wings, with activity he stood upon the shady +heights of Parnassus, and drew two weapons out of his arrow-bearing +quiver, of different workmanship; the one repels, the other excites +desire. That which causes {love} is of gold, and is brilliant, with a +sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and contains lead beneath +the reed. This one the God fixed in the Nymph, the daughter of Peneus, +but with the other he wounded the {very} marrow of Apollo, through his +bones pierced {by the arrow}. Immediately the one is in love; the other +flies from the {very} name of a lover, rejoicing in the recesses of the +woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken {in hunting}, and becomes +a rival of the virgin PhÅ“be. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put up +without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not +able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the +solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what +love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, “My +daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;†many a time did her father say, +“My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren.†She, utterly abhorring the +nuptial torch,[76] as though a crime, has her beauteous face covered +with the blush of modesty; and clinging to her father’s neck, with +caressing arms, she says, “Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy +perpetual virginity; her father, in times, bygone, granted this to +Diana.†+ +He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids thee to be what thou +wishest, and the charms of thy person are an impediment to thy desires. +PhÅ“bus falls in love, and he covets an alliance with Daphne, {now} seen +by him, and what he covets he hopes for, and his own oracles deceive +him; and as the light stubble is burned, when the ears of corn are taken +off, and as hedges are set on fire by the torches, which perchance a +traveller has either held too near them, or has left {there}, now about +the break of day, thus did the God burst into a flame; thus did he burn +throughout his breast, and cherish a fruitless passion with his hopes. +He beholds her hair hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, “And +what would {it be} if it were arranged?†He sees her eyes, like stars, +sparkling with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have +{merely} seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her arms +and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden from +view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light wind +she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her +back: + +“O Nymph, daughter of Peneus, stay, I entreat thee! I am not an enemy +following thee. In this way the lamb {flies} from the wolf; thus the +deer {flies} from the lion; thus the dove flies from the eagle with +trembling wing; {in this way} each {creature flies from} its enemy: love +is the cause of my following thee. Ah! wretched me! shouldst thou fall +on thy face, or should the brambles tear thy legs, that deserve not to +be injured, and should I prove the cause of pain to thee. The places are +rugged, through which thou art {thus} hastening; run more leisurely, +I entreat thee, and restrain thy flight; I myself will follow more +leisurely. And yet, inquire whom thou dost please; I am not an +inhabitant of the mountains, I am not a shepherd; I am not here, in rude +guise,[77] watching the herds or the flocks. Thou knowest not, rash +girl, thou knowest not from whom thou art flying, and therefore it is +that thou dost fly. The Delphian land, Claros and Tenedos,[78] and the +Pataræan palace pays service to me. Jupiter is my sire; by me, what +shall be, what has been, and what is, is disclosed; through me, songs +harmonize with the strings. My own {arrow}, indeed, is unerring; yet one +there is still more unerring than my own, which has made this wound in +my heart, {before} unscathed. The healing art is my discovery, and +throughout the world I am honored as the bearer of help, and the +properties of simples are[79] subjected to me. Ah, wretched me![80] that +love is not to be cured by any herbs; and that those arts which afford +relief to all, are of no avail for their master.†+ +The daughter of Peneus flies from him, about to say still more, with +timid step, and together with him she leaves his unfinished address. +Then, too, she appeared lovely; the winds exposed her form to view, and +the gusts meeting her fluttered about her garments, as they came in +contact, and the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks; +and {thus}, by her flight, was her beauty increased. But the youthful +God[81] has not patience any longer to waste his blandishments; and as +love urges him on, he follows her steps with hastening pace. As when the +greyhound[82] has seen the hare in the open field, and the one by {the +speed of} his legs pursues his prey, the other {seeks} her safety; the +one is like as if just about to fasten {on the other}, and now, even +now, hopes to catch her, and with nose outstretched plies upon the +footsteps {of the hare}. The other is in doubt whether she is caught +{already}, and is delivered from his very bite, and leaves behind the +mouth {just} touching her. {And} so is the God, and {so} is the +virgin;[83] he swift with hopes, she with fear. + +Yet he that follows, aided by the wings of love, is the swifter, and +denies her {any} rest; and is {now} just at her back as she flies, and +is breathing upon her hair scattered upon her neck. Her strength being +{now} spent, she grows pale, and being quite faint, with the fatigue of +so swift a flight, looking upon the waters of Peneus, she says, “Give +me, my father, thy aid, if you rivers have divine power. Oh Earth, +either yawn {to swallow me}, or by changing it, destroy that form, by +which I have pleased too much, and which causes me to be injured.†+ +Hardly had she ended her prayer, {when} a heavy torpor seizes her limbs; +{and} her soft breasts are covered with a thin bark. Her hair grows into +green leaves, her arms into branches; her feet, the moment before so +swift, adhere by sluggish roots; a {leafy} canopy overspreads her +features; her elegance alone[84] remains in her. This, too, PhÅ“bus +admires, and placing his right hand upon the stock, he perceives that +the breast still throbs beneath the new bark; and {then}, embracing the +branches as though limbs in his arms, he gives kisses to the wood, {and} +yet the wood shrinks from his kisses. To her the God said: “But since +thou canst not be my wife, at least thou shalt be my tree; my hair, my +lyre,[85] my quiver shall always have thee, oh laurel! Thou shalt be +presented to the Latian chieftains, when the joyous voice of the +soldiers shall sing the song of triumph,[86] and the long procession +shall resort to the Capitol. Thou, the same, shalt stand as a most +faithful guardian at the gate-posts of Augustus before his doors,[87] +and shalt protect the oak placed in the centre; and as my head is {ever} +youthful with unshorn locks, do thou, too, always wear the lasting +honors of thy foliage.†+ +Pæan had ended {his speech}; the laurel nodded assent with its new-made +boughs, and seemed to shake its top just like a head. + + [Footnote 73: _The Delian God._--Ver. 454. Apollo is so called, + from having been born in the Isle of Delos, in the Ægean Sea. The + Peneus was a river of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 74: _A fillet tied together._--Ver. 477. The ‘vitta’ was + a band encircling the head, and served to confine the tresses of + the hair. It was worn by maidens and by married women also; but + the ‘vitta’ assumed on the day of marriage was of a different form + from that used by virgins. It was not worn by women of light + character, or even by the ‘libertinæ,’ or female slaves who had + been liberated; so that it was not only deemed an emblem of + chastity, but of freedom also. It was of various colors: white and + purple are mentioned. In the later ages the ‘vitta’ was sometimes + set with pearls.] + + [Footnote 75: _Hymen._--Ver. 480. Hymen, or Hymenæus, was one of + the Gods of Marriage; hence the name ‘Hymen’ was given to the + union of two persons in marriage.] + + [Footnote 76: _The nuptial torch._--Ver. 483. Plutarch tells us, + that it was the custom in the bridal procession to carry five + torches before the bride, on her way to the house of her husband. + Among the Romans, the nuptial torch was lighted at the parental + hearth of the bride, and was borne before her by a boy, whose + parents were alive. The torch was also used at funerals, for the + purpose of lighting the pile, and because funerals were often + nocturnal ceremonies. Hence the expression of Propertius,-- + ‘Vivimus inter utramque facem,’ ‘We are living between the two + torches.’ Originally, the ‘tædæ’ seem to have been slips or + lengths of resinous pine wood: while the ‘fax’ was formed of a + bundle of wooden staves, either bound by a rope drawn round them + in a spiral form, or surrounded by circular bands at equal + distances. They were used by travellers and others, who were + forced to be abroad after sunset; whence the reference in line 493 + to the hedge ignited through the carelessness of the traveller, + who has thrown his torch there on the approach of morning.] + + [Footnote 77: _Here in rude guise._--Ver. 514. ‘Non hic armenta + gregesve Horridus observo’ is quaintly translated by Clarke, ‘I do + not here in a rude pickle watch herds or flocks.’] + + [Footnote 78: _Claros and Tenedos._--Ver. 516. Claros was a city + of Ionia, famed for a temple and oracle of Apollo, and near which + there was a mountain and a grove sacred to him. There was an + island in the Myrtoan Sea of that name, to which some suppose that + reference is here made. Tenedos was an island of the Ægean Sea, in + the neighborhood of Troy. Patara was a city of Lycia, where Apollo + gave oracular responses during six months of the year. It was from + Patara that St. Paul took ship for PhÅ“nicia, Acts, xxi. 1, 2.] + + [Footnote 79: _The properties of simples._--Ver. 522. The first + cultivators of the medical art pretended to nothing beyond an + acquaintance with the medicinal qualities of herbs and simples; it + is not improbable that inasmuch as the vegetable world is + nourished and raised to the surface of the earth in a great degree + by the heat of the sun, a ground was thereby afforded for + allegorically saying that Apollo, or the Sun, was the discoverer + of the healing art.] + + [Footnote 80: _Ah! wretched me!_--Ver. 523. A similar expression + occurs in the Heroides, v. 149, ‘Me miseram, quod amor non est + medicabilis herbis.’] + + [Footnote 81: _The youthful God._--Ver. 531. Apollo was always + represented as a youth, and was supposed never to grow old. The + Scholiast on the Thebais of Statius, b. i., v. 694, says, ‘The + reason is, because Apollo is the Sun; and because the Sun is fire, + which never grows old.’ Perhaps the youthfulness of the Deity is + here mentioned, to account for his ardent pursuit of the flying + damsel.] + + [Footnote 82: _As when the greyhound._--Ver. 533. The comparison + here of the flight of Apollo after Daphne, to that of the + greyhound after the hare, is considered to be very beautifully + drawn, and to give an admirable illustration of the eagerness with + which the God pursues on the one hand, and the anxiety with which + the Nymph endeavors to escape on the other. Pope, in his Windsor + Forest, has evidently imitated this passage, where he describes + the Nymph Lodona pursued by Pan, and transformed into a river. His + words are-- + + ‘Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, + When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; + Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, + When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves; + As from the God she flew with furious pace, + Or as the God more furious urged the chase. + Now fainting, sinking, pale, the nymph appears; + Now close behind, his sounding steps she hears; + And now his shadow reach’d her as she run, + His shadow lengthened by the setting sun; + And now his shorter breath, with sultry air, + Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.’ + + The greyhound was probably called ‘canis Gallicus,’ from having + been originally introduced into Italy from Gaul. ‘Vertagus’ was + their Gallic name, which we find used by Martial, and Gratian in + his Cynegeticon, ver. 203.] + + [Footnote 83: _And so is the virgin._--Ver. 539. ‘Sic Deus et + virgo est’ is translated by Clarke, ‘So is the God and the young + lady;’ indeed, he mostly translates ‘virgo,’ ‘young lady.’] + + [Footnote 84: _Her elegance alone._--Ver. 552. Clarke translates + ‘Remanet nitor unus in illa,’ ‘her neatness alone continues in + her.’] + + [Footnote 85: _My lyre._--Ver. 559. The players of the cithara, + the instrument of Apollo, were crowned with laurel, in the scenic + representations of the stage.] + + [Footnote 86: _The song of triumph._--Ver. 560. The Poet here pays + a compliment to Augustus and the Roman people. The laurel was the + emblem of victory among the Romans. On such occasions the ‘fasces’ + of the general and the spears and javelins of the soldiers were + wreathed with laurel; and after the time of Julius Cæsar, the + Roman general, when triumphing, wore a laurel wreath on his head, + and held a branch of laurel in his hand.] + + [Footnote 87: _Before his doors._--Ver. 562. He here alludes to + the civic crown of oak leaves which, by order of the Senate, was + placed before the gate of the Palatium, where Augustus Cæsar + resided, with branches of laurel on either side of it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To explain this Fable, it must be laid down as a principle that there + were originally many Jupiters, and Apollos, and Mercuries, whose + intrigues being, in lapse of time, attributed to but one individual, + that fact accounts for the great number of children which claimed + those respective Gods for their fathers. + + Some prince probably, for whom his love of learning had acquired the + name of Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, pursued her to the brink + of the river Peneus, into which, being accidentally precipitated, she + perished in her lover’s sight. Some laurels growing near the spot, + perhaps gave rise to the story of her transformation; or possibly the + etymology of the word ‘Daphne,’ which in Greek signifies a laurel, was + the foundation of the Fable. Pausanias, however, in his Arcadia, gives + another version of this story. He says that Leucippus, son of Å’nomaus, + king of Pisa, falling in love with Daphne, disguised himself in female + apparel, and devoted himself to her service. He soon procured her + friendship and confidence; but Apollo, who was his rival, having + discovered his fraud, one day redoubled the heat of the sun. Daphne + and her companions going to bathe, obliged Leucippus to follow their + example, on which, having discovered his stratagem, they killed him + with the arrows which they carried for the purposes of hunting. + + Diodorus Siculus tells us that Daphne was the same with Manto, the + daughter of Tiresias, who was banished to Delphi, where she delivered + oracles, of the language of which Homer availed himself in the + composition of his poems. The inhabitants of Antioch asserted that the + adventure here narrated happened in the suburbs of their city, which + thence derived its name of Daphne. + + +FABLE XIII. [I.568-600] + + Jupiter, pursuing Io, the daughter of Inachus, covers the earth with + darkness, and ravishes the Nymph. + +There is a grove of Hæmonia,[88] which a wood, placed on a craggy rock, +encloses on every side. They call it Tempe;[89] through this the river +Peneus, flowing from the bottom of {mount} Pindus,[90] rolls along with +its foaming waves, and in its mighty fall, gathers clouds that scatter +{a vapor like} thin smoke,[91] and with its spray besprinkles the tops +of the woods, and wearies places, far from near to it, with its noise. +This is the home, this the abode, these are the retreats of the great +river; residing here in a cavern formed by rocks, he gives law to the +waters, and to the Nymphs that inhabit those waters. The rivers of that +country first repair thither, not knowing whether they should +congratulate, or whether console the parent; the poplar-bearing +Spercheus,[92] and the restless Enipeus,[93] the aged Apidanus,[94] the +gentle Amphrysus,[95] and Æas,[96] and, soon after, the other rivers, +which, as their current leads them, carry down into the sea their waves, +wearied by wanderings. Inachus[97] alone is absent, and, hidden in his +deepest cavern, increases his waters with his tears, and in extreme +wretchedness bewails his daughter Io as lost; he knows not whether she +{now} enjoys life, or whether she is among the shades below; but her, +whom he does not find anywhere, he believes to be nowhere, and in his +mind he dreads the worst. + +Jupiter had seen Io as she was returning from her father’s stream, and +had said, “O maid, worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know not whom +happy in thy marriage, repair to the shades of this lofty grove (and he +pointed at the shade of the grove) while it is warm, and {while} the Sun +is at his height, in the midst of his course. But if thou art afraid to +enter the lonely abodes of the wild beasts alone, thou shalt enter the +recesses of the groves, safe under the protection of a God, and {that} a +God of no common sort; but {with me}, who hold the sceptre of heaven in +my powerful hand; {me}, who hurl the wandering lightnings--Do not fly +from me;†for {now} she was flying. And now she had left behind the +pastures of Lerna,[98] and the Lircæan plains planted with trees, when +the God covered the earth far and wide with darkness overspreading, and +arrested her flight, and forced her modesty. + + [Footnote 88: _A grove of Hæmonia._--Ver. 568. Hæmonia was an + ancient name of Thessaly, so called from its king, Hæmon, a son of + Pelasgus, and father of Thessalus, from which it received its + later name.] + + [Footnote 89: _Call it Tempe._--Ver. 569. Tempe was a valley of + Thessaly, proverbial for its pleasantness and the beauty of its + scenery. The river Peneus ran through it, but not with the + violence which Ovid here depicts; for Ælian tells us that it runs + with a gentle sluggish stream, more like oil than water.] + + [Footnote 90: _Mount Pindus._--Ver. 570. Pindus was a mountain + situate on the confines of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 91: _Like thin smoke._--Ver. 571. He speaks of the + spray, which in the fineness of its particles resembles smoke.] + + [Footnote 92: _Spercheus._--Ver. 579. The Spercheus was a rapid + stream, flowing at the foot of Mount Æta into the Malian Gulf, + and on whose banks many poplars grew.] + + [Footnote 93: _Enipeus._--Ver. 579. The Enipeus rises in Mount + Othrys, and runs through Thessaly. Virgil (Georgics, iv. 468) + calls it ‘Altus Enipeus,’ the deep Enipeus.] + + [Footnote 94: _Apidanus._--Ver. 580. The Apidanus, receiving the + stream of the Enipeus at Pharsalia, flows into the Peneus. It is + supposed by some commentators to be here called ‘senex,’ aged, + from the slowness of its tide. But where it unites the Enipeus it + flows with violence, so that it is probably called ‘senex,’ as + having been known and celebrated by the poets from of old.] + + [Footnote 95: _Amphrysus._--Ver. 580. This river ran through that + part of Thessaly known by the name of Phthiotis.] + + [Footnote 96: _Æas._--Ver. 580. Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23) + calls this river Aous. It was a small limpid stream, running + through Epirus and Thessaly, and discharging itself into the + Ionian sea.] + + [Footnote 97: _Inachus._--Ver. 583. This was a river of Argolis, + now known as the Naio. It took its rise either in Lycæus or + Artemisium, mountains of Arcadia. Stephens, however, thinks that + Lycæus was a mountain of Argolis.] + + [Footnote 98: _Lerna._--Ver. 597. This was a swampy spot on the + Argive territory, where the poets say that the dragon with seven + heads, called Hydra, which was slain by Hercules, had made his + haunt. It is not improbable that the pestilential vapors of this + spot were got rid of by means of its being drained under the + superintendence of Hercules, on which fact the story was founded. + Some commentators, however, suppose the Lerna to have been a + flowing stream.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Greeks frequently embellished their mythology with narratives of + PhÅ“nician or Egyptian origin. The story of Io probably came from + Egypt. Isis was one of the chief divinities of that country, and her + worship naturally passed, with their colonies, into foreign countries. + Greece received it when Inachus went to settle there, and in lapse of + time Isis, under the name of Io, was supposed to have been his + daughter, and the fable was invented which is here narrated by Ovid. + + The Greek authors, Apollodorus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and + Pausanias, say that Io was the daughter of Inachus, the first king of + Argos; that Jupiter carried her away to Crete; and that by her he had + a son named Epaphus, who went to reign in Egypt, whither his mother + accompanied him. They also tell us that she married Apis, or Osiris, + who, after his death, was numbered among the Deities of Egypt by the + name of Serapis. From them we also learn that Juno, being actuated by + jealousy, on the discovery of the intrigue, put Io under the care of + her uncle Argus, a man of great vigilance, but that Jupiter having + slain him, placed his mistress on board of a vessel which had the + figure of a cow at its head; from which circumstance arose the story + of the transformation of Io. The Greek writers also state, that the + Bosphorus, a part of the Ægean sea, derived its name from the passage + of Io in the shape of a cow. + + +FABLE XIV. [I.601-688] + + Jupiter, having changed Io into a cow, to conceal her from the + jealousy of Juno, is obliged to give her to that Goddess, who commits + her to the charge of the watchful Argus. Jupiter sends Mercury with an + injunction to cast Argus into a deep sleep, and to take away his life. + +In the meantime Juno looked down upon the midst of the fields, and +wondering that the fleeting clouds had made the appearance of night +under bright day, she perceived that they were not {the vapors} from a +river, nor were they raised from the moist earth, and {then} she looked +around {to see} where her husband was, as being one who by this time was +full well acquainted with the intrigues of a husband {who had been} so +often detected.[99] After she had found him not in heaven, she said, +“I am either deceived, or I am injured;†and having descended from the +height of heaven, she alighted upon the earth, and commanded the mists +to retire. He had foreseen the approach of his wife, and had changed the +features of the daughter of Inachus into a sleek heifer.[100] As a cow, +too, {she} is beautiful. The daughter of Saturn, though unwillingly, +extols the appearance of the cow; and likewise inquires, whose it is, +and whence, or of what herd it is, as though ignorant of the truth. +Jupiter falsely asserts that it was produced out of the earth, that the +owner may cease to be inquired after. The daughter of Saturn begs her of +him as a gift. What can {he} do? It is a cruel thing to deliver up his +{own} mistress, {and} not to give her up is a cause of suspicion. It is +shame which persuades him on the one hand, love dissuades him on the +other. His shame would have been subdued by his love; but if so trifling +a gift as a cow should be refused to the sharer of his descent and his +couch, she might {well} seem not to be a cow. + +The rival now being given up {to her}, the Goddess did not immediately +lay aside all apprehension; and she was {still} afraid of Jupiter, and +was fearful of her being stolen, until she gave her to Argus, the son of +Aristor, to be kept {by him}. Argus had his head encircled with a +hundred eyes. Two of them used to take rest in their turns, the rest +watched, and used to keep on duty.[101] In whatever manner he stood, he +looked towards Io; although turned away, he {still} used to have Io +before his eyes. In the daytime he suffers her to feed; but when the sun +is below the deep earth, he shuts her up, and ties a cord round her neck +undeserving {of such treatment}. She feeds upon the leaves of the arbute +tree, and bitter herbs, and instead of a bed the unfortunate {animal} +lies upon the earth, that does not always have grass {on it}, and drinks +of muddy streams. And when, too, she was desirous, as a suppliant, to +stretch out her arms to Argus, she had no arms to stretch out to Argus; +and she uttered lowings from her mouth, {when} endeavoring to complain. +And at {this} sound she was terrified, and was affrighted at her own +voice. + +She came, too, to the banks, where she was often wont to sport, the +banks of {her father}, Inachus; and soon as she beheld her new horns in +the water, she was terrified, and, astonished, she recoiled from +herself. The Naiads knew her not, and Inachus himself knew her not, who +she was; but she follows her father, and follows her sisters, and +suffers herself to be touched, and presents herself to them, as they +admire {her}. The aged Inachus held her some grass he had plucked; she +licks his hand, and gives kisses to the palms of her father. Nor does +she restrain her tears; and if only words would follow, she would +implore his aid, and would declare her name and misfortunes. Instead of +words, letters, which her foot traced in the dust, completed the sad +discovery of the transformation of her body. “Ah, wretched me!†exclaims +her father Inachus; and clinging to the horns and the neck of the +snow-white cow, as she wept, he repeats, “Ah, wretched me! and art thou +my daughter, that hast been sought for by me throughout all lands? While +undiscovered, thou wast a lighter grief {to me}, than {now, when} thou +art found. Thou art silent, and no words dost thou return in answer to +mine; thou only heavest sighs from the depth of thy breast, and what +alone thou art able to do, thou answerest in lowings to my words. But I, +in ignorance {of this}, was preparing the bridal chamber, and the +{nuptial} torches for thee; and my chief hope was that of a son-in-law, +my next was that of grandchildren. But now must thou have a mate from +the herd, now, {too}, an offspring of the herd. Nor is it possible for +me to end grief so great by death; but it is a detriment to be a God; +and the gate of death being shut against me, extends my grief to eternal +ages.†+ +While thus he lamented, the starry Argus removed her away, and carried +the daughter, {thus} taken from her father, to distant pastures. He +himself, at a distance, occupies the lofty top of a mountain, whence, as +he sits, he may look about on all sides. + +Nor can the ruler of the Gods above, any longer endure so great miseries +of the granddaughter of Phoroneus;[102] and he calls his son {Mercury}, +whom the bright Pleiad, {Maia},[103] brought forth, and orders him to +put Argus to death. There is {but} little delay to take wings upon his +feet, and his soporiferous wand[104] in his hand, and a cap for his +hair.[105] After he had put these things in order, the son of Jupiter +leaps down from his father’s high abode upon the earth, and there he +takes off his cap, and lays aside his wings; his wand alone was +retained. With this, as a shepherd, he drives some she-goats through the +pathless country, taken up as he passed along, and plays upon oaten +straws joined together. + +The keeper appointed by Juno, charmed by the sound of this new +contrivance, says, “Whoever thou art, thou mayst be seated with me upon +this stone; for, indeed, in no {other} place is the herbage more +abundant for thy flock; and thou seest, too, that the shade is +convenient for the shepherds.†The son of Atlas sat down, and with much +talking he occupied the passing day with his discourse, and by playing +upon his joined reeds he tried to overpower his watchful eyes. Yet {the +other} strives hard to overcome soft sleep; and although sleep was +received by a part of his eyes, yet with a part he still keeps watch. He +inquires also (for the pipe had been {but} lately invented) by what +method it had been found out. + + [Footnote 99: _So often detected._--Ver. 606. Clarke translates + ‘deprensi toties mariti’ by the expression, ‘who had been so often + catched in his roguery.’] + + [Footnote 100: _Into a sleek heifer._--Ver. 611. Clarke renders + the words, ‘nitentem juvencam,’ a neat heifer.] + + [Footnote 101: _To keep on duty._--Ver. 627. ‘In statione + manebant.’ This is a metaphorical expression, taken from military + affairs, as soldiers in turns relieve each other, and take their + station, when they keep watch and ward.] + + [Footnote 102: _Phoroneus._--Ver. 668. He was the father of Jasius + and of Inachus, the parent of Io. Some accounts, however, say that + Inachus was the father of Phoroneus, and the son of Oceanus.] + + [Footnote 103: _Pleiad Maia._--Ver. 670. Maia was one of the seven + daughters of Atlas, who were styled Pleiädes after they were + received among the constellations.] + + [Footnote 104: _Soporiferous wand._--Ver. 671. This was the + ‘caduceus,’ or staff, with which Mercury summoned the souls of the + departed from the shades, induced slumber, and did other offices + pertaining to his capacity as the herald and messenger of Jupiter. + It was represented as an olive branch, wreathed with two snakes. + In time of war, heralds and ambassadors, among the Greeks, carried + a ‘caduceus.’ It was not used by the Romans.] + + [Footnote 105: _A cap for his hair._--Ver. 672. This was a cap + called ‘Petasus.’ It had broad brims, and was not unlike the + ‘causia,’ or Macedonian hat, except that the brims of the latter + were turned up at the sides.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the Metamorphosis of Io has been already enlarged upon in + the Explanation of the preceding Fable. It may, however, not be + irrelevant to observe, that myths, or mythological stories or fables, + are frequently based upon some true history, corrupted by tradition in + lapse of time. The poets, too, giving loose to their fancy in their + love of the marvellous, have still further disfigured the original + story; so that it is in most instances extremely difficult to trace + back the facts to their primitive simplicity, by a satisfactory + explanation of each circumstance attending them, either upon a + philosophical, or an historical principle of solution. + + +FABLE XV. [I.689-712] + + Pan, falling in love with the Nymph Syrinx, she flies from him; on + which he pursues her. Syrinx, arrested in her flight by the waves of + the river Ladon, invokes the aid of her sisters, the Naiads, who + change her into reeds. Pan unites them into an instrument with seven + pipes, which bears the name of the Nymph. + +Then the God says, “In the cold mountains of Arcadia, among the +Hamadryads of Nonacris,[106] there was one Naiad very famous; the Nymphs +called her Syrinx. And not once {alone} had she escaped the Satyrs as +they pursued, and whatever Gods either the shady grove or the fruitful +fields have {in them}. In her pursuits and her virginity itself she used +to devote herself to the Ortygian Goddess;[107] and being clothed after +the fashion of Diana, she might have deceived one, and might have been +supposed to be the daughter of Latona, if she had not had a bow of +cornel wood, the other, {a bow} of gold; and even then did she +{sometimes} deceive {people}. Pan spies her as she is returning from the +hill of Lycæus, and having his head crowned with sharp pine leaves, he +utters such words as these;†it remained {for Mercury} to repeat the +words, and how that the Nymph, slighting his suit, fled through pathless +spots, until she came to the gentle stream of sandy Ladon;[108] and that +here, the waters stopping her course, she prayed to her watery sisters, +that they would change her; and {how} that Pan, when he was thinking +that Syrinx was now caught by him, had seized hold of some reeds of the +marsh, instead of the body of the Nymph; and {how}, while he was sighing +there, the winds moving amid the reeds had made a murmuring noise, and +like one complaining; and {how} that, charmed by this new discovery and +the sweetness of the sound, he had said, “This mode of converse with +thee shall ever remain with me;†and that accordingly, unequal reeds +being stuck together among themselves by a cement of wax, had {since} +retained the name of the damsel. + + [Footnote 106: _Nonacris._--Ver. 690. Nonacris was the name of + both a mountain and a city of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 107: _The Ortygian Goddess._--Ver. 694. Diana is called + “Ortygian,†from the isle of Delos, where she was born, one of + whose names was Ortygia, from the quantity of quails, ὄÏτυγες, + there found.] + + [Footnote 108: _Ladon._--Ver. 702. This was a beautiful river of + Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus: its banks were covered with + vast quantities of reeds. Ovid here calls its stream ‘placidum;’ + whereas in the fifth book of the Fasti, l. 89, he calls it + ‘rapax,’ ‘violent;’ and in the second book of the Fasti, l. 274, + its waters are said to be ‘citæ aquæ,’ swift waters. Some + commentators have endeavored to reconcile these discrepancies; but + the probability is, that Ovid, like many other poets, used his + epithets at random, or rather according to the requirements of the + measure for the occasion.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This appears to have been an Egyptian fable, imported into the works + of the Grecian poets. Pan was probably a Divinity of the Egyptians, + who worshipped nature under that name, as we are told by Herodotus and + Diodorus Siculus. As, however, according to Nonnus, there were not + less than twelve Pans, it is possible that the adventure here related + may have been supposed to have happened to one of them who was a + native of Greece. He was most probably the inventor of the Syrinx, or + Pandæan pipe, and, perhaps, formed his first instrument from the + produce of the banks of the River Ladon, from which circumstance + Syrinx may have been styled the daughter of that river. + + +FABLE XVI. [I.713-723] + + Mercury, having lulled Argus to sleep, cuts off his head, and Juno + places his eyes in the peacock’s tail. + +The Cyllenian God[109] being about to say such things, perceived that +all his eyes were sunk in sleep, and that his sight was wrapped[110] in +slumber. At once he puts an end to his song, and strengthens his +slumbers, stroking his languid eyes with his magic wand. There is no +delay; he wounds him, as he nods, with his crooked sword, where the head +is joined to the neck; and casts him, all blood-stained, from the rock, +and stains the craggy cliff with his gore. + +Argus, thou liest low, and the light which thou hadst in so many eyes is +{now} extinguished; and one night takes possession of a {whole} hundred +eyes. The daughter of Saturn takes them, and places them on the feathers +of her own bird, and she fills its tail with starry gems. + + [Footnote 109: _The Cyllenian God._--Ver. 713. Mercury is so + called from Cyllene, in Arcadia, where he was born.] + + [Footnote 110: _That his sight was wrapped._--Ver. 714. Clarke + translates ‘Adopertaque lumina somno,’ ‘and his peepers covered + with sleep.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient writers, Asclepiades and Pherecydes, tell us, that Argus + was the son of Arestor. He is supposed by some to have been the fourth + king of Argos after Inachus, and to have been a person of great wisdom + and penetration, on account of which he was said to have a hundred + eyes. Io most probably was committed to his charge, and he watched + over her with the greatest care. + + It is impossible to divine the reason why his eyes were said to have + been set by Juno in the tail of the peacock; though, perhaps, the + circumstance has no other foundation than the resemblance of the human + eye to the spots in the tail of that bird, which was consecrated to + Juno. Besides, if Juno is to be considered the symbol of Air, or + Æther, through which light is transmitted to us, it is not surprising + that the ancients bestowed so many eyes upon the bird which was + consecrated to her. + + +FABLE XVII. [I.724-779] + + Io, terrified and maddened with dreadful visions, runs over many + regions, and stops in Egypt, when Juno, at length, being pacified, + restores her to her former shape, and permits her to be worshipped + there, under the name of Isis. + +Immediately, she was inflamed with rage, and deferred not the time of +{expressing} her wrath; and she presented a dreadful Fury before the +eyes and thoughts of the Argive mistress,[111] and buried in her bosom +invisible stings, and drove her, in her fright, a wanderer through the +whole earth. Thou, O Nile, didst remain, as the utmost boundary of her +long wanderings. Soon as she arrived there, she fell upon her knees, +placed on the edge of the bank, and raising herself up, with her neck +thrown back, and casting to Heaven those looks which then alone she +could, by her groans, and her tears, and her mournful lowing, she seemed +to be complaining of Jupiter, and to be begging an end of her sorrows. + +He, embracing the neck of his wife with his arms, entreats her, at +length, to put an end to her punishment; and he says, “Lay aside thy +fears for the future; she shall never {more} be the occasion of any +trouble to thee;†and {then} he bids the Stygian waters to hear this +{oath}. As soon as the Goddess is pacified, {Io} receives her former +shape, and she becomes what she was before; the hairs flee from off of +her body, her horns decrease, and the orb of her eye becomes less; the +opening of her jaw is contracted; her shoulders and her hands return, +and her hoof, vanishing, is disposed of into five nails; nothing of the +cow remains to her, but the whiteness of her appearance; and the Nymph, +contented with the service of two feet, is raised erect {on them}; and +{yet} she is afraid to speak, lest she should low like a cow, and +timorously tries again the words {so long} interrupted. Now, as a +Goddess, she is worshipped by the linen-wearing throng[112] {of Egypt}. + +To her, at length, Epaphus[113] is believed to have been born from the +seed of great Jove, and throughout the cities he possesses temples +joined to {those of} his parent. Phaëton, sprung from the Sun, was equal +to him in spirit and in years; whom formerly, as he uttered great +boasts, and yielded not {at all} to him, and proud of his father, +PhÅ“bus, the grandson of Inachus could not endure; and said, “Thou, +{like} a madman, believest thy mother in all things, and art puffed up +with the conceit of an imaginary father.†+ +Phaëton blushed, and in shame repressed his resentment; and he reported +to his mother, Clymene,[114] the reproaches of Epaphus; and said, +“Mother, to grieve thee still more, I, the free, the bold {youth}, was +silent; I am ashamed both that these reproaches can be uttered against +us, and that they cannot be refuted; but do thou, if only I am born of a +divine race, give me some proof of so great a descent, and claim me for +heaven.†{Thus} he spoke, and threw his arms around the neck of his +mother; and besought her, by his own head and by that of Merops,[115] +and by the nuptial torches of his sisters, that she would give him some +token of his real father. + +It is a matter of doubt whether Clymene was more moved by the entreaties +of Phaëton, or by resentment at the charge made against her; and she +raised both her arms to heaven, and, looking up to the light of the Sun, +she said, “Son, I swear to thee, by this beam, bright with shining rays, +which both hears and sees us, that thou, that thou, {I say}, wast +begotten by this Sun, which thou beholdest; by this {Sun}, which governs +the world. If I utter an untruth, let him deny himself to be seen by me, +and let this light prove the last for my eyes. Nor will it be any +prolonged trouble for thee to visit thy father’s dwelling; the abode +where he arises is contiguous to our regions.[116] If only thy +inclination disposes thee, go forth, and thou shalt inquire of himself.†+ +Phaëton immediately springs forth, overjoyed, upon these words of his +mother, and reaches the skies in imagination; and he passes by his own +Æthiopians, and the Indians situate beneath the rays of the Sun,[117] +and briskly wends his way to the rising of his sire. + + [Footnote 111: _The Argive mistress._--Ver. 726. Clarke renders + ‘Pellicis Argolicæ,’ ‘of the Grecian miss.’] + + [Footnote 112: _The linen-wearing throng._--Ver. 747. The priests, + and worshippers of Isis, with whom Io is here said to be + identical, paid their adoration to her clothed in linen vestments. + Probably, Isis was the first to teach the Egyptians the + cultivation of flax.] + + [Footnote 113: _Epaphus._--Ver. 748. Herodotus, in his second + book, tells us, that this son of Jupiter, by Io, was the same as + the Egyptian God, Apis. Eusebius, quoting from Apollodorus, says + that Epaphus was the son of Io, by Telegonus, who married her.] + + [Footnote 114: _Clymene._--Ver. 756. She was a Nymph of the sea, + the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 115: _Merops._--Ver. 763. He was king of Ethiopia, and + marrying the Nymph Clymene, was either the stepfather of Phaëton, + or, as some writers say, his putative father.] + + [Footnote 116: _To our regions._--Ver. 773. Ethiopia, which, in + the time of Ovid, was generally looked upon as one of the regions + of the East.] + + [Footnote 117: _The rays of the Sun._--Ver. 778. ‘Ignibus + sidereis,’ means here the ‘heat,’ or ‘fire of the sun,’ the sun + being considered as a ‘sidus,’ or ‘luminous heavenly body.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To the elucidation of this narrative, already given, we will only add, + that some of the mythologists inform us, that when Mercury had lulled + Argus to sleep, a youth named Hierax awoke him; on which Mercury + killed Argus with a stone, and turned Hierax into a spar-hawk. + + + + +BOOK THE SECOND. + + +FABLE I. [II.1-303] + + Phaëton, insulted by Epaphus, goes to the Palace of Apollo, to beseech + him to give some token that he is his son. Apollo, having sworn, by + the river Styx, to refuse him nothing that he should desire, he + immediately asks to guide his chariot for one day. He is unsuccessful + in the attempt, and, the horses running away, the world is in danger + of being consumed. + +The palace of the Sun was raised high, on stately columns, bright with +radiant gold, and carbuncle that rivals the flames; polished ivory +covered its highest top, {and} double folding doors shone with the +brightness of silver. The workmanship {even} exceeded the material; for +there Mulciber had carved the sea circling round the encompassed Earth; +and the orb of the Earth, and the Heavens which hang over that orb. +{There} the waves have {in them} the azure Deities, both Triton, +sounding {with his shell}, and the changing Proteus, and Ægeon,[1] +pressing the huge backs of whales with his arms; Doris,[2] too, and her +daughters, part of whom appear to be swimming, part, sitting on the +bank, to be drying their green hair; some {are seen} borne upon fishes. +The features in all are not the same, nor, however, {remarkably} +different: {they are} such as those of sisters ought to be. The Earth +has {upon it} men and cities, and woods, and wild beasts, and rivers, +and Nymphs, and other Deities of the country. Over these is placed the +figure of the shining Heaven, and there are six Signs {of the Zodiac} on +the right door, and as many on the left. + +Soon as the son of Clymene had arrived thither by an ascending path, +and entered the house of his parent, {thus} doubted of; he immediately +turned his steps to the presence of his father, and stood at a distance, +for he could not bear the refulgence nearer. Arrayed in a purple +garment, PhÅ“bus was seated on a throne sparkling with brilliant +emeralds. On his right hand, and on his left, the Days, the Months, +the Years, the Ages, and the Hours were arranged, at corresponding +distances, and the fresh Spring was standing, crowned with a chaplet of +blossoms; Summer was standing naked, and wearing garlands made of ears +of corn; Autumn, too, was standing besmeared with the trodden-out +grapes; and icy Winter, rough with his hoary hair. + +Then the Sun, from the midst of this place, with those eyes with which +he beholds all things, sees the young man struck with fear at the +novelty of {these} things, and says, “What is the occasion of thy +journey {hither}? What dost thou seek, Phaëton, in this {my} palace, +a son not to be denied by his parent?†+ +He answers, “O thou universal Light of the unbounded World, PhÅ“bus, my +father, if thou grantest me the use of that name; and if Clymene is not +concealing an error under a {false} pretext, give me, my parent, some +token, by which I may be believed to be really thy progeny; and remove +this uncertainty from my mind.†Thus he spoke; but his parent took off +the rays shining all around his head, and commanded him to come nearer; +and, having embraced him, he says, “{And} neither art thou deserving to +be denied to be mine, and Clymene has told thee thy true origin; and +that thou mayst have the less doubt, ask any gift thou mayst please, +that thou mayst receive it from me bestowing it. Let the lake, by which +the Gods are wont to swear, and which is unseen, {even} by my eyes, be +as a witness of my promise.†+ +Hardly had he well finished, when he asks for his father’s chariot, and +for the command and guidance of the wing-footed horses for one day. His +father repented that he had {so} sworn, and shaking his splendid head +three or four times, he said, “By thine have my words been made rash. +I wish I were allowed not to grant what I have promised! I confess, my +son, that this alone I would deny thee. {Still}, I may dissuade thee: +thy desire is not attended with safety. Thou desirest, Phaëton, a gift +{too} great, and {one} which is suited neither to thy strength, nor to +such youthful years. Thy lot is that of a mortal; that which thou +desirest, belongs not to mortals. {Nay}, thou aimest, in thy ignorance, +at even more than it is allowed the Gods above to obtain. Let every one +be self-satisfied, {if he likes}; still, with the exception of myself, +no one is able to take his stand upon the fire-bearing axle-tree. Even +the Ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with his +terrific right hand, cannot guide this chariot; and {yet}, what have we +greater than Jupiter? The first {part of the} road is steep, and such as +the horses, {though} fresh in the morning, can hardly climb. In the +middle of the heavens it is high aloft, from whence it is often a +{source of} fear, {even} to myself, to look {down} upon the sea and the +earth, and my breast trembles with fearful apprehensions. The last stage +is a steep descent, and requires a sure command {of the horses}. Then, +too, Tethys[3] herself, who receives me in her waves, extended below, is +often wont to fear, lest I should be borne headlong {from above}. +Besides, the heavens are carried round[4] with a constant rotation, and +carry {with them} the lofty stars, and whirl them with rapid revolution. +Against this I have to contend; and that force which overcomes {all} +other things, {does} not {overcome} me; and I am carried in a contrary +direction to the rapid world. Suppose the chariot given {to thee}; what +couldst thou do? Couldst thou proceed, opposed to the whirling poles, so +that the rapid heavens should not carry thee away? Perhaps, too, thou +dost fancy in thy mind that there are groves, and cities of the Gods, +and temples enriched with gifts; {whereas}, the way is through dangers, +and the forms of wild beasts;[5] and though thou shouldst keep on thy +road, and be drawn aside by no wanderings, still thou must pass amid the +horns of the threatening Bull, and the Hæmonian[6] bow, and {before} the +visage of the raging Lion, and the Scorpion, bending his cruel claws +with a wide compass, and the Crab, that bends his claws in a different +manner; nor is it easy for thee to govern the steeds spirited by those +fires which they have in their breasts, and which they breathe forth +from their mouths and their nostrils. Hardly are they restrained by me, +when their high-mettled spirit is {once} heated, and their necks +struggle against the reins. But do thou have a care, my son, that I be +not the occasion of a gift fatal to thee, and while the matter {still} +permits, alter thy intentions. Thou askest, forsooth, a sure proof that +thou mayst believe thyself sprung from my blood? I give thee a sure +proof in {thus} being alarmed {for thee}; and by my paternal +apprehensions, I am shown to be thy father. Lo, behold my countenance! +I wish, too, that thou couldst direct thy eyes into my breast, and +discover my fatherly concern within! Finally, look around thee, upon +whatever the rich world contains, and ask for anything out of the +blessings, so many and so great, of heaven, of earth, and of sea; {and} +thou shalt suffer no denial. In this one thing alone I beg to be +excused, which, {called} by its right name, is a penalty, and not an +honor; thou art asking, Phaëton, a punishment instead of a gift. Why, in +thy ignorance, art thou embracing my neck with caressing arms? Doubt +not; whatever thou shalt desire shall be granted thee (by the Stygian +waves I have sworn it); but do thou make thy desire more considerately.†+ +He had finished his admonitions; and yet {Phaëton} resists his advice, +and presses his point, and burns with eagerness for the chariot. +Wherefore, his parent having delayed as long as he could, leads the +young man to the lofty chariot, the gift of Vulcan. The axle-tree was of +gold, the poles were of gold; the circumference of the exterior of the +wheel was of gold; the range of the spokes was of silver. Chrysolites +and gems placed along the yoke in order, gave a bright light from the +reflected sun. And while the aspiring Phaëton is admiring these things, +and is examining the workmanship, behold! the watchful Aurora opened her +purple doors in the ruddy east, and her halls filled with roses. The +stars disappear, the troops whereof Lucifer gathers, and moves the last +from his station in the heavens. But the father Titan, when he beheld +the earth and the universe growing red, and the horns of the far-distant +Moon, as if about to vanish, orders the swift Hours to yoke the horses. +The Goddesses speedily perform his commands, and lead forth the steeds +from the lofty stalls, snorting forth flames, and filled with the juice +of Ambrosia; and {then} they put on the sounding bits. + +Then the father touched the face of his son with a hallowed drug, and +made it able to endure the burning flames, and placed the rays upon his +locks, and fetching from his troubled heart sighs presaging his sorrow, +he said: “If thou canst here at least, my boy, obey the advice of thy +father, be sparing of the whip, and use the bridle with nerve. Of their +own accord they are wont to hasten on; the difficulty is to check them +in their full career. And let not the way attract thee through the five +direct circles.[7] There is a track cut obliquely, with a broad +curvature, and bounded by the extremities of three zones, and {so} it +shuns the South pole, and the Bear united to the North. Let thy way be +here; thou wilt perceive distinct traces of the wheels. And that heaven +and earth may endure equal heat, neither drive too low, nor urge the +chariot along the summit of the sky. Going forth too high, thou wilt set +on fire the signs of the heavens; too low, the earth; in the middle +course thou will go most safely. Neither let the right wheel bear thee +off towards the twisted Serpent, nor let the left lead thee to the low +Altar; hold thy course between them. The rest I leave to Fortune, who, +I pray, may aid thee, and take more care of thee, than thou dost of +thyself. Whilst I am speaking, the moist Night has touched the goals +placed on the Western shores; delay is not allowed me. I am required; +the Morning is shining forth, the darkness being dispersed. Seize the +reins with thy hands; or if thou hast a mind capable of change, make use +of my advice, {and} not my chariot, while thou art {still} able, and art +even yet standing upon solid ground; and while thou art not yet in thy +ignorance filling the chariot that thou didst so unfortunately covet.†+ +The other leaps into the light chariot with his youthful body, and +stands aloft, and rejoices to take in his hand the reins presented {to +him}, and then gives thanks to his reluctant parent. In the meantime the +swift Pyroeis, and Eoüs and Æthon, the horses of the sun, and Phlegon, +{making} the fourth, fill the air with neighings, sending forth flames, +and beat the barriers with their feet. After Tethys, ignorant of the +destiny of her grandson, had removed these, and the scope of the +boundless universe was given them, they take the road, and moving their +feet through the air, they cleave the resisting clouds, and raised aloft +by their wings, they pass by the East winds that had arisen from the +same parts. But the weight was light; and such as the horses of the sun +could not feel; and the yoke was deficient of its wonted weight. And as +the curving ships, without proper ballast, are tossed about, and +unsteady, through their too great lightness, are borne through the sea, +so does the chariot give bounds[8] in the air, unimpeded by its usual +burden, and is tossed on high, and is just like an empty one. + +Soon as the steeds have perceived this, they rush on, and leave the +beaten track, and run not in the order in which {they did} before. He +himself becomes alarmed; and knows not which way to turn the reins +entrusted {to him}, nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he did +know, could he control them. Then, for the first time, did the cold +Triones grow warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in +the sea that was forbidden {to them}. And the Serpent which is situate +next to the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and formidable to +no one, grew warm, and regained new rage from the heat. They say, +too,[9] that thou, Boötes, being disturbed, took to flight; although +thou wast {but} slow, and thy wain impeded thee. But when, from the +height of the skies, the unhappy Phaëton looked down upon the earth, +lying far, very far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook with a +sudden terror; and in a light so great, darkness overspread his eyes. +And now he could wish that he had never touched the horses of his +father; and now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and that he +prevailed in his request; now desiring to be called the son of Merops. +He is borne along, just as a ship driven by the furious Boreas, to which +its pilot has given up the overpowered helm, {and} which he has resigned +to the Gods and {the effect of} his supplications. What can he do? much +of heaven is left behind his back; still more is before his eyes. Either +{space} he measures in his mind; and at one moment he is looking forward +to the West, which it is not allowed him by fate to reach; {and} +sometimes he looks back upon the East. Ignorant what to do, he is +stupefied; and he neither lets go the reins, nor is he able to retain +them; nor does he know the names of the horses. In his fright, too, he +sees strange objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the +heavens, and the forms of huge wild beasts. There is a spot where the +Scorpion bends his arms into two curves, and with his tail and claws +bending on either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two +signs {of the Zodiac}. As soon as the youth beheld him wet with the +sweat of black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point {of +his tail}, bereft of sense, he let go the reins, in a chill of horror. +Soon as they, falling down, have touched the top of their backs, the +horses range at large: and no one restraining them, they go through the +air of an unknown region; and where their fury drives them thither, +without check, do they hurry along, and they rush on to the stars fixed +in the sky, and drag the chariot through pathless places. One while they +are mounting aloft, and now they are borne through steep places, and +{along} headlong paths in a tract nearer to the earth. + +The Moon, too, wonders that her brother’s horses run lower than her own, +and the scorched clouds send forth smoke. As each region is most +elevated, it is caught by the flames, and cleft, it makes {vast} chasms, +and becomes dry, its moisture being carried away. The grass grows pale; +the trees, with their foliage, are burnt up; and the dry standing corn +affords fuel for its own destruction. {But} I am complaining of trifling +{ills}. Great cities perish, together with their fortifications, and the +flames turn whole nations, with their populations, into ashes; woods, +together with mountains, are on fire. Athos[10] burns, and the Cilician +Taurus,[11] and Tmolus,[12] and Å’ta,[13] and Ida,[14] now dry, {but} +once most famed for its springs; and Helicon,[15] the resort of the +Virgin {Muses}, and Hæmus,[16] not yet {called} Å’agrian. Ætna[17] burns +intensely with redoubled flames, and Parnassus, with its two summits, +and Eryx,[18] and Cynthus,[19] and Othrys, and Rhodope,[20] at length to +be despoiled of its snows, and Mimas,[21] and Dindyma,[22] and +Mycale,[23] and Cithæron,[24] created for {the performance of} sacred +rites. Nor does its cold avail {even} Scythia; Caucasus[25] is on fire, +and Ossa with Pindus, and Olympus, greater than them both, and the lofty +Alps,[26] and the cloud-bearing Apennines.[27] + +Then, indeed, Phaëton beholds the world set on fire on all sides, and he +cannot endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth scorching +air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own chariot to be +on fire. And neither is he able now to bear the ashes and the emitted +embers; and, on every side, he is involved in heated smoke. Covered with +a pitchy darkness, he knows not whither he is going, nor where he is, +and is hurried away at the pleasure of the winged steeds. They believe +that it was then that the nations of the Æthiopians contracted their +black hue,[28] the blood being attracted into the surface of the body. +Then was Libya[29] made dry by the heat, the moisture being carried off; +then, with dishevelled hair, the Nymphs lamented the springs and the +lakes. BÅ“otia bewails Dirce,[30] Argos Amymone,[31] and Ephyre[32] the +waters of Pirene. Nor do rivers that have got banks distant in +situation, remain {secure}; Tanais[33] smokes in the midst of its +waters, and the aged Peneus, and Teuthrantian Caïcus,[34] and rapid +Ismenus,[35] with Phocean Erymanthus,[36] and Xanthus[37] again to burn, +and yellow Lycormas,[38] and Mæander,[39] which sports with winding +streams, and the Mygdonian Melas,[40] and the Tænarian Eurotas.[41] The +Babylonian Euphrates, too, was on fire, Orontes[42] was in flames, and +the swift Thermodon[43] and Ganges,[44] and Phasis,[45] and Ister.[46] +Alpheus[47] boils; the banks of Spercheus burn; and the gold which +Tagus[48] carries with its stream, melts in the flames. The river birds +too, which made famous the Mæonian[49] banks {of the river} with their +song, grew hot in the middle of Caÿster. The Nile, affrighted, fled to +the remotest parts of the earth, and concealed his head, which still +lies hid; his seven last mouths are empty, {become} seven {mere} +channels, without any stream. The same fate dries up the Ismarian +{rivers}, Hebrus together with Strymon,[50] and the Hesperian[51] +streams, the Rhine, and the Rhone, and the Po, and the Tiber, to which +was promised the sovereignty of the world. + +All the ground bursts asunder; and through the chinks, the light +penetrates into Tartarus, and startles the Infernal King with his +spouse. The Ocean too, is contracted, and that which lately was sea, is +a surface of parched sand; and the mountains which the deep sea had +covered, start up and increase {the number of} the scattered +Cyclades.[52] The fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked Dolphins do +not care to raise themselves on the surface into the air, as usual. The +bodies of sea calves float lifeless on their backs, on the top of the +water. The story, too, is, that {even} Nereus himself, and Doris and +their daughters, lay hid in the heated caverns. Three times had Neptune +ventured, with a stern countenance, to thrust his arms out of the water; +three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat of the air. +However, the genial Earth, as she was surrounded with sea, amid the +waters of the main, and the springs, dried up on every side, which had +hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, burnt-up, +lifted up her all-productive face[53] as far as her neck, and placed her +hands to her forehead, and shaking all things with a vast trembling, she +sank down a little, and retired below the spot where she is wont to be, +and thus she spoke, with a parched voice: “O sovereign of the Gods, if +thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings +linger? Let me, {if} doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by +thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune, by being the author {of it}. +With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words;†(the +vapor had oppressed her utterance.) “Behold my scorched hair, and such a +quantity of ashes over my eyes, so much {too}, over my features. And +dost thou give this as my recompense? this, as the reward of my +fertility and of my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked +plough and harrows, and am harassed all the year through? In that I +supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food for +mankind, and frankincense for yourselves? But still, suppose that I am +deserving of destruction, why have the waves {deserved this}? Why has +thy brother deserved it? Why do the seas, delivered to him by lot, +decrease, and why do they recede still further from the sky? But if +regard for neither thy brother nor for myself influences thee, still +have consideration for thy own skies; look around, on either side, {how} +each pole is smoking; if the fire shall injure them, thy palace will +fall in ruins. See! Atlas[54] himself is struggling, and hardly can he +bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. If the sea, if the earth +perishes, if the palace of heaven, we are thrown[55] into the confused +state of ancient chaos. Save it from the flames, if aught still +survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe.†+ +Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the +vapor, nor say more; and she withdrew her face within herself, and the +caverns neighboring to the shades below. + + [Footnote 1: _Ægeon._--Ver. 10. Homer makes him to be the same + with Briareus. According to another account, which Ovid here + follows, he was a sea God, the son of Oceanus and Terra.] + + [Footnote 2: _Doris._--Ver. 11. She was the daughter of Oceanus, + the wife of Nereus, and the mother of the fifty Nereids.] + + [Footnote 3: _Tethys._--Ver. 69. She was the daughter of CÅ“lus and + Terra, and the wife of Oceanus. Her name is here used to signify + the ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 4: _Are carried round._--Ver. 70. Clarke thus renders + this line,--“Add, too, that the heaven was whisked round with a + continual rolling.â€] + + [Footnote 5: _Wild beasts._--Ver. 78. The signs of the Zodiac.] + + [Footnote 6: _Hæmonian._--Ver. 81. Or Thessalian. He here alludes + to the Thessalian Chiron, the Centaur, who, according to Ovid and + other writers, was placed in the Zodiac as the Constellation + Sagittarius: while others say that Crotus, or Croto, the son of + Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses, was thus honored.] + + [Footnote 7: _Through the five direct circles._--Ver. 129. There + is some obscurity in this passage, arising from the mode of + expression. PhÅ“bus here counsels Phaëton what track to follow, and + tells him to pursue his way by an oblique path, and not directly + in the plane of the equator. This last is what he calls ‘directos + via quinque per arcus.’ These five arcs, or circles, are the five + parallel circles by which astronomers distinguish the heavens, + namely, the two polar circles, the two tropics, and the + equinoctial. The latter runs exactly in the middle, between the + other two circles, so that the expression must be understood to + mean, ‘pursue not your way directly through that circle which is + the middlemost of the five, but observe the track that cuts it + obliquely.’] + + [Footnote 8: _The chariot give bounds._--Ver. 165-6. Clarke thus + renders these lines.--‘Thus does the chariot give jumps into the + air without its usual weight, and is kicked up on high, and is + like one empty.’] + + [Footnote 9: _They say, too._--Ver. 176-7. The following is + Clarke’s translation of these two lines,--‘They say, too, that + you, Boötes, scowered off in a mighty bustle, although you were + but slow, and thy cart hindered thee.’] + + [Footnote 10: _Athos._--Ver. 217. Athos (now Monte Santo) was a + mountain of Macedonia, so lofty that its shadow was said to extend + even to the Isle of Lemnos, which was eighty-seven miles distant.] + + [Footnote 11: _Taurus._--Ver. 217. This was an immense mountain + range which ran through the middle of Cilicia, in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 12: _Tmolus._--Ver. 217. Tmolus (now Bozdaz) was a + mountain of Lydia, famed for its wines and saffron. Pactolus, + a stream with sands reputed to be golden, took its rise there.] + + [Footnote 13: _Å’ta._--Ver. 217. This was a mountain chain, which + divided Thessaly from Doris and Phocis; famed for the death of + Hercules on one of its ridges.] + + [Footnote 14: _Ida._--Ver. 218. There were two mountains of the + name of Ide, or Ida; one in Crete, the other near Troy. The latter + is here referred to, as being famed for its springs.] + + [Footnote 15: _Helicon._--Ver. 219. This was a mountain of BÅ“otia, + sacred to the Virgin Muses.] + + [Footnote 16: _Hæmus._--Ver. 219. This, which is now called the + Balkan range, was a lofty chain of mountains running through + Thrace. Orpheus, the son of Å’agrus and Calliope, was there torn in + pieces by the Mænades, or Bacchanalian women, whence the mountain + obtained the epithet of ‘Œagrian.’] + + [Footnote 17: _Ætna._--Ver. 220. This is the volcanic mountain of + Sicily; the flames caused by the fall of Phaëton, added to its + own, caused them to be redoubled.] + + [Footnote 18: _Eryx._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Sicily, + now called San Juliano. On it, a magnificent temple was erected, + in honor of Venus.] + + [Footnote 19: _Cynthus._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Delos, + on which Apollo and Diana were said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 20: _Rhodope._--Ver. 222. It was a high mountain, capped + with perpetual snows, in the northern part of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 21: _Mimas._--Ver. 222. A mountain of Ionia, near the + Ionian Sea. It was of very great height; whence Homer calls it + ὑψίκÏημνος.] + + [Footnote 22: _Dindyma._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + Phrygia, near Troy, sacred to Cybele, the mother of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 23: _Mycale._--Ver. 223. A mountain of Caria, opposite + to the Isle of Samos.] + + [Footnote 24: _Cithæron._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + BÅ“otia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus, there celebrated. In its + neighborhood, Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Mænades, for + slighting the worship of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Caucasus._--Ver. 224. This was a mountain chain in + Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas.] + + [Footnote 26: _Alps._--Ver. 226. This mountain range divides + France from Italy.] + + [Footnote 27: _Apennines._--Ver. 226. This range of mountains runs + down the centre of Italy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Their black hue._--Ver. 235. The notion that the + blackness of the African tribes was produced by the heat of the + sun, is borrowed by the Poet from Hesiod. Hyginus, too, says, ‘the + Indians, because, by the proximity of the fire, their blood was + turned black by the heat thereof, became of black appearance + themselves.’ Notwithstanding the learned and minute investigations + of physiologists on the subject, this question is still involved + in considerable obscurity.] + + [Footnote 29: _Libya._--Ver. 237. This was a region between + Mauritania and Cyrene. The Greek writers, however, often use the + word to signify the whole of Africa. Servius gives a trifling + derivation for the name, in saying that Libya was so called, + because λείπει ὠὕετος, ‘it is without rain.’] + + [Footnote 30: _Dirce._--Ver. 239. Dirce was a celebrated fountain + of BÅ“otia, into which it was said that Dirce, the wife of Lycus, + king of Thebes, was transformed.] + + [Footnote 31: _Amymone._--Ver. 240. It was a fountain of Argos, + near Lerna, into which the Nymph, Amymone, the daughter of Lycus, + king of the Argives, was said to have been transformed.] + + [Footnote 32: _Ephyre._--Ver. 240. It was the most ancient name of + Corinth, in the citadel of which, or the Acrocorinthus, was the + spring Pyrene, of extreme brightness and purity and sacred to the + Muses.] + + [Footnote 33: _Tanais._--Ver. 242. This river, now the Don, after + a long winding course, discharges itself into the ‘Palus Mæotis,’ + now the sea of ‘Azof.’] + + [Footnote 34: _Caïcus._--Ver. 243. This is a river of Mysia, here + called ‘Teuthrantian,’ from Mount Teuthras, in its vicinity.] + + [Footnote 35: _Ismenus._--Ver. 244. Ismenus was a river of BÅ“otia, + that flowed past Thebes into the Euripus.] + + [Footnote 36: _Erymanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of + Arcadia, which, rising in a mountain of that name, fell into the + Alpheus.] + + [Footnote 37: _Xanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of Troy; here + spoken of as destined to behold flames a second time, in the + conflagration of that city.] + + [Footnote 38: _Lycormas._--Ver. 245. This was a rapid river of + Ætolia, which was afterwards known by the name of Evenus.] + + [Footnote 39: _Mæander._--Ver. 246. This was a river of Phrygia, + flowing between Lydia and Caria; it was said to have 600 windings + in its course.] + + [Footnote 40: _Melas._--Ver. 247. This name was given to many + rivers of Thrace, Thessaly, and Asia, on account of the darkness + of the color of their waters; the name was derived from the Greek + word μέλας, ‘black.’] + + [Footnote 41: _Tænarian Eurotas._--Ver. 247. The Eurotas was a + river of Laconia, which flowed under the walls of the city of + Sparta, and discharged itself into the sea near the promontory of + Tænarus, now called Cape Matapan. The Eurotas is now called + ‘Basilipotamo,’ or ‘king of streams.’] + + [Footnote 42: _Orontes._--Ver. 248. The Orontes was a river of + Asia Minor, which flowed near Antioch.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thermodon._--Ver. 249. This was a river of + Cappadocia, near which the Amazons were said to dwell.] + + [Footnote 44: _Ganges._--Ver. 249. This is one of the largest + rivers in Asia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf; and + not, as Gierig says, in his note on this passage, in the Red Sea.] + + [Footnote 45: _Phasis._--Ver. 249. This was a river of Colchis, + falling into the Euxine Sea.] + + [Footnote 46: _Ister._--Ver. 249. The Danube had that name from + its source to the confines of Germany; and thence, in its course + through Scythia to the sea, it was called by the name of ‘Ister.’] + + [Footnote 47: _Alpheus._--Ver. 250. It was a river of Arcadia, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 48: _Tagus._--Ver. 251. This was a river of Spain, which + was said to bring down from the mountains great quantities of + golden sand. The Poet here feigns this to be melted by the heat of + the sun, and in that manner to be carried along by the current of + the river.] + + [Footnote 49: _Mæonian._--Ver. 252. Mæonia was so called from the + river Mæon, and was another name of Lydia. The Caÿster, famous for + its swans, flowed through Lydia.] + + [Footnote 50: _Strymon._--Ver. 257. The Hebrus and the Strymon + were rivers of Thrace. Ismarus was a mountain of that country, + famous for its vines.] + + [Footnote 51: _Hesperian._--Ver. 258. Hesperia, or ‘the western + country,’ was a general name of not only Spain and Gaul, but even + Italy. The Rhine is a river of France and Germany, the Rhone of + France. The Padus, or Po, and the Tiber, are rivers of Italy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Cyclades._--Ver. 264. The Cyclades were a cluster + of islands in the Ægean Sea, surrounding Delos as though with a + circle, whence their name.] + + [Footnote 53: _Her all-productive face._--Ver. 275. The earth was + similarly called by the Greeks παμμήτωÏ, ‘the mother of all + things.’ So Virgil calls it ‘omniparens.’] + + [Footnote 54: _Atlas._--Ver. 296. This was a mountain of + Mauritania, which, by reason of its height, was said to support + the heavens.] + + [Footnote 55: _We are thrown._--Ver. 299. Clarke translates, ‘In + chaos antiquum confundimur,’ ‘We are then jumbled into the old + chaos again.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If we were to regard this fable solely as an allegory intended to + convey a moral, we should at once perceive that the adventure of + Phaëton represents the wilful folly of a rash young man, who consults + his own inclination, rather than the dictates of wisdom and prudence. + Some ancient writers tell us that Phaëton was the son of PhÅ“bus and + Clymene, while others make the nymph Rhoda to have been his mother. + Apollodorus, following Hesiod, says that Herse, the daughter of + Cecrops, king of Athens, was the mother of Cephalus, who was carried + away by Aurora; which probably means that he left Greece for the + purpose of settling in the East. Cephalus had a son named Tithonus, + the father of Phaëton. Thus Phaëton was the fourth in lineal descent + from Cecrops, who reigned at Athens about 1580, B.C. The story is most + probably based upon the fact of some excessive heat that happened in + his time. Aristotle supposes that at that period flames fell from + heaven, which ravaged several countries. Possibly the burning of the + cities of the plain, or the stay of the sun in his course at the + command of Joshua, may have been the foundation of the story. St. + Chrysostom suggests that it is based upon an imperfect version of the + ascent of Elijah in a chariot of fire; that name, or rather ‘Elias,’ + the Greek form of it, bearing a strong resemblance to á¼Î»Î¹Î¿Ï‚, the Greek + name of the sun. Vossius suggests that this is an Egyptian history, + and considers the story of the grief of PhÅ“bus for the loss of his son + to be another version of the sorrows of the Egyptians for the death of + Osiris. The tears of the Heliades, or sisters of Phaëton, he conceives + to be identical with the lamentations of the women who wept for the + death of Thammuz. The Poet, when he tells us that Phaëton abandoned + his chariot on seeing The Scorpion, probably intends to show that the + event of which he treats happened in the month in which the sun enters + that sign. + + Plutarch and Tzetzes tell us that Phaëton was a king of the + Molossians, who drowned himself in the Po; that he was a student of + astronomy, and foretold an excessive heat which happened in his reign, + and laid waste his kingdom. Lucian, also, in his Discourse on + Astronomy, gives a similar explanation of the story, and says that + this prince dying very young, left his observations imperfect, which + gave rise to the fable that he did not know how to drive the chariot + of the sun to the end of its course. + + +FABLE II. [II.305-324] + + Jupiter, to save the universe from being consumed, hurls his thunder + at Phaëton, on which he falls headlong into the river Eridanus. + +But the omnipotent father, having called the Gods above to witness, and +him, too, who had given the chariot {to Phaëton}, that unless he gives +assistance, all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft to the +highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds over the +spacious earth; from which he moves his thunders, and hurls the +brandished lightnings. But then, he had neither clouds that he could +draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky. +He thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right ear +against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both of his +life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the flames. The +horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in an opposite direction, +they shake the yoke from off their necks, and disengage themselves from +the torn harness. In one place lie the reins; in another, the axle-tree +wrenched away from the pole; in another part {are} the spokes of the +broken wheels; and the fragments of the chariot torn in pieces are +scattered far and wide. But Phaëton, the flames consuming his yellow +hair, is hurled headlong, and is borne in a long tract through the air; +as sometimes a star from the serene sky may appear to fall, although it +{really} has not fallen. Him the great Eridanus receives, in a part of +the world far distant from his country, and bathes his foaming face. + + +FABLE III. [II.325-366] + + The sisters of Phaëton are changed into poplars, and their tears + become amber distilling from those trees. + +The Hesperian Naiads[56] commit his body, smoking from the three-forked +flames, to the tomb, and inscribe these verses on the stone:--“Here is +Phaëton buried, the driver of his father’s chariot, which if he did not +manage, still he miscarried in a great attempt.†But his wretched father +had hidden his face, overcast with bitter sorrow, and, if only we can +believe it, they say that one day passed without the sun.[57] The flames +afforded light; and {so far}, there was some advantage in that disaster. +But Clymene, after she had said whatever things were to be said amid +misfortunes so great, traversed the whole earth, full of woe, and +distracted, and tearing her bosom. And first seeking his lifeless limbs, +{and} then his bones, she found his bones, however, buried on a foreign +bank. She laid herself down on the spot; and bathed with tears the name +she read on the marble, and warmed it with her open breast. The +daughters of the Sun mourn no less, and give tears, an unavailing gift, +to his death; and beating their breasts with their hands, they call +Phaëton both night and day, who is doomed not to hear their sad +complaints; and they lie scattered about the tomb. + +The Moon had four times filled her disk, by joining her horns; they, +according to their custom (for use had made custom), uttered +lamentations; among whom Phaëthusa, the eldest of the sisters, when she +was desirous to lie on the ground, complained that her feet had grown +stiff; to whom the fair Lampetie attempting to come, was detained by a +root suddenly formed. A third, when she is endeavoring to tear her hair +with her hands, tears off leaves; one complains that her legs are held +fast by the trunk of a tree, another that her arms are become long +branches. And while they are wondering at these things, bark closes upon +their loins; and by degrees, it encompasses their stomachs, their +breasts, their shoulders, and their hands; and only their mouths are +left uncovered, calling upon their mother. What is their mother to do? +but run here and there, whither frenzy leads her, and join her lips +{with theirs}, while {yet} she may? That is not enough; she tries to +pull their bodies out of the trunks {of the trees}, and with her hands +to tear away the tender branches; but from thence drops of blood flow as +from a wound. Whichever {of them} is wounded, cries out, “Spare me, +mother, O spare me, I pray; in the tree my body is being torn. And now +farewell.†The bark came over the last words. + +Thence tears flow forth; and amber distilling from the new-formed +branches, hardens in the sun; which the clear river receives and sends +to be worn by the Latian matrons. + + [Footnote 56: _The Hesperian Naiads._--Ver. 325. These were the + Naiads of Italy. They were by name Phaëthusa, Lampetie, and + PhÅ“be.] + + [Footnote 57: _Passed without the sun._--Ver. 331. There is, + perhaps, in this line some faint reference to a tradition of the + sun having, in the language of Scripture, ‘stood still upon + Gibeon, in his course, by the command of Joshua, when dispensing + the divine vengeance upon the Amorites,’ Joshua, x. 13. Or of the + time when ‘the shadow returned ten degrees backward’, by the + sun-dial of Ahaz, 2 Kings, xx. 11.] + + +FABLE IV. [II.367-400] + + Cycnus, king of Liguria, inconsolable for the death of Phaëton, is + transformed into a swan. + +Cycnus, the son of Sthenelus,[58] was present at this strange event; +who, although he was related to thee, Phaëton, on his mother’s side, was +yet more nearly allied in affection. He having left his kingdom (for he +reigned over the people and the great cities of the Ligurians[59]) was +filling the verdant banks and the river Eridanus, and the wood, {now} +augmented by the sisters, with his complaints; when the man’s voice +became shrill, and gray feathers concealed his hair. A long neck, too, +extends from his breast, and a membrane joins his reddening toes; +feathers clothe his sides, {and} his mouth holds a bill without a point. +Cycnus becomes a new bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens or +the air, as being mindful of the fire unjustly sent from thence. He +frequents the pools and the wide lakes, and abhorring fire, he chooses +the streams, the {very} contrary of flames. + +Meanwhile, the father of Phaëton, in squalid garb, and destitute of his +comeliness, just as he is wont to be when he suffers an eclipse of his +disk, abhors both the light, himself, and the day; and gives his mind up +to grief, and adds resentment to his sorrow, and denies his services to +the world. “My lot,†says he, “has been restless enough from the {very} +beginning of time, and I am tired of labors endured by me, without end +and without honor. Let any one else drive the chariot that carries the +light. If there is no one, and all the Gods confess that they cannot do +it, let {Jupiter} himself drive it; that, at least, while he is trying +my reins, he may for a time lay aside the lightnings that bereave +fathers. Then he will know, having made trial of the strength of the +flame-footed steeds, that he who did not successfully guide them, did +not deserve death.†+ +All the Deities stand around the Sun, as he says such things; and they +entreat him, with suppliant voice, not to determine to bring darkness +over the world. Jupiter, as well, excuses the hurling of his lightnings, +and imperiously adds threats to entreaties. PhÅ“bus calls together his +steeds, maddened and still trembling with terror, and, subduing them, +vents his fury both with whip and lash; for he is furious, and upbraids +them with his son, and charges {his death} upon them. + + [Footnote 58: _Sthenelus._--Ver. 367. He was a king of Liguria. + Commentators have justly remarked that it was not very likely that + a king of Liguria should be related to Clymene, a queen of the + Ethiopians, as Ovid, in the next line, says was the case. This + story was probably invented by some writer, who fancied that there + were two persons of the name of Phaëton; one the subject of eastern + tradition, and the other a personage of the Latin mythology.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Ligurians._--Ver. 370. These were a people + situate on the eastern side of Etruria, between the rivers Var and + Macra. The Grecian writers were in the habit of styling the whole + of the north of Italy Liguria.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch places the tomb of Phaëton on the banks of the river Po; and + it is not improbable that his mother and sisters, grieving at his + fate, ended their lives in the neighborhood of his tomb, being + overcome with grief, which gave rise to the story that they were + changed into the poplars on its banks, which distilled amber. Some + writers say, that they were changed into larch trees, and not poplars. + Hesiod and Pindar also make mention of this tradition. Possibly, + Cycnus, being a friend of Phaëton, may have died from grief at his + loss, on which the poets graced his attachment with the story that he + was changed into a swan. Apollodorus mentions two other persons of the + name of Cycnus. One was the son of Mars, and was killed before Troy; + the other, as Hesiod tells us, was killed by Hercules. Lucian, in his + satirical vein, tells us, that inquiring on the banks of the Po for + the swans, and the poplars distilling amber, he was told that no such + things had ever been seen there; and that even the tradition of + Phaëton and his sisters was utterly unknown to the inhabitants of + those parts. + + +FABLE V. [II.401-465] + + Jupiter, while taking a survey of the world, to extinguish the remains + of the fire, falls in love with Calisto, whom he sees in Arcadia; and, + in order to seduce that Nymph, he assumes the form of Diana. Her + sister Nymphs disclose her misfortune before the Goddess, who drives + her from her company, on account of the violation of her vow of + chastity. + +But the omnipotent father surveys the vast walls of heaven, and +carefully searches, that no part, impaired by the violence of the fire, +may fall to ruin. After he has seen them to be secure and in their own +{full} strength, he examines the earth, and the works of man; yet a care +for his own Arcadia is more particularly his object. He restores, too, +the springs and the rivers, that had not yet dared to flow, he gives +grass to the earth: green leaves to the trees; and orders the injured +forests again to be green. While {thus} he often went to and fro, he +stopped short on {seeing} a virgin of Nonacris, and the fires engendered +within his bones received {fresh} heat. It was not her employment to +soften the wool by teasing, nor to vary her tresses in their +arrangement; while a buckle fastened her garment, and a white fillet her +hair, carelessly flowing; and at one time she bore in her hand a light +javelin, at another, a bow. She was a warrior of PhÅ“be; nor did any +{Nymph} frequent Mænalus, more beloved by Trivia,[60] than she; but no +influence is of long duration. The lofty Sun had {now} obtained a +position beyond the mid course, when she enters a grove which no +generation had {ever} cut. Here she puts her quiver off from her +shoulders, and unbends her pliant bow, and lies down on the ground, +which the grass had covered, and presses her painted quiver, with her +neck laid on it. When Jupiter saw her {thus} weary, and without a +protector, he said, “For certain, my wife will know nothing of this +stolen embrace; or, if she should chance to know, is her scolding, is +it, {I say}, of such great consequence?†+ +Immediately he puts on the form and dress of Diana, and says, “O Virgin! +one portion of my train, upon what mountains hast thou been hunting?†+The virgin raises herself from the turf, and says, “Hail, Goddess! {that +art}, in my opinion, greater than Jove, even if he himself should hear +it.†He both smiles and he hears it, and is pleased at being preferred +to himself; and he gives her kisses, not very moderate, nor such as +would be given by a virgin. He stops her as she is preparing to tell him +in what wood she has been hunting, by an embrace, and he does not betray +himself without the commission {of violence}. She, indeed, on the other +hand, as far as a woman could do (would that thou hadst seen her, +daughter of Saturn, {then} thou wouldst have been more merciful), she, +indeed, {I say}, resists; but what damsel, or who {besides}, could +prevail against Jupiter? Jove, {now} the conqueror, seeks the heavens +above; the grove and the conscious wood is {now} her aversion. Making +her retreat thence, she is almost forgetting to take away her quiver +with her arrows, and the bow which she had hung up. + +Behold, Dictynna,[61] attended by her train, as she goes along the lofty +Mænalus, and exulting in the slaughter of the wild beasts, beholds her, +and calls her, thus seen. Being so called, she drew back, and at first +was afraid lest Jupiter might be under her {shape}; but after she saw +the Nymphs walking along with her, she perceived that there was no +deceit,[62] and she approached their train. Alas! how difficult it is +not to betray a crime by one’s looks! She scarce raises her eyes from +the ground, nor, as she used to do, does she walk by the side of the +Goddess, nor is she the foremost in the whole company; but she is +silent, and by her blushes she gives signs of her injured honor. And +Diana, but {for the fact}, that she is a virgin, might have perceived +her fault by a thousand indications; the Nymphs are said to have +perceived it. + +The horns of the Moon were {now} rising again in her ninth course, when +the hunting Goddess, faint from her brother’s flames, lighted on a cool +grove, out of which a stream ran, flowing with its murmuring noise, and +borne along the sand worn fine {by its action}. When she had approved of +the spot, she touched the surface of the water with her foot; and +commending it as well, she says, “All overlookers are far off; let us +bathe our bodies, with the stream poured over them.†She of +Parrhasia[63] blushed; they all put off their clothes; she alone sought +{an excuse for} delay. Her garment was removed as she hesitated, which +being put off, her fault was exposed with her naked body. Cynthia said +to her, in confusion, and endeavoring to conceal her stomach with her +hands, “Begone afar hence! and pollute not the sacred springs;†and she +ordered her to leave her train. + + [Footnote 60: _Trivia._--Ver. 416. This was an epithet of Diana, + as presiding over and worshipped in the places where three roads + met, which were called ‘trivia.’ Being known as Diana on earth, + the Moon in the heavens, and Proserpine in the infernal regions, + she was represented at these places with three faces; those of a + horse, a dog, and a female; the latter being in the middle.] + + [Footnote 61: _Dictynna._--Ver. 441. Diana was so called from the + Greek word δικτὺς, ‘a net,’ which was used by her for the purposes + of hunting.] + + [Footnote 62: _There was no deceit._--Ver. 446. Clarke translates + ‘sensit abesse dolos,’ ‘she was convinced there was no roguery in + the case.’] + + [Footnote 63: _She of Parrhasia._--Ver. 460. Calisto is so called + from Parrhasia, a region of Arcadia. Parrhasius was the name of a + mountain, a grove, and a city of that country and was derived from + the name of Parrhasus, a son of Lycaon.] + + +FABLES VI AND VII. [II.466-550] + + Juno, being jealous that Calisto has attracted Jupiter, transforms her + into a Bear. Her son, Arcas, not recognizing his mother in that shape, + is about to kill her; but Jupiter removes them both to the skies, + where they form the Constellations of the Great and the Little Bear. + The raven, as a punishment for his garrulity, is changed from white to + black. + +The spouse of the great Thunderer had perceived this some time before, +and had put off the severe punishment {designed for her}, to a proper +time. There is {now} no reason for delay; and now the boy Arcas (that, +too, was a grief to Juno) was born of the mistress {of her husband}. +Wherefore, she turned her thoughts, full of resentment, and her eyes +{upon her}, and said, “This thing, forsooth, alone was wanting, thou +adulteress, that thou shouldst be pregnant, and that my injury should +become notorious by thy labors, and that {thereby} the disgraceful +conduct of my {husband}, Jupiter, should be openly declared. Thou shalt +not go unpunished; for I will spoil that shape of thine, on which thou +pridest thyself, and by which thou, mischievous one,[64] dost charm my +husband.†+ +{Thus} she spoke; and seizing her straight in front by the hair,[65] +threw her on her face to the ground. She suppliantly stretched forth her +arms; those arms began to grow rough with black hair,[66] and her hands +to be bent, and to increase to hooked claws, and to do the duty of feet, +and the mouth, that was once admired by Jupiter, to become deformed with +a wide opening; and lest her prayers, and words not needed, should +influence her feelings, the power of speech is taken from her; an angry +and threatening voice, and full of terror, is uttered from her hoarse +throat. Still, her former understanding remains in her, even thus become +a bear; and expressing her sorrows by her repeated groans, she lifts up +her hands, such as they are, to heaven and to the stars, and she deems +Jove ungrateful, though she cannot call him so. Ah! how often, not +daring to rest in the lonely wood, did she wander about before her own +house, and in the fields once her own. Ah! how often was she driven over +the crags by the cry of the hounds; and, a huntress herself, she fled in +alarm, through fear of the hunters! Often, seeing the wild beasts, did +she lie concealed, forgetting what she was; and, a bear herself, dreaded +the he-bears seen on the mountains, and was alarmed at the wolves, +though her father was among them. + +Behold! Arcas, the offspring of the daughter of Lycaon, ignorant of who +is his parent, approaches her, thrice five birthdays being now nearly +past; and while he is following the wild beasts, while he is choosing +the proper woods, and is enclosing the Erymanthian forests[67] with his +platted nets, he meets with his mother. She stood still, upon seeing +Arcas, and was like one recognizing {another}. He drew back, and, in his +ignorance, was alarmed at her keeping her eyes fixed upon him without +ceasing; and, as she was desirous to approach still nearer, he would +have pierced her breast with the wounding spear. Omnipotent {Jove} +averted this, and removed both them and {such} wickedness; and placed +them, carried through vacant space with a rapid wind, in the heavens, +and made them neighboring Constellations. + +Juno swelled with rage after the mistress shone amid the stars, and +descended on the sea to the hoary Tethys, and the aged Ocean, a regard +for whom has often influenced the Gods; and said to them, inquiring the +reason of her coming, “Do you inquire why I, the queen of the Gods, am +come hither from the æthereal abodes? Another has possession of heaven +in my stead. May I be deemed untruthful, if, when the night has made the +world dark, you see not in the highest part of heaven stars but lately +{thus} honored to my affliction; there, where the last and most limited +circle surrounds the extreme part of the axis {of the world}. Is there, +then, {any ground} why one should hesitate to affront Juno, and dread my +being offended, who only benefit them by my resentment? See what a great +thing I have done! How vast is my power! I forbade her to be of human +shape; she has been made a Goddess; ’tis thus that I inflict punishment +on offenders; such is my mighty power! Let him obtain {for her} her +former shape, and let him remove this form of a wild beast; as he +formerly did for the Argive Phoronis. Why does he not marry her as well, +divorcing Juno, and place her in my couch, and take Lycaon for his +father-in-law? But if the wrong done to your injured foster-child +affects you, drive the seven Triones away from your azure waters, and +expel the stars received into heaven as the reward of adultery, that a +concubine may not be received into your pure waves.†+ +The Gods of the sea granted her request. The daughter of Saturn enters +the liquid air in her graceful chariot,[68] with her variegated +peacocks; peacocks just as lately tinted, upon the killing of Argus, as +thou, garrulous raven, hadst been suddenly transformed into {a bird +having} black wings, whereas thou hadst been white before. For this bird +was formerly of a silver hue, with snow-white feathers, so that he +equalled the doves entirely without spot; nor would he give place to the +geese that were to save the Capitol by their watchful voice, nor to the +swan haunting the streams. His tongue was the cause of his disgrace; his +chattering tongue being the cause, that the color which was white is now +the reverse of white. + +There was no one more beauteous in all Hæmonia than Larissæan[69] +Coronis. At least, she pleased thee, Delphian {God}, as long as she +continued chaste, or was not the object of remark. But the bird of +PhÅ“bus found out her infidelity;[70] and the inexorable informer winged +his way to his master, that he might disclose the hidden offence. Him +the prattling crow follows, with flapping wings, to make all inquiries +of him. And having heard the occasion of his journey, she says, “Thou +art going on a fruitless errand; do not despise the presages of my +voice.†+ + [Footnote 64: _Thou, mischievous one._--Ver. 475. Clarke, rather + too familiarly, renders ‘importuna,’ ‘plaguy baggage.’] + + [Footnote 65: _In front by the hair._--Ver. 476. ‘Adversâ prensis + a fronte capillis,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘seizing her fore-top.’ + Had he been describing the combats of two fish-wives, such a + version would have been, perhaps, more appropriate than in the + present instance.] + + [Footnote 66: _With black hair._--Ver. 478. To the explanation + given at the end of the story, we may here add the curious one + offered by Palæphatus. He says that Calisto was a huntress who + entered the den of a bear, by which she was devoured; and that the + bear coming out, and Calisto being no more seen, it was reported + that she had been transformed into a bear.] + + [Footnote 67: _Erymanthian forests._--Ver. 499. Erymanthus was a + mountain of Arcadia, which was afterwards famous for the slaughter + there, by Hercules, of the wild boar, which made it his haunt.] + + [Footnote 68: _Graceful chariot._--Ver. 531. Clarke translates + ‘habili curru,’ ‘her neat chariot.’] + + [Footnote 69: _Larissæan._--Ver. 542. Larissa was the chief city + of Thessaly, and was situate on the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Her infidelity._--Ver. 545. ‘Sed ales sensit + adulterium PhÅ“beius,’ is translated by Clarke, ‘but the PhÅ“ban + bird found out her pranks.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, Book iii.) tells us, that Lycaon + had a daughter who delighted in the chase, and that Jupiter, the + second of that name, the king of Arcadia, fell in love with her. This + was the ground on which she was said to have been a favorite of Diana. + The story of Calisto having been received into Heaven, and forming the + Constellation of the Bear, was perhaps grounded on the fact of Lycaon, + her father, having been the first known to take particular notice of + this Constellation. The story of the request of Juno, that Tethys will + not receive this new Constellation into the Ocean, is probably derived + from the circumstance, that the Bear, as well as the other stars + within the Arctic Circle, never sets. + + Possibly, Arcas, the son of Calisto, dying at a youthful age, may have + been the origin of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear. + + +FABLE VIII. [II.551-590] + + A virgin, the favorite of Apollo, of the same name with Coronis, is + changed into a crow, for a story which she tells Minerva, concerning + the basket in which Ericthonius was enclosed. + +“Consider what I was, and what I am, and inquire into my deserts. Thou +wilt find that my fidelity was my ruin. For once upon a time, Pallas had +enclosed Ericthonius, an offspring born without a mother, in a basket +made of Actæan twigs; and had given it to keep to the three virgins born +of the two-shaped[71] Cecrops, and had given them this injunction, that +they should not inquire into her secrets. I, being hidden among the +light foliage, was watching from a thick elm what they were doing. Two +{of them}, Pandrosos and Herse, observe their charge without {any} +treachery; Aglauros alone calls her sisters cowards, and unties the +knots with her hand; but within they behold a child, and a dragon +extended by him. I told the Goddess what was done; for which such a +return as this is made to me, that I am said to have been banished from +the protection of Minerva, and am placed after the bird of the night. My +punishment may warn birds not to incur dangers, by their chattering. But +I consider {that} she courted me with no inclination of my own, nor +asking for any such {favors}. This thou mayst ask of Pallas thyself; +although she is angry, she will not, with all her anger, deny this. For +Coroneus, one famous in the land of Phocis (I mention what is well +known) begot me: and {so} I was a virgin of royal birth, and was courted +by rich suitors ({so} despise me not). My beauty was the cause of my +misfortune; for while I was passing with slow steps along the sea-shore, +on the surface of the sand, as I was wont {to do}, the God of the Ocean +beheld me, and was inflamed; and when he had consumed his time to no +purpose, in entreating me with soft words, he prepared {to use} +violence, and followed me. I fled, and I left the firm shore, and +wearied myself in vain on the yielding sand. Then I invoked both Gods +and men; but my voice did not reach any mortal. A virgin was moved for a +virgin, and gave me assistance. I was extending my arms toward heaven; +{when those} arms began to grow black with light feathers. I struggled +to throw my garments from off my shoulders, but they were feathers, and +had taken deep root in my skin. I tried to beat my naked breast with my +hands, but I had now neither hands nor naked breast. I ran; and the sand +did not retard my feet as before, and I was lifted up from the surface +of the ground. After that, being lifted up, I was carried through the +air, and was assigned, as a faultless companion, to Minerva. Yet what +does this avail me, if Nyctimene, made a bird for a horrid crime, has +succeeded me in my honor?†+ + [Footnote 71: _Two-shaped._--Ver. 555. Cecrops is here so called, + and in the Greek, διφυὴς from the fact of his having been born in + Egypt, and having settled in Greece, and was thus to be reckoned + both as an Egyptian, and in the number of the Greeks.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Ericthonius was fabled to be the son, or foster-child, of Athene, or + Minerva, perhaps because he was the son of the daughter of Cranaus, + who had the name of Athene, by a priest of Vulcan, which Divinity was + said to have been his progenitor. St. Augustine alleges that he was + exposed, and found in a temple dedicated to Minerva and Vulcan. His + name being composed of two words, á¼”Ïις and χθὼν, signifying + ‘contention,’ and ‘earth,’ Strabo imagines that he was the son of + Vulcan and the Earth. But it seems that the real ground on which he + was called by that name was, that he disputed the right to the crown + of Athens with Amphictyon, on the death of Cranaus, the second king. + Amphictyon prevailed, but Ericthonius succeeded him. To hide his legs, + which were deformed, he is said to have invented chariots; though that + is not likely, as Egypt, from which Greece had received many colonies, + was acquainted with the use of them from the earliest times. He is + also said to have instituted the festival of the Panathenæa, at + Athens, whence, in process of time, it was adopted by the whole of + Greece. + + Hyginus tells us, that after his death he was received into heaven as + the constellation ‘Auriga,’ or ‘the Charioteer;’ and he further + informs us, that the deformity of his legs gave occasion to the + saying, that he was half man and half a serpent. Apollodorus says that + he was born in Attica; that he was the son of Cranaë, the daughter of + Attis; and that he dethroned Amphictyon, and became the fourth king of + Athens. + + +FABLE IX. [II.591-632] + + Nyctimene having entertained a criminal passion for her father, + Nycteus, the Gods, to punish her incest, transform her into an owl. + Apollo pierces the breast of Coronis with an arrow, on the raven + informing him of the infidelity of his mistress. + +“Has not the thing, which is very well known throughout the whole of +Lesbos,[72] been heard of by thee, that Nyctimene defiled the bed of her +father? She is a bird indeed; but being conscious of her crime, she +avoids {the human} gaze and the light, and conceals her shame in the +darkness; and by all {the birds} she is expelled entirely from the sky.†+ +The raven says to him, saying such things, “May this, thy calling of me +back, prove a mischief to thee, I pray; I despise the worthless omen.†+Nor does he drop his intended journey; and he tells his master, that he +has seen Coronis lying down with a youth of Hæmonia. On hearing the +crime of his mistress, his laurel fell down; and at the same moment his +usual looks, his plectrum,[73] and his color, forsook the God. And as +his mind was {now} burning with swelling rage, he took up his wonted +arms, and levelled his bow bent from the extremities, and pierced, with +an unerring shaft, that bosom, that had been so oft pressed to his own +breast. Wounded, she uttered a groan, and, drawing the steel from out of +the wound, she bathed her white limbs with purple blood; and she said, +“I might {justly}, PhÅ“bus, have been punished by thee, but {still I +might} have first brought forth; now we two shall die in one.†Thus far +{she spoke}; and she poured forth her life, together with her blood. +A deadly coldness took possession of her body deprived of life. + +The lover, too late, alas! repents of his cruel vengeance, and blames +himself that he listened {to the bird, and} that he was so infuriated. +He hates the bird, through which he was forced to know of the crime and +the cause of his sorrow; he hates, too, the string, the bow, and his +hand; and together with his hand, {those} rash weapons, the arrows. He +cherishes her fallen to the ground, and by late resources endeavors to +conquer her destiny; and in vain he practices his physical arts. + +When he found that these attempts were made in vain, and that the +funeral pile was being prepared, and that her limbs were about to be +burnt in the closing flames, then, in truth, he gave utterance to sighs +fetched from the bottom of his heart (for it is not allowed the +celestial features to be bathed with tears). No otherwise than, as when +an axe, poised from the right ear {of the butcher}, dashes to pieces, +with a clean stroke, the hollow temples of the sucking calf, while the +dam looks on. Yet after PhÅ“bus had poured the unavailing perfumes on her +breast, when he had given the {last} embrace and had performed the due +obsequies prematurely hastened, he did not suffer his own offspring to +sink into the same ashes; but he snatched the child from the flames and +from the womb of his mother, and carried him into the cave of the +two-formed Chiron. And he forbade the raven, expecting for himself the +reward of his tongue that told no untruth, to perch any longer among the +white birds. + + [Footnote 72: _Lesbos._--Ver. 591. This was an island in the Ægean + sea, lying to the south of Troy.] + + [Footnote 73: _Plectrum._--Ver. 601. This was a little rod, or + staff, with which the player used to strike the strings of the + lyre, or cithara, on which he was playing.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + History does not afford us the least insight into the foundation of + the story of Coronis transformed into a crow, for making too faithful + a report, nor that of the raven changed from white to black, for + talking too much. If they are based upon some events which really + happened, we must be content to acknowledge that these Fables refer to + the history of two persons entirely unknown to us, and who, perhaps, + lived as far back as the time of the daughters of Cecrops, to whom the + story seems to bear some relation. Coronis being the name of a crow as + well as of a Nymph, Lucian and other writers have fabled that her son, + Æsculapius, was produced from the egg of that bird, and was born in + the shape of a serpent, under which form he was very generally + worshipped. + + +FABLE X. [II.633-675] + + Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of the Centaur Chiron, attempting to predict + future events, tells her father the fate of the child Æsculapius, on + which the Gods transform her into a mare. + +In the meantime the half-beast {Chiron} was proud of a pupil of Divine +origin, and rejoiced in the honor annexed to the responsibility. Behold! +the daughter of the Centaur comes, having her shoulders covered with her +yellow hair; whom once the nymph Chariclo,[74] having borne her on the +banks of a rapid stream, called Ocyrrhoë. She was not contented to learn +her father’s arts {only; but} she sang the secrets of the Fates. +Therefore, when she had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, +and grew warm with the God, whom she held confined within her breast, +she beheld the infant, and she said, “Grow on, child, the giver of +health to the whole world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their +{own existence} to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when +taken away; and daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, +thou wilt be hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any +more to grant that {boon}. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless +carcase; and a God {again}, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt +thou renew thy destiny. Thou likewise, dear father, now immortal, and +produced at thy nativity, on the condition of enduring for ever, wilt +then wish that thou couldst die, when thou shalt be tormented on +receiving the blood of a baneful serpent[75] in thy wounded limbs; and +the Gods shall make thee from an immortal {being}, subject to death, and +the three Goddesses[76] shall cut thy threads.†+ +Something still remained in addition to what she had said. She heaved a +sigh from the bottom of her breast, and the tears bursting forth, +trickled down her cheeks, and thus she said: “The Fates prevent me, and +I am forbidden to say any more, and the use of my voice is precluded. My +arts, which have brought the wrath of a Divinity upon me, were not of so +much value; I wish that I had not been acquainted with the future. Now +the human shape seems to be withdrawing from me; now grass pleases {me} +for my food; now I have a desire to range over the extended plains; I am +turned into a mare, and into a shape kindred {to that of my father}. But +yet, why entirely? For my father partakes of both forms.†+ +As she was uttering such words as these, the last part of her complaint +was but little understood; and her words were confused. And presently +neither {were} they words indeed, nor did it appear to be the voice of a +mare, but of one imitating a mare. And in a little time she uttered +perfect neighing, and stretched her arms upon the grass. Then did her +fingers grow together, and a smooth hoof united five nails in one +continued piece of horn. The length of her face and of her neck +increased; the greatest part of her long hair became a tail. And as the +hairs lay scattered about her neck, they were transformed into a mane +{lying} upon the right side; at once both her voice and her shape were +changed. And this wondrous change gave her the {new} name {of Enippe}. + + [Footnote 74: _Chariclo._--Ver. 636. She was the daughter of + Apollo, or of Oceanus, but is supposed not to have been the same + person that is mentioned by Apollodorus as the mother of the + prophet Tiresias.] + + [Footnote 75: _A baneful serpent._--Ver. 652. This happened when + one of the arrows of Hercules, dipped in the poison of the Lernæan + Hydra, pierced the foot of Chiron while he was examining it.] + + [Footnote 76: _The three Goddesses._--Ver. 654. Namely, Clotho, + Lachesis, and Atropos, the ‘Parcæ,’ or ‘Destinies.’] + + +FABLE XI. [II.676-707] + + Mercury, having stolen the oxen of Apollo, and Battus having perceived + the theft, he engages him, by a present, to keep the matter secret. + Mistrusting, however, his fidelity, he assumes another shape, and + tempting him with presents, he succeeds in corrupting him. To punish + his treachery, the God changes him into a touchstone. + +The Philyrean[77] hero wept, and in vain, {God} of Delphi, implored thy +assistance; but neither couldst thou reverse the orders of great +Jupiter, nor, if thou couldst have reversed them wast thou then present; +{for then} thou wast dwelling in Elis and the Messenian[78] fields. This +was the time when a shepherd’s skin garment was covering thee, and a +stick cut out of the wood was the burden of thy left hand, {and} of the +other, a pipe unequal with its seven reeds. And while love is thy +concern, while thy pipe is soothing thee, some cows are said to have +strayed unobserved into the plains of Pylos.[79] The son of Maia the +daughter of Atlas, observes them, and with his {usual} skill hides them, +driven off, in the woods. Nobody but an old man, well-known in that +country, had noticed the theft: all the neighborhood called him Battus. +He was keeping the forests and the grassy pastures, and the set of +fine-bred mares of the rich Neleus.[80] + +{Mercury} was afraid of him, and took him aside with a gentle hand, and +said to him, “Come, stranger, whoever thou art, if, perchance any one +should ask after these herds, deny that thou hast seen them; and, lest +no requital be paid thee for so doing, take a handsome cow as thy +reward;†and {thereupon} he gave {him one}. On receiving it, the +stranger returned this answer: “Thou mayst go in safety. May that stone +first make mention of thy theft;†and he pointed to a stone. The son of +Jupiter feigned to go away. {But} soon he returned, and changing his +form, together with his voice, he said, “Countryman, if thou hast seen +any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break silence about +the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull shall be presented +thee as a reward.†But the old man,[81] after his reward was {thus} +doubled, said, “They will be beneath those hills;†and beneath those +hills they {really} were. The son of Atlas laughed and said, “Dost thou, +treacherous man, betray me to my own self? Dost betray me to myself?†+and {then} he turned his perjured breast into a hard stone, which even +now is called the “Touchstone;â€[82] and this old disgrace is {attached} +to the stone that {really} deserves it not. + + [Footnote 77: _Philyrean._--Ver. 676. Chiron was the son of + Philyra, by Saturn.] + + [Footnote 78: _Messenian._--Ver. 679. Elis and Messenia were + countries of Peloponnesus; the former was on the northwest, and + the latter on the southwest side of it.] + + [Footnote 79: _Plains of Pylos._--Ver. 684. There were three + cities named Pylos in Peloponnesus. One was in Elis, another in + Messenia, and the third was situate between the other two. The + latter is supposed to have been the native place of Nestor, though + they all laid claim to that honor.] + + [Footnote 80: _Neleus._--Ver. 689. He was the king of Pylos, and + the father of Nestor.] + + [Footnote 81: _The old man._--Ver. 702. Clarke quaintly translates + ‘at senior,’ ‘but then the old blade.’] + + [Footnote 82: _The ‘Touchstone.’_--Ver. 706. It is a matter of + doubt among commentators whether ‘index’ here means a general term + for the touchstone, by which metals are tested; or whether it + means that Battus was changed into one individual stone, which + afterwards was called ‘index.’ Lactantius, by his words, seems to + imply that the latter was the case. He says, ‘He changed him into + a stone, which, from this circumstance, is called “index†about + Pylos.’ ‘Index’ was a name of infamy, corresponding with the Greek + word συκοφάντης, and with our term ‘spy.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were + perhaps the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is + also probable that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame + by the knowledge he had acquired at a time and in a country where + learning was little cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first + promulgator of the utility of medicines, in which he was said to have + instructed his pupil Æsculapius. He was also considered to be an + excellent musician and a good astronomer, as we learn from Homer, + Diodorus Siculus, and other authors. Most of the heroes of that age, + and among them Hercules and Jason, studied under him. Very probably, + the only foundation for the story of the transformation of Ocyrrhoë, + was the skill and address which, under her father’s instruction, she + acquired in riding and the management of horses. For if, as it seems + really was the case, the horsemen of that age were taken for monsters, + half men and half horses, it is not surprising to find the story that + the daughter of a Centaur was transformed into a mare. + + Chiron is generally supposed to have marked out the Constellations, + for the purpose of directing the Argonauts in their voyage for the + recovery of the Golden Fleece. + + +FABLE XII. [II.708-764] + + Mercury, falling in love with Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, + endeavors to engage Aglauros in his interest, and by her means, to + obtain access to her sister. She refuses to assist him, unless he + promises to present her with a large sum of money. + +Hence, the bearer of the caduceus raised himself upon equal wings; and +as he flew, he looked down upon the fields of Munychia,[83] and the land +pleasing to Minerva, and the groves of the well-planted Lycæus. On that +day, by chance, the chaste virgins were, in their purity, carrying the +sacred offerings in baskets crowned with flowers, upon their heads to +the joyful citadel of Pallas. The winged God beholds them returning +thence; and he does not shape his course directly forward, but wheels +round in the {same} circle. As that bird swiftest in speed, the kite, on +espying the entrails, while he is afraid, and the priests stand in +numbers around the sacrifice, wings his flight in circles, and yet +ventures not to go far away, and greedily hovers around {the object of} +his hopes with waving wings, so does the active Cyllenian {God} bend his +course over the Actæan towers, and circles round in the same air. As +much as Lucifer shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much +as the golden PhÅ“be {shines more brightly} than thee, O Lucifer, so much +superior was Herse, as she went, to all the {other} virgins, and was the +ornament of the solemnity and of her companions. The son of Jupiter was +astonished at her beauty; and as he hung in the air, he burned no +otherwise than as when the Balearic[84] sling throws forth the plummet +of lead; it flies and becomes red hot in its course, and finds beneath +the clouds the fires which it had not {before}. + +He alters his course, and, having left heaven, goes a different way; nor +does he disguise himself; so great is his confidence in his beauty. +This, though it is {every way} complete, still he improves by care, and +smooths his hair and {adjusts} his mantle,[85] that it may hang +properly, so that the fringe and all the gold may be seen; {and minds} +that his long smooth wand, with which he induces and drives away sleep, +is in his right hand, and that his wings[86] shine upon his beauteous +feet. + +A private part of the house had three bed-chambers, adorned with ivory +and with tortoiseshell, of which thou, Pandrosos, hadst the right-hand +one, Aglauros the left-hand, and Herse had the one in the middle. She +that occupied the left-hand one was the first to remark Mercury +approaching, and she ventured to ask the name of the God, and the +occasion of his coming. To her thus answered the grandson of Atlas and +of Pleione: “I am he who carries the commands of my father through the +air. Jupiter himself is my father. Nor will I invent pretences; do thou +only be willing to be attached to thy sister, and to be called the aunt +of my offspring. Herse is the cause of my coming; I pray thee to favor +one in love.†Aglauros looks upon him with the same eyes with which she +had lately looked upon the hidden mysteries of the yellow-haired +Minerva, and demands for her agency gold of great weight; {and}, in the +meantime, obliges him to go out of the house. The warlike Goddess turned +upon her the orbs of her stern eyes, and drew a sigh from the bottom {of +her heart}, with so great a motion, that she heaved both her breast and +the Ægis placed before her valiant breast. It occurred {to her} that she +had laid open her secrets with a profane hand, at the time when she +beheld progeny created for {the God} who inhabits Lemnos,[87] without a +mother, {and} contrary to the assigned laws; and that she could now be +agreeable both to the God and to the sister {of Aglauros}, and that she +would be enriched by taking the gold, which she, in her avarice, had +demanded. Forthwith she repairs to the abode of Envy, hideous with black +gore. Her abode is concealed in the lowest recesses of a cave, wanting +sun, {and} not pervious to any wind, dismal and filled with benumbing +cold; and which is ever without fire, and ever abounding with darkness. + + [Footnote 83: _Munychia._--Ver. 709. Munychia was the name of a + promontory and harbor of Attica, between the Piræus and the + promontory of ‘Sunium.’ The spot was so called from Munychius, who + there built a temple in honor of Diana.] + + [Footnote 84: _Balearic._--Ver. 727. The Baleares were the islands + of Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza, in the Mediterranean, near the + coast of Spain. The natives of these islands were famous for their + skill in the use of the sling. That weapon does not appear to have + been used in the earliest times among the Greeks, as Homer does + not mention it; it had, however, been introduced by the time of + the war with Xerxes, though even then the sling was, perhaps, + rarely used as a weapon. The Acarnanians and the Achæans of Agium, + Patræ, and Dymæ were very expert in the use of the sling. That + used by the Achæans was made of three thongs of leather, and not + of one only, like those of other nations. The natives of the + Balearic isles are said to have attained their skill from the + circumstance of their mothers, when they were children, obliging + them to obtain their food by striking it, from a tree, with a + sling. While other slings were made of leather, theirs were made + of rushes. Besides stones, plummets of lead, called ‘glandes,’ + (as in the present instance), and μολύβδιδες, of a form between + acorns and almonds, were cast in moulds, to be thrown from slings. + They have been frequently dug up in various parts of Greece, and + particularly on the plains of Marathon. Some have the device of a + thunderbolt; while others are inscribed with δέξαι, ‘take this.’ + It was a prevalent idea with the ancients that the stone + discharged from the sling became red hot in its course, from the + swiftness of its motion.] + + [Footnote 85: _Adjusts his mantle._--Ver. 733. ‘Chlamydemque ut + pendeat apte, Collocat,’ etc., is translated by Clarke--‘And he + places his coat that it might hang agreeably, that the border and + all its gold might appear.’] + + [Footnote 86: _That his wings._--Ver. 736. Clarke renders ‘ut + tersis niteant talaria plantis,’ ‘that his wings shine upon his + spruce feet.’] + + [Footnote 87: _God who inhabits Lemnos._--Ver. 757. Being + precipitated from heaven for his deformity, Vulcan fell upon the + Isle of Lemnos, in the Ægean Sea, where he exercised the craft of + a blacksmith, according to the mythologists. The birth of + Ericthonius, by the aid of Minerva, is here referred to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero tells us, that there were several persons in ancient times + named Mercury. The probability is, that one of them fell in love with + Herse, one of the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens; and that + Aglauros becoming jealous of her, this tradition was built upon facts + of so ordinary a nature. + + +FABLE XIII. [II.765-832] + + Pallas commands Envy to make Aglauros jealous of her sister Herse. + Envy obeys the request of the Goddess; and Aglauros, stung with that + passion, continues obstinate in opposing Mercury’s passage to her + sister’s apartment, for which the God changes her into a statue. + +When the female warrior, to be dreaded in battle, came hither, she stood +before the abode (for she did not consider it lawful to go under the +roof), and she struck the door-posts with the end of the spear. The +doors, being shaken, flew open; she sees Envy within, eating the flesh +of vipers, the nutriment of her own bad propensities; and when she sees +her, she turns away her eyes. But the other rises sluggishly from the +ground, and leaves the bodies of the serpents half devoured, and stalks +along with sullen pace. And when she sees the Goddess graced with beauty +and with {splendid} arms, she groans, and fetches a deep sigh at her +appearance. A paleness rests on her face, {and} leanness in all her +body; she never looks direct on you; her teeth are black with rust; her +breast is green with gall; her tongue is dripping with venom. Smiles +there are none, except such as the sight of grief has excited. Nor does +she enjoy sleep, being kept awake with watchful cares; but sees with +sorrow the successes of men, and pines away at seeing them. She both +torments and is tormented at the same moment, and is {ever} her own +punishment. Yet, though Tritonia[88] hated her, she spoke to her briefly +in such words as these: “Infect one of the daughters of Cecrops with thy +poison; there is occasion so {to do}; Aglauros is she.†+ +Saying no more, she departed, and spurned the ground with her spear +impressed on it. She, beholding the Goddess as she departed, with a look +askance, uttered a few murmurs, and grieved at the success of Minerva; +and took her staff, which wreaths of thorns entirely surrounded; and +veiled in black clouds, wherever she goes she tramples down the blooming +fields, and burns up the grass, and crops the tops {of the flowers}. +With her breath, too, she pollutes both nations and cities, and houses; +and at last she descries the Tritonian[89] citadel, flourishing in arts +and riches, and cheerful peace. Hardly does she restrain her tears, +because she sees nothing to weep at. But after she has entered the +chamber of the daughter of Cecrops, she executes her orders; and touches +her breast with her hand stained with rust, and fills her heart with +jagged thorns. She breathes into her as well the noxious venom, and +spreads the poison black as pitch throughout her bones, and lodges it in +the midst of her lungs. + +And that these causes of mischief may not wander through too wide a +space, she places her sister before her eyes, and the fortunate marriage +of {that} sister, and the God under his beauteous appearance, and +aggravates each particular. By this, the daughter of Cecrops being +irritated, is gnawed by a secret grief, and groans, tormented by night, +tormented by day, and wastes away in extreme wretchedness, with a slow +consumption, as ice smitten upon by a sun often clouded. She burns at +the good fortune of the happy Herse, no otherwise than as when fire is +placed beneath thorny reeds, which do not send forth flames, and burn +with a gentle heat. Often does she wish to die, that she may not be a +witness to any such thing; often, to tell the matters, as criminal, to +her severe father. At last, she sat herself down in the front of the +threshold, in order to exclude the God when he came; to whom, as he +proffered blandishments and entreaties, and words of extreme kindness, +she said, “Cease {all this}; I shall not remove myself hence, until thou +art repulsed.†“Let us stand to that agreement,†says the active +Cyllenian {God}; and he opens the carved door with his wand. But in her, +as she endeavors to arise, the parts which we bend in sitting cannot be +moved, through their numbing weight. She, indeed, struggles to raise +herself, with her body, upright; but the joints of her knees are stiff, +and a chill runs through her nails, and her veins are pallid, through +the loss of blood. + +And as the disease {of} an incurable cancer is wont to spread in all +directions, and to add the uninjured parts to the tainted; so, by +degrees, did a deadly chill enter her breast, and stop the passages of +life, and her respiration. She did not endeavor to speak; but if she had +endeavored, she had no passage for her voice. Stone had now possession +of her neck; her face was grown hard, and she sat, a bloodless statue. +Nor was the stone white; her mind had stained it. + + [Footnote 88: _Tritonia._--Ver. 783. Minerva is said to have been + called Tritonia, either from the Cretan word Ï„Ïιτω, signifying ‘a + head,’ as she sprang from the head of Jupiter; or from Trito, a + lake of Libya, near which she was said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 89: _Tritonian._--Ver. 794. Athens, namely, which was + sacred to Pallas, or Minerva, its tutelary divinity.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias, in his Attica, somewhat varies this story, and says that + the daughters of Cecrops, running mad, threw themselves from the top + of a tower. It is very probable that on the introduction of the + worship of Pallas, or Minerva, into Attica, these daughters of Cecrops + may have hesitated to encourage the innovation, and the story was + promulgated that the Goddess had in that manner punished their + impiety. This seems the more likely, from the fact mentioned by + Pausanias that Pandrosos, the third daughter of Cecrops, had, after + her death, a temple built in honor of her, near that of Minerva, + because she had continued faithful to that Goddess, and had not + disobeyed her, as her sisters had done. The reputation and good fame + of Herse and Aglauros had, however, been restored by the time of + Herodotus, since he informs us that they both had their temples at + Athens. + + +FABLE XIV. [II.833-875] + + Jupiter assumes the shape of a Bull, and carrying off Europa, swims + with her on his back to the isle of Crete. + +When the grandson of Atlas had inflicted this punishment upon her words +and her profane disposition, he left the lands named after Pallas, and +entered the skies with his waving wings. His father calls him on one +side; and, not owning the cause of his love, he says, “My son, the +trusty minister of my commands, banish delay, and swiftly descend with +thy usual speed, and repair to the region which looks towards thy +{Constellation} mother on the left side, (the natives call it +Sidonis[90] by name) and drive towards the sea-shore, the herd belonging +to the king, which thou seest feeding afar upon the grass of the +mountain.†+ +{Thus} he spoke; and already were the bullocks, driven from the +mountain, making for the shore named, where the daughter of the great +king, attended by Tyrian virgins, was wont to amuse herself. Majesty and +love but ill accord, nor can they continue in the same abode. The father +and the ruler of the Gods, whose right hand is armed with the +three-forked flames, who shakes the world with his nod, laying aside the +dignity of empire, assumes the appearance of a bull; and mixing with the +oxen, he lows, and, in all his beauty, walks about upon the shooting +grass. For his color is that of snow, which neither the soles of hard +feet have trodden upon, nor the watery South wind melted. His neck +swells with muscles; dewlaps hang from {between} his shoulders. His +horns are small indeed, but such as you might maintain were made with +the hand, and more transparent than a bright gem. There is nothing +threatening in his forehead; nor is his eye formidable; his countenance +expresses peace. + +The daughter of Agenor is surprised that he is so beautiful, and that he +threatens no attack; but although so gentle, she is at first afraid to +touch him. By and by she approaches him, and holds out flowers to his +white mouth. The lover rejoices, and till his hoped-for pleasure comes, +he gives kisses to her hands; scarcely, oh, scarcely, does he defer the +rest. And now he plays with her, and skips upon the green grass; {and} +now he lays his snow-white side upon the yellow sand. And, her fear +{now} removed by degrees, at one moment he gives his breast to be patted +by the hand of the virgin; at another, his horns to be wreathed with +new-made garlands. The virgin of royal birth even ventured to sit down +upon the back of the bull, not knowing upon whom she was pressing. Then +the God, by degrees {moving} from the land, and from the dry shore, +places the fictitious hoofs of his feet in the waves near the brink. +Then he goes still further, and carries his prize over the expanse of +the midst of the ocean. She is affrighted, and, borne off, looks back on +the shore she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn, +{while} the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled +by the breeze. + + [Footnote 90: _Sidonis._--Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a + maritime city of PhÅ“nicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was + not an unworthy rival.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient + Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were + several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great + difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar + adventures. Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of + Phoroneus, to Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about B.C. + 1770; and that of Danaë to Jupiter PrÅ“tus, who lived about 1350 years + before the Christian era. It was Jupiter Tantalus, according to him, + that carried off Ganymede; and it was Jupiter, the father of Hercules, + that deceived Leda. He says that the subject of the present Fable was + Jupiter Asterius, who reigned about B.C. 1400. Diodorus Siculus tells + us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the daughter + of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island of + Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that + Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter + of Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of + carrying her off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn + from Herodotus, that the custom of carrying those away by force, who + could not be obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude + ages. + + The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the + form of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those + who related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself + under the shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palæphatus + and Tzetzes suggest, that the story took its rise from the name of + the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the + Greek name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon + etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word + ‘Alpha,’ or ‘Ilpha,’ which, in the PhÅ“nician dialect, meant either a + ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on + reading the annals of the PhÅ“nicians, by mistake, took the word in the + latter sense. + + Europa was honored as a Divinity after her death, and a festival was + instituted in her memory, which Hesychius calls ‘Hellotia,’ from + Ἑλλωτὶς, the name she received after her death. + + + + +BOOK THE THIRD. + + +FABLE I. [III.1-34] + + Jupiter, having carried away Europa, her father, Agenor, commands his + son Cadmus to go immediately in search of her, and either to bring + back his sister with him, or never to return to PhÅ“nicia. Cadmus, + wearied with his toils and fruitless inquiries, goes to consult the + oracle at Delphi, which bids him observe the spot where he should see + a cow lie down, and build a city there, and give the name of BÅ“otia to + the country. + +And now the God, having laid aside the shape of the deceiving Bull, had +discovered himself, and reached the Dictæan land; when her father, +ignorant {of her fate}, commands Cadmus to seek her {thus} ravished, and +adds exile as the punishment, if he does not find her; being {both} +affectionate and unnatural in the self-same act. The son of Agenor, +having wandered over the whole world,[1] as an exile flies from his +country and the wrath of his father, for who is there that can discover +the intrigues of Jupiter? A suppliant, he consults the oracle of PhÅ“bus, +and inquires in what land he must dwell. “A heifer,†PhÅ“bus says, “will +meet thee in the lonely fields, one that has never borne the yoke, and +free from the crooked plough. Under her guidance, go on thy way; and +where she shall lie down on the grass, there cause a city to be built, +and call it the BÅ“otian[2] {city}.†+ +Scarcely had Cadmus well got down from the Castalian cave,[3] {when} he +saw a heifer, without a keeper, slowly going along, bearing no mark of +servitude upon her neck. He follows, and pursues her steps with +leisurely pace, and silently adores PhÅ“bus, the adviser of his way. +{And} now he had passed the fords of the Cephisus, and the fields of +Panope, {when} the cow stood still and raising her forehead, expansive +with lofty horns, towards heaven, she made the air reverberate with her +lowings. And so, looking back on her companions that followed behind, +she lay down, and reposed her side upon the tender grass. Cadmus +returned thanks, and imprinted kisses upon the stranger land, and +saluted the unknown mountains and fields. He was {now} going to offer +sacrifice to Jupiter, and commanded his servants to go and fetch some +water for the libation from the running springs. An ancient grove was +standing {there, as yet} profaned by no axe. There was a cavern in the +middle {of it}, thick covered with twigs and osiers, forming a low arch +by the junction of the rocks; abounding with plenty of water. Hid in +this cavern, there was a dragon sacred to Mars,[4] adorned with crests +and a golden {color}. His eyes sparkle with fire, {and} all his body is +puffed out with poison; three tongues, {too}, are brandished, and his +teeth stand in a triple row. + + [Footnote 1: _Over the whole world._--Ver. 6. Apollodorus tells us + that Cadmus lived in Thrace until the death of his mother, + Telephassa, who accompanied him; and that, after her decease, he + proceeded to Delphi to make inquiries of the oracle.] + + [Footnote 2: _BÅ“otian._--Ver. 13. He implies here that BÅ“otia + received its name from the Greek word βοῦς, ‘an ox’ or ‘cow.’ + Other writers say that it was so called from BÅ“otus, the son of + Neptune and Arne. Some authors also say that Thebes received its + name from the Syrian word ‘Thebe,’ which signified ‘an ox.’] + + [Footnote 3: _Castalian cave._--Ver. 14. Castalius was a fountain + at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and in the vicinity of Delphi. It + was sacred to the Muses.] + + [Footnote 4: _Sacred to Mars._--Ver. 32. Euripides says, that the + dragon had been set there by Mars to watch the spot and the + neighboring stream. Other writers say that it was a son of Mars, + Dercyllus by name, and that a Fury, named Tilphosa, was its + mother. Ancient history abounds with stories of enormous serpents. + The army of Regulus is said by Pliny the Elder, to have killed a + serpent of enormous size, which obstructed the passage of the + river Bagrada, in Africa. It was 120 feet in length.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Reverting to the history of Europa, it may be here remarked, that + Apollodorus has preserved her genealogy. Libya, according to that + author, had two sons by Neptune, Belus and Agenor. The latter married + Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, PhÅ“nix, and Cilix, and a daughter + named Europa. Some ancient writers, however, say, that Europa was the + daughter of PhÅ“nix, and the grandchild of Agenor. + + Some authors, and Ovid among the rest, have supposed that Europe + received its name from Europa. Bochart has, with considerable + probability, suggested that it was originally so called from the fair + complexion of the people who inhabited it. Europa herself may have + received her name also from the fairness of her complexion: hence, the + poets, as the Scholiast on Theocritus tells us, invented a fable, that + a daughter of Juno stole her mother’s paint, to give it to Europa, who + used it with so much success as to ensure, by its use, an extremely + fair and beautiful complexion. + + +FABLE II. [III.35-130] + + The companions of Cadmus, fetching water from the fountain of Mars, + are devoured by the Dragon that guards it. Cadmus, on discovering + their destruction, slays the monster, and, by the advice of Minerva, + sows the teeth, which immediately produce a crop of armed men. They + forthwith quarrel among themselves, and kill each other, with the + exception of five who assist Cadmus in building the city of Thebes. + +After the men who came from the Tyrian nation had touched this grove +with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a splash; +the azure dragon stretched forth his head from the deep cave, and +uttered dreadful hissings. The urns dropped from their hands; and the +blood left their bodies, and a sudden trembling seized their astonished +limbs. He wreathes his scaly orbs in rolling spires, and with a spring +becomes twisted into mighty folds; and uprearing himself from below the +middle into the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of +as large a size,[5] as, if you were to look on him entire, {the serpent} +which separates the two Bears. + +There is no delay; he seizes the PhÅ“nicians (whether they are resorting +to their arms or to flight, or whether fear itself is preventing either +{step}); some he kills with his sting,[6] some with his long folds, some +breathed upon[7] by the venom of his baneful poison. + +The sun, now at its height, had made the shadows {but} small: the son of +Agenor wonders what has detained his companion and goes to seek his men. +His garment was a skin torn from a lion; his weapon was a lance with +shining steel, and a javelin; and a courage superior to any weapon. When +he entered the grove, and beheld the lifeless bodies, and the victorious +enemy of immense size upon them, licking the horrid wounds with +bloodstained tongue, he said, “Either I will be the avenger of your +death, bodies {of my} faithful {companions}, or {I will be} a sharer {in +it}.†{Thus} he said; and with his right hand he raised a huge stone,[8] +and hurled the vast {weight} with a tremendous effort. {And} although +high walls with lofty towers would have been shaken with the shock of +it, {yet} the dragon remained without a wound; and, being defended by +his scales as though with a coat of mail, and the hardness of his black +hide, he repelled the mighty stroke with his skin. But he did not +overcome the javelin as well with the same hardness; which stood fast, +fixed in the middle joint of his yielding spine, and sank with the +entire {point of} steel into his entrails. Fierce with pain, he turned +his head towards his back, and beheld his wounds, and bit the javelin +fixed there. And after he had twisted it on every side with all his +might, with difficulty he wrenched it from his back; yet the steel stuck +fast in his bones. But then, when this newly inflicted wound has +increased his wonted fury, his throat swelled with gorged veins, and +white foam flowed around his pestilential jaws. The Earth, too, scraped +with the scales, sounds again, and the livid steam that issues from his +infernal mouth,[9] infects the tainted air. One while he is enrolled in +spires making enormous rings; sometimes he unfolds himself straighter +than a long beam. Now with a vast impulse, like a torrent swelled with +rain, he is borne along, and bears down the obstructing forests with his +breast. The son of Agenor gives way a little; and by the spoil of the +lion he sustains the shock, and with his lance extended before him, +pushes back his mouth, as it advances. The dragon rages, and vainly +inflicts wounds on the hard steel, and fixes his teeth upon the point. +And now the blood began to flow from his poisonous palate, and had dyed +the green grass with its spray. But the wound was slight; because he +recoiled from the stroke, and drew back his wounded throat, and by +shrinking prevented the blow from sinking deep, and did not suffer it to +go very far. At length, the son of Agenor, still pursuing, pressed the +spear lodged in his throat, until an oak stood in his way as he +retreated, and his neck was pierced, together with the trunk. The tree +was bent with the weight of the serpent, and groaned at having its trunk +lashed with the extremity of its tail. + +While the conqueror was surveying the vast size of his vanquished enemy, +a voice was suddenly heard (nor was it easy to understand whence {it +was}, but heard it was). “Why, son of Agenor, art thou {thus} +contemplating the dragon slain {by thee}? Even thou {thyself} shalt be +seen {in the form of} a dragon.â€[10] He, for a long time in alarm, lost +his color together with his presence of mind, and his hair stood on end +with a chill of terror. Lo! Pallas, the favorer of the hero, descending +through the upper region of the air, comes to him, and bids him sow the +dragon’s teeth under the earth turned up, as the seeds of a future +people. He obeyed; and when he had opened a furrow with the pressed +plough, he scattered the teeth on the ground as ordered, the seed of a +race of men. Afterwards (’tis beyond belief) the turf began to move, and +first appeared a point of a spear out of the furrows, next the coverings +of heads nodding with painted cones;[11] then the shoulders and the +breast, and the arms laden with weapons start up, and a crop of men +armed with shields grows apace. So, when the curtains[12] are drawn up +in the joyful theaters, figures are wont to rise, and first to show +their countenances; by degrees the rest; and being drawn out in a +gradual continuation, the whole appear, and place their feet on the +lowest edge {of the stage}. Alarmed with this new enemy, Cadmus is +preparing to take arms, when one of the people that the earth had +produced cries out, “Do not take up {arms}, nor engage thyself in civil +war.†And then, engaged hand to hand, he strikes one of his earth-born +brothers with the cruel sword, {while} he himself falls by a dart sent +from a distance. He, also, who had put him to death, lives no longer +than the other, and breathes forth the air which he has so lately +received. In a similar manner, too, the whole troop becomes maddened, +and the brothers {so} newly sprung up, fall in fight with each other, by +mutual wounds. And now the youths that had the space of {so} short an +existence allotted them, beat with throbbing breast their blood-stained +mother, five {only} remaining, of whom Echion[13] was one. He, by the +advice of Tritonia, threw his arms upon the ground, and both asked and +gave the assurance of brotherly concord. + +The Sidonian stranger had these as associates in his task, when he built +the city that was ordered by the oracle of PhÅ“bus. + + [Footnote 5: _As large a size._--Ver. 44. This description of the + enormous size of the dragon or serpent is inconsistent with what + the Poet says in line 91, where we find Cadmus enabled to pin his + enemy against an oak.] + + [Footnote 6: _With his sting._--Ver. 48. He enumerates in this one + instance the various modes by which serpents put their prey to + death, either by means of their sting, or, in the case of the + larger kinds of serpent, by twisting round it, and suffocating it + in their folds.] + + [Footnote 7: _Some breathed upon._--Ver. 49. It was a prevalent + notion among the ancients, that some serpents had the power of + killing their prey by their poisonous breath. Though some modern + commentators on this passage may be found to affirm the same thing, + it is extremely doubtful if such is the fact. The notion was, + perhaps, founded on the power which certain serpents have of + fascinating their prey by the agency of the eye, and thus + depriving it of the means of escape.] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge stone._--Ver. 59. ‘Molaris’ here means a + stone as large as a mill-stone, and not a mill-stone itself, for + we must remember that this was an uninhabited country, and + consequently a stranger to the industry of man.] + + [Footnote 9: _His infernal mouth._--Ver. 76. ‘Stygio’ means + ‘pestilential as the exhalations of the marshes of Styx.’] + + [Footnote 10: _Form of a dragon._--Ver. 98. This came to pass + when, having been expelled from his dominions by Zethus and + Amphion, he retired to Illyria, and was there transformed into a + serpent, a fate which was shared by his wife Hermione.] + + [Footnote 11: _With painted cones._--Ver. 108. The ‘conus’ was the + conical part of the helmet into which the crest of variegated + feathers was inserted.] + + [Footnote 12: _When the curtains._--Ver. 111. The ‘Siparium’ was a + piece of tapestry stretched on a frame, and, rising before the + stage, answered the same purpose as the curtain or drop-scene with + us, in concealing the stage till the actors appeared. Instead of + drawing up this curtain to discover the stage and actors, + according to our present practice, it was depressed when the play + began, and fell beneath the level of the stage; whence ‘aulæa + premuntur,’ ‘the curtain is dropped,’ meant that the play had + commenced. When the performance was finished, this was raised + again gradually from the foot of the stage; therefore ‘aulæa + tolluntur,’ ‘the curtain is raised,’ would mean that the play had + finished. From the present passage we learn, that in drawing it up + from the stage, the curtain was gradually displayed, the unfolding + taking place, perhaps, below the boards, so that the heads of the + figures rose first, until the whole form appeared in full with the + feet resting on the stage, when the ‘siparium’ was fully drawn up. + From a passage in Virgil’s Georgics (book iii. l. 25), we learn + that the figures of Britons (whose country had then lately been + the scene of new conquests) were woven on the canvas of the + ‘siparium,’ having their arms in the attitude of lifting the + curtain.] + + [Footnote 13: _Echion._--Ver. 126. The names of the others were + Udeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, according to Apollodorus. + To these some added Creon, as a sixth.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Agenor, on losing his daughter, commands his sons to go in search of + her, and not to return till they have found her. The young princes, + either unable to learn what was become of her, or, perhaps, being too + weak to recover her out of the hands of the king of Crete, did not + return to their father, but established themselves in different + countries; Cadmus settling in BÅ“otia, Cilix in Cilicia, to which he + gave his name, and PhÅ“nix, as Hyginus tells us, remaining in Africa. + Photius, quoting from Conon, the historian, informs us, that the hope + of conquering some country in Europe, and establishing a colony there, + was the true ground of the voyage of Cadmus. + + Palæphatus, and other writers, say, that the Dragon which was killed + by Cadmus was a king of the country, who was named Draco, and was a + son of Mars: that his teeth were his subjects, who rallied again after + their defeat, and that Cadmus put them all to the sword, except + Chthonius, Udeus, Hyperenor, Pelor, and Echion, who became reconciled + to him. Heraclitus, however, assures us, that Cadmus really did slay a + serpent, which was very annoying to the BÅ“otian territory. Bochart and + LeClerc are of opinion that the Fable has the following + foundation:--They say, that in the PhÅ“nician language, the same word + signifies either the teeth of a serpent, or short javelins, pointed + with brass; that the word which signifies the number five likewise + means an army; and that probably, from these circumstances, the Fable + may have taken its rise. For the Greeks, in following the annals + written in the PhÅ“nician language, while writing the history of the + founder of Thebes, instead of describing his soldiers as wearing + helmets on their heads, with back and breast-plates, and with darts in + their hands pointed with brass, which equipment was then entirely + novel in Greece, chose rather to follow the more wonderful version, + and to say, that Cadmus had five companions produced from the teeth of + a serpent; as, according to Bochart’s suggestion, the same PhÅ“nician + phrase may either signify a company of men sprung from the teeth of a + serpent, or a company of men armed with brazen darts. + + This conjecture is, perhaps, confirmed by a story related by Herodotus + (book ii.), which resembles it very much. He tells us, that + Psammeticus, king of Egypt, being driven to the marshy parts of his + kingdom, sent to consult the oracle of Latona, which answered that he + should be restored by brass men coming from the sea. At the time, this + answer appeared to him entirely frivolous; but certain Ionian + soldiers, being obliged, some years after, to retire to Egypt, and + appearing on the shore with their weapons and armor, all of brass, + those who perceived them ran immediately to inform the king, that men + clad in brass were plundering the country. The prince then fully + comprehended the meaning of the oracle, and making an alliance with + them, recovered his throne by the assistance they gave him. These + brass men come from the sea, and those sprung from the earth were + soldiers who assisted Psammeticus and Cadmus in carrying out their + objects. Bochart’s conjecture is strengthened by the fact, that Cadmus + was either the inventor of the cuirass and javelin, or the first that + brought them into Greece. Without inquiring further into the subject, + we may conclude, that the men sprung from the earth, or the dragon’s + teeth which were sown, were the people of the country, whom Cadmus + found means to bring over to his interest; and that they first helped + him to conquer his enemies, and then to build the citadel of Thebes, + to ensure his future security. Apollodorus says that Cadmus, to + expiate the slaughter of the dragon, was obliged to serve Mars a whole + year; which year, containing eight of our years, it is not improbable + that Cadmus rendered services for a long time to his new allies before + he received any assistance from them. + + +FABLE III. [III.131-252] + + Actæon, the grandson of Cadmus, fatigued with hunting and excessive + heat, inadvertently wanders to the cool valley of Gargaphie, the usual + retreat of Diana, when tired with the same exercise. There, to his + misfortune, he surprises the Goddess and her Nymphs while bathing, for + which she transforms him into a stag, and his own hounds tear him to + pieces. + +And now Thebes was standing; now Cadmus, thou mightst seem happy in thy +exile. Both Mars and Venus[14] had become thy father-in-law and +mother-in-law; add to this, issue by a wife so illustrious, so many +sons[15] and daughters, and grandchildren, dear pledges {of love}; +these, too, now of a youthful age. But, forsooth, the last day {of life} +must always be awaited by man, and no one ought to be pronounced happy +before his death,[16] and his last obsequies. Thy grandson, Cadmus, was +the first occasion of sorrow to thee, among so much prosperity, the +horns, too, not his own, placed upon his forehead, and you, O dogs, +glutted with the blood of your master. But, if you diligently inquire +into his {case}, you will find the fault of an accident, and not +criminality in him; for what criminality did mistake embrace? + +There was a mountain stained with the blood of various wild beasts; and +now the day had contracted the meridian shadow of things, and the sun +was equally distant from each extremity {of the heavens}; when the +Hyantian youth[17] {thus} addressed the partakers of his toils, as they +wandered along the lonely haunts {of the wild beasts}, with gentle +accent: “Our nets are moistened, my friends, and our spears, too, with +the blood of wild beasts; and the day has yielded sufficient sport; when +the next morn, borne upon her rosy chariot, shall bring back the light, +let us seek again our proposed task. Now PhÅ“bus is at the same distance +from both lands, {the Eastern and the Western}, and is cleaving the +fields with his heat. Cease your present toils, and take away the +knotted nets.†The men execute his orders, and cease their labors. There +was a valley, thick set with pitch-trees and the sharp-pointed cypress; +by name Gargaphie,[18] sacred to the active Diana. In the extreme recess +of this, there was a grotto in a grove, formed by no art; nature, by her +ingenuity, had counterfeited art; for she had formed a natural arch, in +the native pumice and the light sand-stones. A limpid fountain ran +murmuring on the right hand with its little stream, having its spreading +channels edged with a border of grass. Here, {when} wearied with +hunting, the Goddess of the woods was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in +clear water. + +After she had entered there, she handed to one of the Nymphs, her +armor-bearer, her javelin, her quiver, and her unstrung bow. Another +Nymph put her arms under her mantle, when taken off: two removed the +sandals from her feet. But Crocale,[19] the daughter of Ismenus, more +skilled than they, gathered her hair, which lay scattered over her neck, +into a knot, although she herself was with {her hair} loose. +Nephele,[20] and Hyale,[21] and Rhanis,[22] fetch water, Psecas[23] and +Phyale[24] {do the same}, and pour it from their large urns. And while +the Titanian {Goddess} was there bathing in the wonted stream, behold! +the grandson of Cadmus, having deferred the remainder of his sport till +{next day}, came into the grove, wandering through the unknown wood, +with uncertain steps; thus did his fate direct him. + +Soon as he entered the grotto, dropping with its springs, the Nymphs, +naked as they were, on seeing a man, smote their breasts, and filled all +the woods with sudden shrieks, and gathering round Diana, covered her +with their bodies. Yet the Goddess herself was higher than they, and was +taller than them all by the neck. The color that is wont to be in +clouds, tinted by the rays of the sun {when} opposite, or that of the +ruddy morning, was on the features of Diana, when seen without her +garments. She, although surrounded with the crowd of her attendants, +stood sideways, and turned her face back; and how did she wish that she +had her arrows at hand; {and} so she took up water,[25] which she did +have {at hand}, and threw it over the face of the man, and sprinkling +his hair with the avenging stream, she added these words, the presages +of his future woe: “Now thou mayst tell, if tell thou canst, how that I +was seen by thee without my garments.†Threatening no more, she places +on his sprinkled head the horns of a lively stag; she adds length to his +neck, and sharpens the tops of his ears; and she changes his hands into +feet, and his arms into long legs, and covers his body with a spotted +coat of hair; fear, too is added. The Autonoëian[26] hero took to +flight, and wondered that he was so swift in his speed; but when he +beheld his own horns in the wonted stream, he was about to say, “Ah, +wretched me!†{when} no voice followed. He groaned; that was {all} his +voice, and his tears trickled down a face not his own, {but that of a +stag}. His former understanding alone remained. What should he do? +Should he return home, and to the royal abode? or should he lie hid in +the woods? Fear hinders the one {step}, shame the other. While he was +hesitating, the dogs espied him, and first Melampus,[27] and the +good-nosed Ichnobates gave the signal, in full cry. Ichnobates,[28] was +a Gnossian {dog}; Melampus was of Spartan breed. Then the rest rush on, +swifter than the rapid winds; Pamphagus,[29] and Dorcæus,[30] and +Oribasus,[31] all Arcadian {dogs}; and able Nebrophonus,[32] and with +Lælaps,[33] fierce Theron,[34] and Pterelas,[35] excelling in speed, +Agre[36] in her scent, and Hylæus,[37] lately wounded by a fierce boar, +and Nape,[38] begotten by a wolf, and PÅ“menis,[39] that had tended +cattle, and Harpyia,[40] followed by her two whelps, and the Sicyonian +Ladon,[41] having a slender girth; Dromas,[42] too, and Canace,[43] +Sticte,[44] and Tigris, and Alce,[45] and Leucon,[46] with snow-white +hair, and Asbolus,[47] with black, and the able-bodied Lacon,[48] and +Aëllo,[49] good at running, and Thoüs,[50] and swift Lycisca,[51] with +her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] too, having his black face marked +with white down the middle, and Melaneus,[53] and Lachne,[54] with a +wire-haired body, and Labros,[55] and Agriodos,[56] bred of a Dictæan +sire, but of a Laconian dam, and Hylactor,[57] with his shrill note; and +others which it were tedious to recount. + +This pack, in eagerness for their prey, are borne over rocks and cliffs, +and crags difficult of approach, where the path is steep, and where +there is no road. He flies along the routes by which he has so often +pursued; alas! he is {now} flying from his own servants. Fain would he +have cried, “I am Actæon, recognize your own master.†Words are wanting +to his wishes; the air resounds with their barking. Melanchætes[58] was +the first to make a wound on his back, Theridamas[59] the next; +Oresitrophus[60] fastened upon his shoulder. These had gone out later, +but their course was shortened by a near cut through the hill. While +they hold their master, the rest of the pack come up, and fasten their +teeth in his body. Now room is wanting for {more} wounds. He groans, and +utters a noise, though not that of a man, {still}, such as a stag cannot +make; and he fills the well-known mountains with dismal moans, and +suppliant on his bended knees, and like one in entreaty, he turns round +his silent looks as though {they were} his arms. + +But his companions, in their ignorance, urge on the eager pack with +their usual cries, and seek Actæon with their eyes; and cry out “Actæon†+aloud, as though he were absent. At his name he turns his head, as they +complain that he is not there, and in his indolence, is not enjoying a +sight of the sport afforded them. He wished, indeed, he had been away, +but there he was; and he wished to see, not to feel as well, the cruel +feats of his own dogs. They gather round him on all sides, and burying +their jaws in his body, tear their master in pieces under the form of an +imaginary stag. And the rage of the quiver-bearing Diana is said not to +have been satiated, until his life was ended by many a wound. + + [Footnote 14: _Mars and Venus._--Ver. 132. The wife of Cadmus was + Hermione, or Harmonia, who was said to have been the daughter of + Mars and Venus. The Deities honored the nuptials with their + presence, and presented marriage gifts, while the Muses and the + Graces celebrated the festivity with hymns of their own + composition.] + + [Footnote 15: _So many sons._--Ver. 134. Apollodorus, Hyginus, and + others, say that Cadmus had but one son, Polydorus. If so, ‘tot,’ + ‘so many,’ must here refer to the number of his daughters and + grandchildren. His daughters were four in number, Autonoë, Ino, + Semele, and Agave. Ino married Athamas, Autonoë Aristæus, Agave + Echion, while Semele captivated Jupiter. The most famous of the + grandsons of Cadmus were Bacchus, Melicerta, Pentheus, and Actæon.] + + [Footnote 16: _Before his death._--Ver. 135. This was the famous + remark of Solon to CrÅ“sus, when he was the master of the opulent + and flourishing kingdom of Lydia, and seemed so firmly settled on + his throne, that there was no probability of any interruption of + his happiness. Falling into the hands of Cyrus the Persian, and + being condemned to be burnt alive, he recollected this wise saying + of Solon, and by that means saved his life, as we are told by + Herodotus, who relates the story at length. Euripides has a + similar passage in his Troades, line 510.] + + [Footnote 17: _The Hyantian youth._--Ver. 147. Actæon is thus + called, as being a BÅ“otian. The Hyantes were the ancient or + aboriginal inhabitants of BÅ“otia.] + + [Footnote 18: _Gargaphie._--Ver. 156. Gargaphie, or Gargaphia, was + a valley situate near Platæa, having a fountain of the same name.] + + [Footnote 19: _Crocale._--Ver. 169. So called, perhaps, from + κεκÏύφαλος, an ornament for the head, being a coif, band, or + fillet of network for the hair called in Latin ‘reticulum,’ by + which name her office is denoted. The handmaid, whose duty it was + to attend to the hair, held the highest rank in ancient times + among the domestics.] + + [Footnote 20: _Nephele._--Ver. 171. From the Greek word νεφέλη, + ‘a cloud.’] + + [Footnote 21: _Hyale._--Ver. 171. This is from ὕαλος, ‘glass,’ the + name signifying ‘glassy,’ ‘pellucid.’ The very name calls to mind + Milton’s line in his Comus-- + ‘Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.’] + + [Footnote 22: _Rhanis._--Ver. 171. This name is adapted from the + Greek verb ῥαίνω, ‘to sprinkle.’] + + [Footnote 23: _Psecas._--Ver. 172. From the Greek ψεκὰς, ‘a + dew-drop.’] + + [Footnote 24: _Phyale._--Ver. 172. This is from the Greek φιαλὴ, + ‘an urn.’] + + [Footnote 25: _Took up water._--Ver. 189. The ceremonial of + sprinkling previous to the transformation seems not to have been + neglected any more by the offended Goddesses of the classical + Mythology, than by the intriguing enchantresses of the Arabian + Nights’ Entertainments; as the unfortunate Beder, when under the + displeasure of the vicious queen Labè, experienced to his great + inconvenience. The love for the supernatural, combined with an + anxious desire to attribute its operations to material and visible + agencies, forms one of the most singular features of the human + character.] + + [Footnote 26: _Autonoëian._--Ver. 198. Autonoë was the daughter of + Cadmus and Hermione, or Harmonia, and the wife of Aristæus, by + whom she was the mother of Actæon. We may here remark, that in one + of his satires, Lucian introduces Juno as saying to Diana, that + she had let loose his dogs on Actæon, for fear lest, having seen + her naked, he should divulge the deformity of her person.] + + [Footnote 27: _Melampus._--Ver. 206. These names are all from the + Greek, and are interesting, as showing the epithets by which the + ancients called their dogs. The pack of Actæon is said to have + consisted of fifty dogs. Their names were preserved by several + Greek poets, from whom Apollodorus copied them; but the greater + part of his list has perished, and what remains is in a very + corrupt state. Hyginus has preserved two lists, the first of which + contains thirty-nine names, most of which are similar to those + here given by Ovid, and in almost the same order; while the second + contains thirty-six names, different from those here given. + Æschylus has named but four of them, and Ovid here names + thirty-six. Crete, Arcadia, and Laconia produced the most valuable + hounds. Melampus, ‘Black-foot,’ is from the Greek words μέλας, + ‘black,’ and ποῦς, ‘a foot.’] + + [Footnote 28: _Ichnobates._--Ver. 207. ‘Tracer.’ From the Greek + ἰχνὸς, ‘a footstep,’ and βαίνω, ‘to go.’] + + [Footnote 29: _Pamphagus._--Ver. 210. ‘Glutton.’ From πᾶν, ‘all,’ + and φάγω, ‘to eat.’] + + [Footnote 30: _Dorcæus._--Ver. 210. ‘Quicksight.’ From δέÏκω, ‘to + see.’] + + [Footnote 31: _Oribasus._--Ver. 210. ‘Ranger.’ From ὄÏος, ‘a + mountain,’ and βαίνω, ‘to go.’] + + [Footnote 32: _Nebrophonus._--Ver. 211. ‘Kill-buck.’ From νεβÏὸς, + ‘a fawn,’ and φονέω, ‘to kill.’] + + [Footnote 33: _Lælaps._--Ver. 211. ‘Tempest.’ So called from its + swiftness and power, λαίλαψ, signifying ‘a whirlwind.’] + + [Footnote 34: _Theron._--Ver. 211. ‘Hunter.’ From the Greek, + θεÏεύω, ‘to trace,’ or ‘hunt.’] + + [Footnote 35: _Pterelas._--Ver. 212. ‘Wing.’ ‘Swift-footed,’ from + πτεÏὸν, ‘a wing,’ and á¼Î»Î±á½»Î½Ï‰, ‘to drive onward.’] + + [Footnote 36: _Agre._--Ver. 212. ‘Catcher.’ ‘Quick-scented,’ from + ἄγÏα, ‘hunting,’ or ‘the chase.’] + + [Footnote 37: _Hylæus._--Ver. 213. ‘Woodger,’ or ‘Wood-ranger;’ + the Greek ὕλη, signifying ‘a wood.’] + + [Footnote 38: _Nape._--Ver. 214. ‘Forester.’ A ‘forest,’ or + ‘wood,’ being in Greek, νάπη.] + + [Footnote 39: _PÅ“menis._--Ver. 215. ‘Shepherdess,’ From the Greek + ποίμενις, ‘a shepherdess.’] + + [Footnote 40: _Harpyia._--Ver. 215. ‘Ravener.’ From the Greek word + á¼…Ïπυια, ‘a harpy,’ or ‘ravenous bird.’] + + [Footnote 41: _Ladon._--Ver. 216. This dog takes its name from + Ladon, a river of Sicyon, a territory on the shores of the gulf of + Corinth.] + + [Footnote 42: _Dromas._--Ver. 217. ‘Runner.’ From the Greek + δÏόμος, ‘a race.’] + + [Footnote 43: _Canace._--Ver. 217. ‘Barker.’ The word καναχὴ, + signifies ‘a noise,’ or ‘din.’] + + [Footnote 44: _Sticte._--Ver. 217. ‘Spot.’ So called from the + variety of her colors, as στικτὸς, signifies ‘diversified with + various spots,’ from στίζω, ‘to vary with spots.’ ‘Tigris’ means + ‘Tiger.’] + + [Footnote 45: _Alce._--Ver. 217. ‘Strong.’ From the Greek ἀλκὴ + ‘strength.’] + + [Footnote 46: _Leucon._--Ver. 218. ‘White.’ From λευκὸς, ‘white.’] + + [Footnote 47: _Asbolus._--Ver. 218. ‘Soot,’ or ‘Smut.’ From the + Greek ἄσβολος, ‘soot.’] + + [Footnote 48: _Lacon._--Ver. 219. From his native country, + Laconia.] + + [Footnote 49: _Aëllo._--Ver. 219. ‘Storm.’ From ἄελλα, ‘a + tempest.’] + + [Footnote 50: _Thoüs._--Ver. 220. ‘Swift.’ From θοὸς, ‘swift.’ + Pliny the Elder states, that ‘thos’ was the name of a kind of + wolf, of larger make, and more active in springing than the common + wolf. He says that it is of inoffensive habits towards man; but + that it lives by prey, and is hairy in winter, but without hair in + summer. It is supposed by some that he alludes to the jackal. + Perhaps, from this animal, the dog here mentioned derived his + name.] + + [Footnote 51: _Lycisca._--Ver. 220. ‘Wolf.’ From the diminutive of + the Greek word λύκος, ‘a wolf.’ Virgil uses ‘Lycisca’ as the name + of a dog, in his Eclogues.] + + [Footnote 52: _Harpalus._--Ver. 222. ‘Snap.’ From á¼Ïπάζω, ‘to + snatch,’ or ‘plunder.’] + + [Footnote 53: _Melaneus._--Ver. 222. ‘Black-coat.’ From the Greek, + μέλας, ‘black.’] + + [Footnote 54: _Lachne._--Ver. 222. ‘Stickle.’ From the Greek work + λαχνὴ, signifying ‘thickness of the hair.’] + + [Footnote 55: _Labros._--Ver. 224. ‘Worrier.’ From the Greek + λάβÏος ‘greedy.’ Dicte was a mountain of Crete; whence the word + ‘Dictæan’ is often employed to signify ‘Cretan.’] + + [Footnote 56: _Agriodos._--Ver. 224. ‘Wild-tooth.’ From ἄγÏιος + ‘wild,’ and ὀδοῦς, ‘a tooth.’] + + [Footnote 57: _Hylactor._--Ver. 224. ‘Babbler.’ From the Greek + word ὑλακτέω, signifying ‘to bark.’] + + [Footnote 58: _Melanchætes._--Ver. 232. ‘Black-hair.’ From the + μέλας, ‘black,’ and χαιτὴ, ‘mane.’] + + [Footnote 59: _Theridamas._--Ver. 233. ‘Kilham.’ From θὴÏ, ‘a wild + beast,’ and δαμάω, ‘to subdue.’] + + [Footnote 60: _Oresitrophus._--Ver. 223. ‘Rover.’ From ὄÏος ‘a + mountain,’ and Ï„Ïέφω ‘to nourish.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If the maxim of Horace, ‘Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice + nodus,’ had been a little more frequently observed by the ancient + poets, their Deities would not have been so often placed in a + degrading or disgusting light before posterity. There cannot be a + better illustration of the truth of this than the present Fable, where + Ovid represents the chaste and prudent Diana as revenging herself in a + cruel and barbarous manner for the indiscretion, or rather misfortune, + of an innocent young man. + + Cicero mentions several Goddesses of the name of Diana. The first was + the daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine; the second of Jupiter and + Latona; and the third of Upis and Glauce. Strabo mentions another + Diana, named Britomartis, the daughter of Eubalus. The worship, + however, of Diana as the Goddess of the Moon, was, most probably, + derived from Egypt, with the Isis of whom she is perhaps identical. + The adventure narrated in this Fable is most probably to be attributed + to Diana Britomartis, as Strabo tells us, that she was particularly + fond of the chase. Pausanias, in his Attica, tells the story in much + the same terms, but he adds, that on seeing Diana bathing, the novelty + of the sight excited Actæon’s curiosity, and prompted him to approach + nearer. To explain this fable, some authors suggest, that Actæon’s + dogs becoming mad, devoured him; while others suppose, that having + ruined himself by the expense of supporting a large pack of hounds, + and a hunting establishment, it was reported that he had been devoured + by his dogs. Diodorus Siculus, and Euripides, tell us, that Actæon + showed contempt to Diana, and was about to eat of the sacrifice that + had been offered to her; and of course, in such a case, punishment at + the hands of the Goddess would be deemed a just retribution. + Apollodorus says, that Actæon was brought up by Chiron, and that he + was put to death on Mount Cithæron, for having seen Diana bathing; + though, according to one ancient authority, he was punished for having + made improper overtures to Semele. Apollodorus also says, that his + dogs died of grief, on the loss of their master, and he has preserved + some of their names. + + +FABLE IV. [III.253-301] + + Juno, incensed against Semele for her intrigue with Jupiter, takes the + form of Beroë, the more easily to ensure her revenge. Having first + infused in Semele suspicions of her lover, she then recommends her to + adopt a certain method of proving his constancy. Semele, thus + deceived, obtains a reluctant promise from Jupiter, to make his next + visit to her in the splendor and majesty in which he usually + approached his wife. + +They speak in various ways {of this matter}. To some, the Goddess seems +more severe than is proper; others praise her, and call her deserving +{of her state} of strict virginity: both sides find their reasons. The +wife of Jupiter alone does not so much declare whether she blames or +whether she approves, as she rejoices at the calamity of a family sprung +from Agenor, and transfers the hatred that she has conceived from the +Tyrian mistress to the partners of her race. Lo! a fresh occasion is +{now} added to the former one; and she grieves that Semele is pregnant +from the seed of great Jupiter. She then lets loose her tongue to abuse. + +“And what good have I done by railing so often?†said she. “She herself +must be attacked {by me}. If I am properly called the supreme Juno, +I will destroy her; if it becomes me to hold the sparkling sceptre in my +right hand; if I am the queen, and both the sister and wife of Jupiter. +The sister {I am}, no doubt. But I suppose she is content with a stolen +embrace, and the injury to my bed is but trifling. She is {now} +pregnant; that {alone} was wanting; and she bears the evidence of his +crime in her swelling womb, and wishes to be made a mother by Jupiter, +a thing which hardly fell to my lot alone. So great is her confidence in +her beauty. I will take care[61] he shall deceive her; and may I be no +daughter of Saturn, if she does not descend to the Stygian waves, sunk +{there} by her own {dear} Jupiter.†+ +Upon this she rises from her throne, and, hidden in a cloud of fiery +hue, she approaches the threshold of Semele. Nor did she remove the +clouds before she counterfeited an old woman, and planted gray hair on +her temples; and furrowed her skin with wrinkles, and moved her bending +limbs with palsied step, and made her voice that of an old woman. She +became Beroë[62] herself, the Epidaurian[63] nurse of Semele. When, +therefore, upon engaging in discourse with her, and {after} long +talking, they came to the name of Jupiter, she sighed, and said, +“I {only} wish it may be Jupiter; yet I {am apt to} fear everything. +Many a one under the name of a God has invaded a chaste bed. Nor yet is +it enough that he is Jupiter; let him, if, indeed, he is the real one, +give some pledge of his affection; and beg of him to bestow his caresses +on thee, just in the greatness and form in which he is received by the +stately Juno; and let him first assume his ensigns {of royalty}.†With +such words did Juno tutor the unsuspecting daughter of Cadmus. She +requested of Jupiter a favor, without naming it. To her the God said, +“Make thy choice, thou shalt suffer no denial; and that thou mayst +believe it the more, let the majesty of the Stygian stream bear witness. +He {is} the dread and the God of the Gods.†+ +Overjoyed at {what was} her misfortune, and too {easily} prevailing, as +now about to perish by the complaisance of her lover, Semele said, +“Present thyself to me, just such as the daughter of Saturn is wont to +embrace thee, when ye honor the ties of Venus.†The God wished to shut +her mouth as she spoke, {but} the hasty words had now escaped into air. +He groaned; for neither was it {now} possible for her not to have +wished, nor for him not to have sworn. Therefore, in extreme sadness, he +mounted the lofty skies, and with his nod drew along the attendant +clouds; to which he added showers and lightnings mingled with winds, and +thunders, and the inevitable thunderbolt. + + [Footnote 61: _I will take care._--Ver. 271. ‘Faxo,’ ‘I will + make,’ is sometimes used by the best authors for ‘fecero;’ and + ‘faxim’ for ‘faciam,’ or ‘fecerim.’] + + [Footnote 62: _Beroë._--Ver. 278. Iris, in the fifth book of the + Æneid (l. 620), assumes the form of another Beroë; and a third + person of that name is mentioned in the fourth book of the + Georgics, l. 34.] + + [Footnote 63: _Epidaurian._--Ver. 278. Epidaurus was a famous city + of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, famous for its temple, dedicated to + the worship of Æsculapius, who was the tutelary Divinity of that + city.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is most probable, that an intrigue between a female named Semele + and one of the princes called Jupiter having had a tragical end, gave + occasion to this Fable. Pausanias, in his Laconica, tells us, that + Cadmus, exasperated against his daughter Semele, caused her and her + son to be thrown into the sea; and that being thrown ashore at Oreate, + an ancient town of Laconia, Semele was buried there. + + Semele, according to Apollodorus, was, after her death, ranked among + the Goddesses by the name of Thyone. He says that her son Bacchus + going down to hell, brought her thence, and carried her up to heaven; + where, according to Nonnus, she conversed with Pallas and Diana, and + ate at the same table with Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The + author, known by the name of Orpheus, gives Semele the title of + Goddess, and Πανβασίλεια, or ‘Queen of the Universe.’ + + + +FABLE V. [III.302-338] + + Semele is visited by Jupiter, according to the promise she had obliged + him to make; but, being unable to support the effulgence of his + lightning, she is burnt to ashes in his presence. Bacchus, with whom + she is pregnant, is preserved; and Tiresias decided the dispute + between Jupiter and Juno, concerning the sexes. + +And yet, as much as possible, he tries to mitigate his powers. Nor is he +now armed with those flames with which he had overthrown the +hundred-handed TyphÅ“us; in those, {there is} too much fury. There is +another thunder, less baneful, to which the right hand of the Cyclops +gave less ferocity and flames, {and} less anger. The Gods above call +this second-rate thunder; it he assumes, and he enters the house of +Agenor. Her mortal body could not endure[64] the æthereal shock, and she +was burned amid her nuptial presents. The infant, as yet unformed, is +taken out of the womb of his mother, and prematurely (if we can believe +it) is inserted in the thigh of the father, and completes the time that +he should have spent in the womb. His aunt, Ino, nurses him privately in +his early cradle. After that, the Nyseian Nymphs[65] conceal him, +entrusted {to them}, in their caves, and give him the nourishment of +milk. + +And while these things are transacted on earth by the law of destiny, +and the cradle of Bacchus, twice born,[66] is secured; they tell that +Jupiter, by chance, well drenched with nectar, laid aside {all} weighty +cares, and engaged in some free jokes with Juno, in her idle moments, +and said: “Decidedly the pleasure of you, {females}, is greater than +that which falls to the lot of {us} males.†She denied it. It was agreed +{between them}, to ask what was the opinion of the experienced Tiresias. +To him both pleasures were well known. For he had separated with a blow +of his staff two bodies of large serpents, as they were coupling in a +green wood; and (passing strange) become a woman from a man, he had +spent seven autumns. In the eighth, he again saw the same {serpents}, +and said, “If the power of a stroke given you is so great as to change +the condition of the giver into the opposite one, I will now strike you +again.†Having struck the same snakes, his former sex returned, and his +original shape came {again}. He, therefore, being chosen as umpire in +this sportive contest, confirmed the words of Jove. The daughter of +Saturn is said to have grieved more than was fit, and not in proportion +to the subject; and she condemned the eyes of the umpire to eternal +darkness. + +But the omnipotent father (for it is not allowed any God to cancel the +acts of {another} Deity) gave him the knowledge of things to come, in +recompense for his loss of sight, and alleviated his punishment by this +honor. + + [Footnote 64: _Could not endure._--Ver. 308. ‘Corpus mortale + tumultus Non tulit æthereos,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘her mortal + body could not bear this æthereal bustle.’] + + [Footnote 65: _The Nyseian Nymphs._--Ver. 314. Nysa was the name + of a city and mountain of Arabia, or India. The tradition was, + that there the Nyseian Nymphs, whose names were Cysseis, Nysa, + Erato, Eryphia, Bromia, and Polyhymnia, brought up Bacchus. The + cave where he was concealed from the fury of Juno, was said to + have had two entrances, from which circumstance Bacchus received + the epithet of Dithyrites. Servius, in his commentary on the sixth + Eclogue of Virgil (l. 15), says that Nysa was the name of the + female that nursed Bacchus. Hyginus also speaks of her as being + the daughter of Oceanus. From the name ‘Nysa,’ Bacchus received, + in part, his Greek name ‘Dionysus.’] + + [Footnote 66: _Twice born._--Ver. 318. Clarke thus translates and + explains this line--‘They tell you, that Jupiter well drenched;’ + _i.e._ ‘fuddled with nectar,’ etc.] + + +FABLE VI. [III.339-401] + + Echo, having often amused Juno with her stories, to give time to + Jupiter’s mistresses to make their escape, the Goddess, at last, + punishes her for the deception. She is slighted and despised by + Narcissus, with whom she falls in love. + +He, much celebrated by fame throughout the cities of Aonia,[67] gave +unerring answers to the people consulting him. The azure Liriope[68] was +the first to make essay and experiment of his infallible voice; whom +once Cephisus encircled in his winding stream, and offered violence to, +{when} enclosed by his waters. The most beauteous Nymph produced an +infant from her teeming womb, which even then might have been beloved, +and she called him Narcissus. Being consulted concerning him, whether he +was destined to see the distant season of mature old age; the prophet, +expounding destiny, said, “If he never recognizes himself.†Long did the +words of the soothsayer appear frivolous; {but} the event, the thing +{itself}, the manner of his death, and the novel nature of his frenzy, +confirmed it. + +And now the son of Cephisus had added one to three times five years, and +he might seem to be a boy and a young man as well. Many a youth,[69] and +many a damsel, courted him; but there was so stubborn a pride in his +youthful beauty, {that} no youths, no damsels made any impression on +him. The noisy Nymph, who has neither learned to hold her tongue after +another speaking, nor to speak first herself, resounding Echo, espied +him, as he was driving the timid stags into his nets. Echo was then a +body, not a voice; and yet the babbler had no other use of her speech +than she now has, to be able to repeat the last words out of many. Juno +had done this; because when often she might have been able to detect the +Nymphs in the mountains in the embrace of her {husband}, Jupiter, she +purposely used to detain[70] the Goddess with a long story, until the +Nymphs had escaped. After the daughter of Saturn perceived {this}, she +said, “But small exercise of this tongue, with which I have been +deluded, shall be allowed thee, and a very short use of thy voice.†And +she confirmed her threats by the event. Still, in the end of one’s +speaking she redoubles the voice, and returns the words she hears. When, +therefore, she beheld Narcissus[71] wandering through the pathless +forests, and fell in love with him, she stealthily followed his steps; +and the more she followed him, with the nearer flame did she burn. In no +other manner than as when the native sulphur, spread around[72] the tops +of torches, catches the flame applied {to it}. Ah! how often did she +desire to accost him in soft accents, and to employ soft entreaties! +Nature resists, and suffers her not to begin; but what {Nature} does +permit, that she is ready for; to await his voice, to which to return +her own words. + +By chance, the youth, being separated from the trusty company of his +attendants, cries out, “Is there any one here?†and Echo answers “Here!†+He is amazed; and when he has cast his eyes on every side, he cries out +with a loud voice, “Come!†{Whereon} she calls {the youth} who calls. He +looks back; and again, as no one comes, he says, “Why dost thou avoid +me?†and just as many words as he spoke, he receives. He persists; and +being deceived by the imitation of an alternate voice, he says, “Let us +come together here;†and Echo, that could never more willingly answer +any sound whatever, replies, “Let us come together here!†and she +follows up her own words, and rushing from the woods,[73] is going to +throw her arms around the neck she has {so} longed for. He flies; and as +he flies, he exclaims, “Remove thy hands from thus embracing me; I will +die first, before thou shalt have the enjoyment of me.†She answers +nothing but “Have the enjoyment of me.†{Thus} rejected, she lies hid in +the woods, and hides her blushing face with green leaves, and from that +time lives in lonely caves; but yet her love remains, and increases from +the mortification of her refusal. Watchful cares waste away her +miserable body; leanness shrivels her skin, and all the juices of her +body fly off in air. Her voice and her bones alone are left. + +Her voice {still} continues, {but} they say that her bones received the +form of stones. Since then, she lies concealed in the woods, and is +never seen on the mountains: {but} is heard in all {of them}. It is her +voice {alone} which remains alive in her. + + [Footnote 67: _Aonia._--Ver. 339. Aonia was a mountainous district + of BÅ“otia, so called from Aon, the son of Neptune, who reigned + there. The name is often used to signify the whole of BÅ“otia.] + + [Footnote 68: _Liriope._--Ver. 342. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Tethys, and was the mother of the youth Narcissus, by + the river Cephisus. Her name is derived from the Greek λείÏιον, + ‘a lily.’] + + [Footnote 69: _Many a youth._--Ver. 353. Clarke translates ‘multi + juvenes,’ ‘many young fellows.’] + + [Footnote 70: _Used to detain._--Ver. 364. Clarke translates ‘Illa + Deam longo prudens sermone tenebat Dum fugerent Nymphæ,’ ‘She + designedly detained the Goddess with some long-winded discourse or + other till the Nymphs ran away.’ He translates ‘garrula,’ in line + 360, ‘the prattling hussy.’] + + [Footnote 71: _Narcissus._--Ver. 370. This name is from the Greek + word ναÏκᾷν, ‘to fade away,’ which was characteristic of the + youth’s career, and of the duration of the flower.] + + [Footnote 72: _Sulphur spread around._--Ver. 372. These lines + show, that it was the custom of the ancients to place sulphur on + the ends of their torches, to make them ignite the more readily, + in the same manner as the matches of the present day are tipped + with that mineral.] + + [Footnote 73: _Rushing from the woods._--Ver. 388. ‘Egressaque + sylvis.’ Clarke renders, ‘and bouncing out of the wood.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It appears much more reasonable to attempt the explanation of this + story on the grounds of natural philosophy than of history. The poets, + in their fondness for basing every subject upon fiction, probably + invented the fable, to explain what to them appeared an extraordinary + phenomenon. By way of embellishing their story, they tell us that Echo + was the daughter of the Air and the Tongue, and that the God Pan fell + in love with her; by which, probably, the simple fact is meant, that + some person, represented under the name of that god, endeavored to + trace the cause of this phenomenon. + + If, however, we should endeavor to base the story upon purely + historical grounds, we may suppose that it took its rise from some + Nymph, who wandered so far into the woods as to be unable to find her + way out again; and from the fact that those who went to seek her, + hearing nothing but the echo of their own voices, brought back the + strange but unsatisfactory intelligence that the Nymph had been + changed into a voice. + + +FABLE VII. [III.402-510] + + Narcissus falls in love with his own shadow, which he sees in a + fountain; and, pining to death, the Gods change him into a flower, + which still bears his name. + +Thus had he deceived her, thus, too, other Nymphs that sprung from the +water or the mountains, thus the throng of youths before {them}. +Some one, therefore, who had been despised {by him}, lifting up his +hands towards heaven, said, “Thus, though he should love, let him not +enjoy what he loves!†Rhamnusia[74] assented to a prayer so reasonable. +There was a clear spring, like silver, with its unsullied waters, which +neither shepherds, nor she-goats feeding on the mountains, nor any other +cattle, had touched; which neither bird nor wild beast had disturbed, +nor bough falling from a tree. There was grass around it, which the +neighboring water nourished, and a wood, that suffered the stream to +become warm with no {rays of the} sun. Here the youth, fatigued both +with the labor of hunting and the heat, lay down, attracted by the +appearance of the spot, and the spring; and, while he was endeavoring to +quench his thirst, another thirst grew {upon him}. + +While he is drinking, being attracted with the reflection of his own +form, seen {in the water}, he falls in love with a thing that has no +substance; {and} he thinks that to be a body, which is {but} a shadow. +He is astonished at himself, and remains unmoved with the same +countenance, like a statue formed of Parian marble.[75] Lying on the +ground, he gazes on his eyes {like} two stars, and fingers worthy of +Bacchus, and hair worthy of Apollo, and his youthful cheeks and ivory +neck, and the comeliness of his mouth, and his blushing complexion +mingled with the whiteness of snow; and everything he admires, for which +he himself is worthy to be admired. In his ignorance, he covets himself; +and he that approves, is himself {the thing} approved. While he pursues +he is pursued, and at the same moment he inflames and burns. How often +does he give vain kisses to the deceitful spring; how often does he +thrust his arms, catching at the neck he sees, into the middle of the +water, and yet he does not catch himself in them. He knows not what he +sees, but what he sees, by it is he inflamed; and the same mistake that +deceives his eyes, provokes them. Why, credulous {youth}, dost thou +vainly catch at the flying image? What thou art seeking is nowhere; what +thou art in love with, turn but away {and} thou shalt lose it; what thou +seest, the same is {but} the shadow of a reflected form; it has nothing +of its own. It comes and stays with thee; with thee it will depart, if +thou canst {but} depart thence. + +No regard for food,[76] no regard for repose, can draw him away thence; +but, lying along upon the overshadowed grass, he gazes upon the +fallacious image with unsatiated eyes, and by his own sight he himself +is undone. Raising himself a little {while}, extending his arms to the +woods that stand around him, he says, “Was ever, O, ye woods! any one +more fatally in love? For {this} ye know, and have been a convenient +shelter for many a one. And do you remember any one, who {ever} thus +pined away, during so long a time, though so many ages of your life has +been spent? It both pleases me and I see it; but what I see, and what +pleases me, yet I cannot obtain; so great a mistake possesses one in +love; and to make me grieve the more, neither a vast sea separates us, +nor a {long} way, nor mountains, nor a city with its gates closed; we +are kept asunder by a little water. He himself wishes to be embraced; +for as often as I extend my lips to the limpid stream, so often does he +struggle towards me with his face held up; you would think he might be +touched. It is a very little that stands in the way of lovers. Whoever +thou art, come up hither. Why, {dear} boy, the choice one, dost thou +deceive me? or whither dost thou retire, when pursued? Surely, neither +my form nor my age is such as thou shouldst shun; the Nymphs, too, have +courted me. Thou encouragest I know not what hopes in me with that +friendly look, and when I extend my arms to thee, thou willingly +extendest thine; when I smile, thou smilest in return; often, too, have +I observed thy tears, when I was weeping; my signs, too, thou returnest +by thy nods, and, as I guess by the motion of thy beauteous mouth, thou +returnest words that come not to my ears. In thee ’tis I, I {now} +perceive; nor does my form deceive me. I burn with the love of myself, +and both raise the flames and endure them. What shall I do? Should I be +entreated, or should I entreat? What, then, shall I entreat? What I +desire is in my power; plenty has made me poor. Oh! would that I could +depart from my own body! a new wish, {indeed}, in a lover; I could wish +that what I am in love with was away. And now grief is taking away my +strength, and no long period of my life remains; and in my early days am +I cut off; nor is death grievous to me, now about to get rid of my +sorrows by death. I wish that he who is beloved could enjoy a longer +life. Now we two, of one mind, shall die in {the extinction of} one +life.†+ +{Thus} he said, and, with his mind {but} ill at ease, he returned to the +same reflection, and disturbed the water with his tears; and the form +was rendered defaced by the moving of the stream; when he saw it +{beginning} to disappear, he cried aloud, “Whither dost thou fly? Stay, +I beseech thee! and do not in thy cruelty abandon thy lover; let it be +allowed me to behold that which I may not touch, and to give nourishment +to my wretched frenzy.†And, while he was grieving, he tore his garment +from the upper border, and beat his naked breast with his palms, white +as marble. His breast, when struck, received a little redness, no +otherwise than as apples are wont, which are partly white {and} partly +red; or as a grape, not yet ripe, in the parti-colored clusters, is wont +to assume a purple tint. Soon as he beheld this again in the water, when +clear, he could not endure it any longer; but, as yellow wax with the +fire, or the hoar frost of the morning, is wont to waste away with the +warmth of the sun, so he, consumed by love, pined away, and wasted by +degrees with a hidden flame. And now, no longer was his complexion of +white mixed with red; neither his vigor nor his strength, nor {the +points} which had charmed when seen so lately, nor {even} his body, +which formerly Echo had been in love with, now remained. Yet, when she +saw these things, although angry, and mindful {of his usage of her}, she +was grieved, and, as often as the unhappy youth said, “Alas!†she +repeated, “Alas!†with re-echoing voice; and when he struck his arms +with his hands, she, too, returned the like sound of a blow. + +His last accents, as he looked into the water, as usual, were these: +“Ah, youth, beloved in vain!†and the spot returned just as many words; +and after he had said, “Farewell!†Echo, too, said, “Farewell!†He laid +down his wearied head upon the green grass, {when} night closed the eyes +that admired the beauty of their master; and even then, after he had +been received into the infernal abodes, he used to look at himself in +the Stygian waters. His Naiad sisters lamented him, and laid their +hair,[77] cut off, over their brother; the Dryads, too, lamented him, +{and} Echo resounded to their lamentations. And now they were preparing +the funeral pile, and the shaken torches, and the bier. The body was +nowhere {to be found}. Instead of his body, they found a yellow flower, +with white leaves encompassing it in the middle. + + [Footnote 74: _Rhamnusia._--Ver. 406. Nemesis, the Goddess of + Retribution, and the avenger of crime, was the daughter of + Jupiter. She had a famous temple at Rhamnus, one of the ‘pagi,’ or + boroughs of Athens. Her statue was there, carved by Phidias out of + the marble which the Persians brought into Greece for the purpose + of making a statue of Victory out of it, and which was thus + appropriately devoted to the Goddess of Retribution. This statue + wore a crown, and had wings, and holding a spear of ash in the + right hand, it was seated on a stag.] + + [Footnote 75: _Parian marble._--Ver. 419. Paros was an island in + the Ægean sea, one of the Cyclades; it was famous for the valuable + quality of its marble, which was especially used for the purpose + of making statues of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 76: _Regard for food._--Ver. 437. ‘Cereris.’ The name of + the Goddess of corn is here used instead of bread itself.] + + [Footnote 77: _Laid their hair._--Ver. 506. It was the custom + among the ancients for females, when lamenting the dead, not only + to cut off their hair, but to lay it on the body, when extended + upon the funeral pile.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If this story is based upon any historical facts, they are entirely + lost to us; as all we learn from history concerning Narcissus, is the + fact that he was a Thespian by birth. The Fable seems rather to be + intended as a useful moral lesson, disclosing the fatal effects of + self-love. His pursuit, too, of his own image, ever retiring from his + embrace, strongly resembles the little reality that exists in many of + those pleasures which mankind so eagerly pursue. + + Pausanias, in his BÅ“otica, somewhat varies the story. He tells us that + Narcissus having lost his sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who + resembled him very much, and was his constant companion in the chase, + thought, on seeing himself one day in a fountain, that it was the + shade of his lost sister, and, thereupon, pined away and died of + grief. According to him, the fountain was near a village called + Donacon, in the country of the Thespians. Pausanias regards the + account of his change into the flower which bears his name as a mere + fiction, since Pamphus says that Proserpina, when carried away, long + before the time of Narcissus, gathered that flower in the fields of + Enna; and that the same flower was sacred to her. Persons sacrificing + to the Furies, or Eumenides, used to wear chaplets made of the + Narcissus, because that flower commonly grew about graves and + sepulchres. + + Tiresias, who predicted the untoward fate of Narcissus, was, as we are + informed by Apollodorus, the son of Evenus and Chariclo, and was the + most renowned soothsayer of his time. He lost his life by drinking of + the fountain of Telphusa when he was overheated; or, as some suppose, + through the unwholesome quality of the water. As he lived to a great + age, and became blind towards the end of his life, the story, which + Ovid mentions, was invented respecting him. Another version of it was, + that he lost his sight, by reason of his having seen Minerva while + bathing. This story was very probably based either upon the fact that + he had composed a Treatise upon the Animal Functions of the Sexes, or + that he had promulgated the doctrine that the stars had not only souls + (a common opinion in those times), but also that they were of + different sexes. He is supposed to have lived about 1200 years before + the Christian era. + + +FABLE VIII. [III.511-733] + + Pentheus ridicules the predictions of Tiresias; and not only forbids + his people to worship Bacchus, who had just entered Greece in triumph, + but even commands them to capture him, and to bring him into his + presence. Under the form of AcÅ“tes, one of his companions, Bacchus + suffers that indignity, and relates to Pentheus the wonders which the + God had wrought. The recital enrages Pentheus still more, who + thereupon goes to Mount Cithæron, to disturb the orgies then + celebrating there; on which his own mother and the other Bacchantes + tear him to pieces. + +This thing, when known, brought deserved fame to the prophet through the +cities of Achaia;[78] and great was the reputation of the soothsayer. +Yet Pentheus,[79] the son of Echion, a contemner of the Gods above, +alone, of all men, despises him, and derides the predicting words of the +old man, and upbraids him with his darkened state, and the misfortune of +{having lost} his sight. He, shaking his temples, white with hoary hair, +says: “How fortunate wouldst thou be, if thou as well couldst become +deprived of this light, that thou mightst not behold the rites of +Bacchus. For soon the day will come, and even now I predict that it is +not far off, when the new {God} Liber, the son of Semele, shall come +hither. Unless thou shalt vouchsafe him the honor of a temple, thou +shalt be scattered, torn in pieces, in a thousand places, and with thy +blood thou shalt pollute both the woods, and thy mother and the sisters +of thy mother. {These things} will come to pass; for thou wilt not +vouchsafe honor to the Divinity; and thou wilt complain that under this +darkness I have seen too much.†+ +The son of Echion drives him away as he says such things as these. +Confirmation follows his words, and the predictions of the prophet are +fulfilled. Liber comes, and the fields resound with festive howlings. +The crowd runs out; both matrons and new-married women mixed with the +men, both high and low, are borne along to the {celebration of} rites +{till then} unknown. “What madness,†says Pentheus, “has confounded your +minds, O ye warlike men,[80] descendants of the Dragon? Can brass +knocked against brass prevail so much with you? And the pipe with the +bending horn, and these magical delusions? And shall the yells of women, +and madness produced by wine, and troops of effeminate {wretches}, and +empty tambourines[81] prevail over you, whom neither the warrior’s sword +nor the trumpet could affright, nor troops with weapons prepared {for +fight}? Am I to wonder at you, old men, who, carried over distant seas, +have fixed in these abodes a {new} Tyre, and your banished household +Gods, {but who} now allow them to be taken without a struggle? Or you, +of more vigorous age and nearer to my own, ye youths; whom it was +befitting to be brandishing arms, and not the thyrsus,[82] and to be +covered with helmets, not green leaves? Do be mindful, I entreat you, of +what race you are sprung, and assume the courage of that dragon, who +{though but} one, destroyed many. He died for his springs and his +stream; but do you conquer for your own fame. He put the valiant to +death; do you expel the feeble {foe}, and regain your country’s honor. +If the fates forbid Thebes to stand long, I wish that engines of war[83] +and men should demolish the walls, and that fire and sword should +resound. {Then} should we be wretched without {any} fault {of our own}, +and our fate were to be lamented, {but} not concealed, and our tears +would be free from shame. But now Thebes will be taken by an unarmed +boy, whom neither wars delight, nor weapons, nor the employment of +horses, but hair wet with myrrh, and effeminate chaplets, and purple, +and gold interwoven with embroidered garments; whom I, indeed, (do you +only stand aside) will presently compel to own that his father is +assumed, and that his sacred rites are fictitious. Has Acrisius[84] +courage enough to despise the vain Deity, and to shut the gates of Argos +against his approach; and shall this stranger affright Pentheus with all +Thebes? Go quickly, (this order he gives to his servants), go, and bring +hither in chains the ringleader. Let there be no slothful delay in +{executing} my commands.†+ +His grandfather,[85] {Cadmus}, Athamas, and the rest of the company of +his friends rebuke him with expostulations, and in vain try to restrain +him. By their admonition he becomes more violent, and by being curbed +his fury is irritated, and is on the increase, and the very restraint +did him injury. So have I beheld a torrent, where nothing obstructed it +in its course, run gently and with moderate noise; but wherever beams +and stones in its way withheld it, it ran foaming and raging, and more +violent from its obstruction. Behold! {the servants} return, all stained +with blood; and when their master inquires where Bacchus is, they deny +that they have seen Bacchus. “But this one,†say they, “we have taken, +who was his attendant and minister in his sacred rites.†And {then} they +deliver one, who, from the Etrurian nation, had followed the sacred +rites of the Deity, with his hands bound behind his back. + +Pentheus looks at him with eyes that anger has made terrible, and +although he can scarcely defer the time of his punishment, he says, +“O {wretch}, doomed to destruction, and about, by thy death, to set an +example to others, tell me thy name, and the name of thy parents, and +thy country, and why thou dost attend the sacred rites of a new +fashion.†He, void of fear, says, “My name is AcÅ“tes; Mæonia[86] is my +country; my parents were of humble station. My father left me no fields +for the hardy oxen to till, no wool-bearing flocks, nor any herds. He +himself was {but} poor, and he was wont with line, and hooks, to deceive +the leaping fishes, and to take them with the rod. His trade was his +{only} possession. When he gave that calling over {to me}, he said, +‘Receive, as the successor and heir of my employment, those riches which +I possess;’ and at his death he left me nothing but the streams. This +one thing alone can I call my patrimony. {But} soon, that I might not +always be confined to the same rocks, I learned with a steadying right +hand to guide the helm of the ship, and I made observations with my eyes +of the showery Constellation of the Olenian she-goat,[87] and +Taygete,[88] and the Hyades,[89] and the Bear, and the quarters of the +winds, and the harbors fit for ships. By chance, as I was making for +Delos, I touched at the coast of the land of Dia,[90] and came up to the +shore by {plying} the oars on the right side; and I gave a nimble leap, +and lighted upon the wet sand. When the night was past, and the dawn +first began to grow red, I arose and ordered {my men} to take in fresh +water, and I pointed out the way which led to the stream. I myself, from +a lofty eminence, looked around {to see} what the breeze promised me; +and {then} I called my companions, and returned to the vessel. ‘Lo! we +are here,’ says Opheltes, my chief mate; and having found, as he +thought, a prize in the lonely fields, he was leading along the shore, +a boy with {all} the beauty of a girl. He, heavy with wine and sleep, +seemed to stagger, and to follow with difficulty. I examined his dress, +his looks, and his gait, {and} I saw nothing there which could be taken +to be mortal. I both was sensible of it, and I said to my companions, ‘I +am in doubt what Deity is in that body; but in that body a Deity there +is. Whoever thou art, O be propitious and assist our toils; and pardon +these as well.’ ‘Cease praying for us,’ said Dictys, than whom there was +not another more nimble at climbing to the main-top-yards, and at +sliding down by catching hold of a rope. This Libys, this the +yellow-haired Melanthus, the guardian of the prow, and this Alcimedon +approved of; and Epopeus[91] as well, the cheerer of their spirits, who +by his voice gave both rest and time to the oars; {and} so did all the +rest; so blind is the greed for booty. ‘However,’ I said, ‘I will not +allow this ship to be damaged by this sacred freight. Here I have the +greatest share of right.’ and I opposed them at the entrance. + +“Lycabas, the boldest of all the number, was enraged, who, expelled from +a city of Etruria, was suffering exile as the punishment for a dreadful +murder.[92] He, while I was resisting, seized hold of my throat with his +youthful fist, and shaking me, had thrown me overboard into the sea, if +I had not, although stunned, held fast by grasping a rope. The impious +crew approved of the deed. Then at last Bacchus (for Bacchus it was), as +though his sleep had been broken by the noise, and his sense was +returning into his breast after {much} wine, said: ‘What are you doing? +What is this noise? Tell me, sailors, by what means have I come hither? +Whither do you intend to carry me?’ ‘Lay aside thy fears,’ said Proreus, +‘and tell us what port thou wouldst wish to reach. Thou shalt stop at +the land that thou desirest.’ ‘Direct your course then to Naxos,’[93] +says Liber, ‘that is my home; it shall prove a hospitable land for you.’ + +“In their deceit they swore by the ocean and by all the Deities, that so +it should be; and bade me give sail to the painted ship. Naxos was to +our right; {and} as I was {accordingly} setting sail for the right hand, +every one said for himself, ‘What art thou about, madman? What insanity +possesses thee, AcÅ“tes? Stand away to the left.’ The greater part +signified {their meaning} to me by signs; some whispered in my ear what +they wanted. I was at a loss, and I said, ‘Let some one else take the +helm;’ and I withdrew myself from the execution both of their +wickedness, and of my own calling. I was reviled by them all, and the +whole crew muttered {reproaches} against me. Æthalion, among them, says, +‘As if, forsooth, all our safety is centred in thee,’ and he himself +comes up, and takes my duty; and leaving Naxos, he steers a different +course. Then the God, mocking them as if he had at last but that moment +discovered their knavery, looks down upon the sea from the crooked +stern; and, like one weeping, he says: ‘These are not the shores, +sailors, that you have promised me; this is not the land desired by me. +By what act have I deserved this treatment? What honor is it to you, if +you {that are} young men, deceive a {mere} boy? if you {that are} many, +deceive me, {who am but} one?’ I had been weeping for some time. The +impious gang laughed at my tears, and beat the sea with hastening oars. +Now by himself do I swear to thee (and no God is there more powerful +than he), that I am relating things to thee as true, as they are beyond +all belief. The ship stood still upon the ocean, no otherwise than if it +was occupying a dry dock. They, wondering at it, persisted in the plying +of their oars; they unfurled their sails, and endeavored to speed onward +with this twofold aid. Ivy impeded the oars,[94] and twined {around +them} in encircling wreaths; and clung to the sails with heavy clusters +of berries. He himself, having his head encircled with bunches of +grapes, brandished a lance covered with vine leaves. Around him, tigers +and visionary forms of lynxes, and savage bodies of spotted panthers, +were extended. + +“The men leaped overboard, whether it was madness or fear that caused +this; and first {of all}, Medon began to grow black with fins, with a +flattened body, and to bend in the curvature of the back-bone. To him +Lycabas said, ‘Into what prodigy art thou changing?’ and, as he spoke, +the opening of his mouth was wide, his nose became crooked, and his +hardened skin received scales upon it. But Libys, while he was +attempting to urge on the resisting oars, saw his hands shrink into a +small compass, and now to be hands no longer, {and} that now, {in fact}, +they may be pronounced fins. Another, desirous to extend his arms to the +twisting ropes, had no arms, and becoming crooked, with a body deprived +of limbs, he leaped into the waves; the end of his tail was hooked, just +as the horns of the half-moon are curved. They flounce about on every +side, and bedew {the ship} with plenteous spray, and again they emerge, +and once more they return beneath the waves. They sport with {all} the +appearance of a dance, and toss their sportive bodies, and blow forth +the sea, received within their wide nostrils. Of twenty the moment +before (for so many did that ship carry), I was the only one remaining. +The God encouraged me, frightened and chilled with my body all +trembling, and scarcely myself, saying, ‘Shake off thy fear, and make +for Dia.’ Arriving there, I attended upon the sacred rites of Bacchus, +at the kindled altars.†+ +“We have lent ear to a long story,â€[95] says Pentheus, “that our anger +might consume its strength in its tediousness. Servants! drag him +headlong, and send to Stygian night his body, racked with dreadful +tortures.†At once the Etrurian AcÅ“tes, dragged away, is shut up in a +strong prison; and while the cruel instruments of the death that is +ordered, and the iron and the fire are being made ready, the report is +that the doors opened of their own accord, and that the chains, of their +own accord, slipped from off his arms, no one loosening them. + +The son of Echion persists: and now he does not command others to go, +but goes himself to where Cithæron,[96] chosen for the celebration of +these sacred rites, was resounding with singing, and the shrill voices +of the votaries of Bacchus. Just as the high-mettled steed neighs, when +the warlike trumpeter gives the alarm with the sounding brass, and +conceives a desire for battle, so did the sky, struck with the +long-drawn howlings, excite Pentheus, and his wrath was rekindled on +hearing the clamor. There was, about the middle of the mountain, the +woods skirting its extremity, a plain free from trees, {and} visible on +every side. Here his mother was the first to see him looking on the +sacred rites with profane eyes; she first was moved by a frantic +impulse, {and} she first wounded her {son}, Pentheus, by hurling her +thyrsus, {and} cried out, “Ho! come, my two sisters;[97] that boar +which, of enormous size, is roaming amid our fields, that boar I must +strike.†All the raging multitude rushes upon him alone; all collect +together, and all follow him, now trembling, now uttering words less +atrocious {than before}, now blaming himself, now confessing that he has +offended. + +However, on being wounded, he says, “Give me thy aid, Autonoë, my aunt; +let the ghost of Actæon[98] influence thy feelings.†She knows not what +Actæon {means}, and tears away his right hand as he is praying; the +other is dragged off by the violence of Ino. The wretched {man} has +{now} no arms to extend to his mother; but showing his maimed body, with +the limbs torn off, he says, “Look at this, my mother!†At the sight +Agave howls aloud, and tosses her neck, and shakes her locks in the air; +and seizing his head, torn off, with her blood-stained fingers, she +cries out, “Ho! my companions, this victory is our work!†+ +The wind does not more speedily bear off, from a lofty tree, the leaves +nipped by the cold of autumn, and now adhering with difficulty, than +were the limbs of the man, torn asunder by their accursed hands. +Admonished by such examples, the Ismenian matrons frequent the new +worship, and offer frankincense, and reverence the sacred altars. + + [Footnote 78: _Cities of Achaia._--Ver. 511. Achaia was properly + the name of a part of Peloponnesus, on the gulf of Corinth; but + the name is very frequently applied to the whole of Greece.] + + [Footnote 79: _Pentheus._--Ver. 513. He was the son of Echion and + Agave, the daughter of Cadmus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warlike men._--Ver. 531. ‘Mavortia.’ Mavors was a + name of Mars, frequently used by the poets. The Thebans were + ‘proles Mavortia,’ as being sprung from the teeth of the dragon, + who was said to be a son of Mars.] + + [Footnote 81: _Tambourines._--Ver. 537. ‘Tympana.’ These + instruments, among the ancients, were of various kinds. Some + resembled the modern tambourine; while others presented a flat + circular disk on the upper surface, and swelled out beneath, like + the kettle-drum of the present day. They were covered with the + hides of oxen, or of asses, and were beaten either with a stick or + the hand. They were especially used in the rites of Bacchus, and + of Cybele.] + + [Footnote 82: _The thyrsus._--Ver. 542. The thyrsus was a long + staff, carried by Bacchus, and by the Satyrs and Bacchanalians + engaged in the worship of the God of the grape. It was sometimes + terminated by the apple of the pine, or fir-cone, the fir-tree + being esteemed sacred to Bacchus, from the turpentine flowing + therefrom and its apples being used in making wine. It is, + however, frequently represented as terminating in a knot of ivy, + or vine leaves, with grapes or berries arranged in a conical form. + Sometimes, also, a white fillet was tied to the pole just below + the head. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, and Macrobius, that + Bacchus converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers + into weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. + A wound with its point was supposed to produce madness.] + + [Footnote 83: _Engines of war._--Ver. 549. ‘Tormenta.’ These were + the larger engines of destruction used in ancient warfare. They + were so called from the verb ‘torqueo,’ ‘to twist,’ from their + being formed by the twisting of hair, fibre, or strips of leather. + The different sorts were called ‘balistæ’ and ‘catapultæ.’ The + former were used to impel stones; the latter, darts and arrows. In + sieges, the ‘Aries,’ or ‘battering ram,’ which received its name + from having an iron head resembling that of a ram, was employed in + destroying the lower part of the wall, while the ‘balista’ was + overthrowing the battlements, and the ‘catapulta’ was employed to + shoot any of the besieged who appeared between them. The ‘balistæ’ + and ‘catapultæ’ were divided into the ‘greater’ and the ‘less.’ + When New Carthage, the arsenal of the Carthaginians, was taken, + according to Livy (b. xxvi. c. 47), there were found in it 120 + large and 281 small catapultæ, and twenty-three large and fifty-two + small balistæ. The various kinds of ‘tormenta’ are said to have + been introduced about the time of Alexander the Great. If so, + Ovid must here be committing an anachronism, in making Pentheus + speak of ‘tormenta,’ who lived so many ages before that time. To + commit anachronisms with impunity seems, however, to be the poet’s + privilege, from Ovid downwards to our Shakspere, where he makes + Falstaff talk familiarly of the West Indies. We find the + dictionaries giving ‘tormentum’ as the Latin word for ‘cannon;’ so + that in this case we may say not that ‘necessity is the mother of + invention,’ but rather that she is ‘the parent of anachronism.’] + + [Footnote 84: _Acrisius._--Ver. 559. He was a king of Argos, the + son of Abas, and the father of Danaë. He refused, and probably + with justice, to admit Bacchus or his rites within the gates of + his city.] + + [Footnote 85: _His grandfather._--Ver. 563. Athamas was the son of + Æolus, and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus; + who being the father of Agave, the mother of Pentheus, is the + grandfather mentioned in the present line.] + + [Footnote 86: _Mæonia._--Ver. 583. Colonists were said to have + proceeded from Lydia, or Mæonia, to the coasts of Etruria. Bacchus + assumes the name of AcÅ“tes, as corresponding to the Greek epithet + ἀκοίτης, ‘watchful,’ or ‘sleepless;’ which ought to be the + characteristic of the careful ‘pilot,’ or ‘helmsman.’] + + [Footnote 87: _Olenian she-goat._--Ver. 594. Amalthea, the goat + that suckled Jupiter, is called Olenian, either because she was + reared in Olenus, a city of BÅ“otia, or because she was placed as a + Constellation between the arms, ὠλέναι, of the Constellation + Auriga, or the Charioteer. The rising and setting of this + Constellation were supposed to produce showers.] + + [Footnote 88: _Taygete._--Ver. 594. She was one of the Pleiades, + the daughters of Atlas, who were placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 89: _Hyades._--Ver. 594. These were the Dodonides, or + nurses of Bacchus, whom Jupiter, as a mark of his favor, placed in + the number of the Constellations. Their name is derived from ὕειν, + ‘to rain.’] + + [Footnote 90: _Dia._--Ver. 596. This was another name of the Isle + of Naxos. Gierig thinks that the reading here is neither ‘Diæ’ nor + ‘Chiæ,’ which are the two common readings; as the situation of + neither the Isle of Naxos nor that of Chios, would suit the course + of the ship, as stated in the text. He thinks that the Isle of + Ceos, or Cea, is meant, which Ptolemy calls Κια, and which he + thinks ought here to be written ‘Ciæ.’] + + [Footnote 91: _Epopeus._--Ver. 619. He was the κελεύστης, + ‘pausarius,’ or keeper of time for the rowers.] + + [Footnote 92: _A dreadful murder._--Ver. 626. They seem to have + been composed of much the same kind of lawless materials that + formed the daring crews of the buccanier Morgan and Captain Kydd + in more recent times.] + + [Footnote 93: _Naxos._--Ver. 636. This was the most famous island + of the group of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 94: _Ivy impeded the oars._--Ver. 664. Hyginus tells us, + that Bacchus changed the oars into thyrsi, the sails into clusters + of grapes, and the rigging into ivy branches. In the Homeric hymn + on this subject we find the ship flowing with wine, vines growing + on the sails, ivy twining round the mast, and the benches wreathed + with chaplets.] + + [Footnote 95: _To a long story._--Ver. 692. Clarke renders this + line, ‘We have lent our ears to a long tale of a tub.’] + + [Footnote 96: _Cithæron._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + BÅ“otia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus there celebrated.] + + [Footnote 97: _My two sisters._--Ver. 713. These were Ino and + Autonoë.] + + [Footnote 98: _Ghost of Actæon._--Ver. 720. He appeals to Autonoë, + the mother of Actæon, to remember the sad fate of her own son, and + to show him some mercy; but in vain: for, as one commentator on + the passage says, ‘Drunkenness had taken away both her reason and + her memory.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero mentions two Deities of the name of Bacchus; while other + authors speak of several of that name. The first was the son of + Jupiter and Proserpina; the second was the son of the Nile, and the + founder of the city of Nysa, in Arabia; Caprius was the father of the + third. The fourth was the son of the Moon and Jupiter, in honor of + whom the Orphic ceremonies were performed. The fifth was the son of + Nisus and Thione, and the instituter of the Trieterica. Diodorus + Siculus mentions but three of the name of Bacchus; namely, the Indian, + surnamed the bearded Bacchus, who conquered India; the son of Jupiter + and Ceres, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and + Semele, who was called the Theban Bacchus. + + The most reasonable opinion seems to be that of Herodotus and + Plutarch, who inform us, that the true Bacchus, and the most ancient + of them all, was born in Egypt, and was originally called Osiris. The + worship of that Divinity passed from Egypt to Greece, where it + received great alterations; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was + Orpheus who introduced it, and made those innovations. In gratitude to + the family of Cadmus, from which he had received many favors, he + dedicated to Bacchus, the grandson of Cadmus, those mysteries which + had been instituted in honor of Osiris, whose worship was then but + little known in Greece. Diodorus Siculus says, that as Semele was + delivered of Bacchus in the seventh month, it was reported that + Jupiter shut him up in his thigh, to carry him there the remaining + time of gestation. This Fable was probably founded on the meaning of + an equivocal word. The Greek word μηÏὸς signifies either ‘a thigh,’ or + ‘the hollow of a mountain.’ Thus the Greeks, instead of saying that + Bacchus had been nursed on Mount Nysa, in Arabia, according to the + Egyptian version of the story, published that he had been carried in + the thigh of Jupiter. + + As Bacchus applied himself to the cultivation of the vine, and taught + his subjects several profitable and necessary arts, he was honored as + a Divinity; and having won the esteem of many neighboring countries, + his worship soon spread. Among his several festivals there was one + called the Trieterica, which was celebrated every three years. In that + feast the Bacchantes carried the figure of the God in a chariot drawn + by two tigers, or panthers; and, crowned with vine leaves, and holding + thyrsi in their hands, they ran in a frantic manner around the + chariot, filling the air with the noise of tambourines and brazen + instruments, shouting ‘Evoë. Bacche!’ and calling the God by his + several names of Bromius, Lyæus, Evan, Lenæus, and Sabazius. To this + ceremonial, received from the Egyptians, the Greeks added other + ceremonies replete with abominable licentiousness, and repulsive to + common decency. These were often suppressed by public enactment, but + were as often re-established by the votaries of lewdness and + immodesty, and such as found in these festivals a pretext and + opportunity for the commission of the most horrible offences. + + The story of the unfortunate fate of Pentheus is supposed by the + ancient writers to have been strictly true. Pentheus, the son of + Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, having succeeded his + grandfather in his kingdom, is supposed, like him, to have opposed + those abuses that had crept into the mysteries of Bacchus, and went to + Mount Cithæron for the purpose of chastising the Bacchantes, who were + celebrating his festival; whereupon, in their frantic madness, the + worshippers, among whom were his mother and his aunt, tore him in + pieces. Pausanias, however, says that Pentheus really was a wicked + prince; and he somewhat varies his story, as he tells us that having + got into a tree to overlook the secret ceremonies of the orgies, + Pentheus was discovered by the Bacchantes, who punished his curiosity + by putting him to death. The story of the transformation of the + mariners is supposed by Bochart to have been founded on the adventure + of certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the + figure of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called + ‘tursio,’ probably the porpoise, or sea-hog. They were probably + shipwrecked near the Isle of Naxos, which was sacred to Bacchus, whose + mysteries they had perhaps neglected, or even despised. On this + slender ground, perhaps, the report spread, that the God himself had + destroyed them, as a punishment for their impiety. + + + + +BOOK THE FOURTH. + + +FABLE I. [IV.1-166] + + The daughters of Minyas, instead of celebrating the festival of + Bacchus, apply themselves to other pursuits during the ceremonies; and + among several narratives which they relate to pass away the time, they + divert themselves with the story of the adventures of Pyramus and + Thisbe. These lovers having made an appointment to meet without the + walls of Babylon, Thisbe arrives first; but at the sight of a lioness, + she runs to hide herself in a cave, and in her alarm, drops her veil. + Pyramus, arriving soon after, finds the veil of his mistress stained + with blood; and believing her to be dead, kills himself with his own + sword. Thisbe returns from the cave; and finding Pyramus weltering in + his blood, she plunges the same fatal weapon into her own breast. + +But Alcithoë, the daughter of Minyas,[1] does not think that the +rites[2] of the God ought to be received; but still, in her rashness, +denies that Bacchus is the progeny of Jupiter; and she has her +sisters[3] as partners in her impiety. + +The priest had ordered both mistresses and maids, laying aside their +employments, to have their breasts covered with skins, and to loosen the +fillets of their hair, and {to put} garlands on their locks, and to take +the verdant thyrsi in their hands; and had prophesied that severe would +be the resentment of the Deity, {if} affronted. Both matrons and +new-married women obey, and lay aside their webs and work-baskets,[4] +and their tasks unfinished; and offer frankincense, and invoke both +Bacchus and Bromius,[5] and Lyæus,[6] and the son of the Flames, and the +Twice-Born, and the only one that had two mothers.[7] To these is added +{the name of} Nyseus, and the unshorn Thyoneus,[8] and with Lenæus,[9] +the planter of the genial grape, and Nyctelius,[10] and father Eleleus, +and Iacchus,[11] and Evan,[12] and a great many other names, which thou, +Liber, hast besides, throughout the nations of Greece. For thine is +youth everlasting; thou art a boy to all time, thou art beheld {as} the +most beauteous {of all} in high heaven; thou hast the features of a +virgin, when thou standest without thy horns. By thee the East was +conquered, as far as where swarthy India is bounded by the remote +Ganges. Thou {God}, worthy of our veneration, didst smite Pentheus, and +the axe-bearing Lycurgus,[13] sacrilegious {mortals}; thou didst hurl +the bodies of the Etrurians into the sea. Thou controllest the neck of +the lynxes yoked to thy chariot, graced with the painted reins. The +Bacchanals and the Satyrs follow {thee}; the drunken old man, too, +{Silenus}, who supports his reeling limbs with a staff, and sticks by no +means very fast to his bending ass. And wherever thou goest, the shouts +of youths, and together the voices of women, and tambourines beaten with +the hands, and hollow cymbals resound, and the box-wood {pipe}, with its +long bore. The Ismenian matrons ask thee to show thyself mild and +propitious, and celebrate thy sacred rites as prescribed. + +The daughters of Minyas alone, within doors, interrupting the festival +with unseasonable labor,[14] are either carding wool, or twirling the +threads with their fingers, or are plying at the web, and keeping the +handmaids to their work. One of them, {as she is} drawing the thread +with her smooth thumb, says, “While others are idling, and thronging to +{these} fanciful rites, let us, whom Pallas, a better Deity, occupies, +alleviate the useful toil of our hands with varying discourse; and let +us relate by turns to our disengaged ears, for the general {amusement}, +something each in our turn, that will not permit the time to seem long.†+They approve of what she says, and her sisters bid her to be the first +to tell her story. + +She considers which of many she shall tell (for she knows many a one), +and she is in doubt whether she shall tell of thee, Babylonian +Dercetis,[15] whom the people of Palestine[16] believe to inhabit the +pools, with thy changed form, scales covering thy limbs; or rather how +her daughter, taking wings, passed her latter years in whitened turrets; +or how a Naiad,[17] by charms and too potent herbs, changed the bodies +of the young men into silent fishes, until she suffered the same +herself. Or how the tree which bore white fruit {formerly}, now bears it +of purple hue, from the contact of blood. This {story} pleases her; +this, because it was no common tale, she began in manner such as this, +while the wool followed the thread:-- + +“Pyramus and Thisbe, the one the most beauteous of youths,[18] the other +preferred before {all} the damsels that the East contained, lived in +adjoining houses; where Semiramis is said to have surrounded her lofty +city[19] with walls of brick.[20] The nearness caused their first +acquaintance, and their first advances {in love}; with time their +affection increased. They would have united themselves, too, by the tie +of marriage, but their fathers forbade it. A thing which they could not +forbid, they were both inflamed, with minds equally captivated. There is +no one acquainted with it; by nods and signs, they hold converse. And +the more the fire is smothered, the more, when {so} smothered, does it +burn. The party-wall, common to the two houses, was cleft by a small +chink, which it had got formerly, when it was built. This defect, +remarked by no one for so many ages, you lovers (what does not love +perceive?) first found one, and you made it a passage for your voices, +and the accents of love used to pass through it in safety, with the +gentlest murmur. Oftentimes, after they had taken their stations, Thisbe +on one side, {and} Pyramus on the other, and the breath of their mouths +had been {mutually} caught by turns, they used to say, ‘Envious wall, +why dost thou stand in the way of lovers? what great matter were it, for +thee to suffer us to be joined with our entire bodies? Or if that is too +much, that, at least, thou shouldst open, for the exchange of kisses. +Nor are we ungrateful; we confess that we are indebted to thee, that a +passage has been given for our words to our loving ears.’ Having said +this much, in vain, on their respective sides, about night they said, +‘Farewell’; and gave those kisses each on their own side, which did not +reach the other side. + +“The following morning had removed the fires of the night, and the Sun, +with its rays, had dried the grass wet with rime, {when} they met +together at the wonted spot. Then, first complaining much in low +murmurs, they determine, in the silent night, to try to deceive their +keepers, and to steal out of doors; and when they have left the house, +to quit the buildings of the city as well: but that they may not have to +wander, roaming in the open fields, to meet at the tomb of Ninus,[21] +and to conceal themselves beneath the shade of a tree. There was there a +lofty mulberry tree, very full of snow-white fruit, quite close to a +cold spring. The arrangement suits them; and the light, seeming to +depart {but} slowly, is buried in the waters, and from the same waters +the night arises. The clever Thisbe, turning the hinge, gets out in the +dark, and deceives her {attendants}, and, having covered her face, +arrives at the tomb, and sits down under the tree agreed upon; love made +her bold. Lo! a lioness approaches, having her foaming jaws besmeared +with the recent slaughter of oxen, about to quench her thirst with the +water of the neighboring spring. The Babylonian Thisbe sees her at a +distance, by the rays of the moon, and with a trembling foot she flies +to a dark cave; and, while she flies, her veil falling from her back, +she leaves it behind. When the savage lioness has quenched her thirst +with plenteous water, as she is returning into the woods, she tears the +thin covering, found by chance without Thisbe herself, with her +blood-stained mouth. + +“Pyramus, going out later {than Thisbe}, saw the evident footmarks of a +wild beast, in the deep dust, and grew pale all over his face. But, as +soon as he found her veil, as well, dyed with blood, he said: ‘One night +will be the ruin of two lovers, of whom she was the most deserving of a +long life. My soul is guilty; ’tis I that have destroyed thee, much to +be lamented; who bade thee to come by night to places full of terror, +and came not hither first. O, whatever lions are lurking beneath this +rock, tear my body in pieces, and devour my accursed entrails with +ruthless jaws. But it is the part of a coward to wish for death.’ He +takes up the veil of Thisbe, and he takes it with himself to the shade +of the tree agreed on, and, after he has bestowed tears on the +well-known garment, he gives kisses {to the same}, and he says, +‘Receive, now, a draught of my blood as well!’ and then plunges the +sword, with which he is girt, into his bowels; and without delay, as he +is dying, he draws it out of the warm wound. As he falls on his back +upon the ground, the blood spurts forth on high, not otherwise than as +when a pipe is burst on the lead decaying,[22] and shoots out afar the +liquid water from the hissing flaw, and cleaves the air with its jet. +The fruit of the tree, by the sprinkling of the blood, are changed to a +dark tint, and the root, soaked with the gore, tints the hanging +mulberries with a purple hue. Behold! not yet having banished her fear, +{Thisbe} returns, that she may not disappoint her lover, and seeks for +the youth both with her eyes and her affection, and longs to tell him +how great dangers she has escaped. And when she observes the spot, and +the altered appearance of the tree, she doubts if it is the same, so +uncertain does the color of the fruit make her. While she is in doubt, +she sees palpitating limbs throbbing upon the bloody ground; she draws +back her foot, and having her face paler than box-wood,[23] she shudders +like the sea, which trembles[24] when its surface is skimmed by a gentle +breeze. But, after pausing a time, she had recognized her own lover, she +smote her arms, undeserving {of such usage}, and tearing her hair, and +embracing the much-loved body, she filled the gashes with her tears, and +mingled her {tokens of} sorrow with his blood; and imprinting kisses on +his cold features, she exclaimed, ‘Pyramus! what disaster has taken thee +away from me? Pyramus! answer me; ’tis thy own Thisbe, dearest, that +calls thee; hear me, and raise thy prostrate features.’ + +“At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus raised his eyes, now heavy with death, +and, after he had seen her, he closed them again. After she had +perceived her own garment, and beheld, too, the ivory {sheath}[25] +without its sword, she said, ‘’Tis thy own hand, and love, that has +destroyed thee, ill-fated {youth}! I, too, have a hand bold {enough} for +this one purpose; I have love as well; this shall give me strength for +the wound. I will follow thee in thy death, and I shall be called the +most unhappy cause and companion of thy fate, and thou who, alas! +couldst be torn from me by death alone, shalt not be able, even by +death, to be torn from me. And you, O most wretched parents of mine and +his, be but prevailed upon, in this one thing, by the entreaties of us +both, that you will not deny those whom their constant love {and} whom +their last moments have joined, to be buried in the same tomb. But thou, +O tree, which now with thy boughs dost overshadow the luckless body of +{but} one, art fated soon to cover {those} of two. Retain a token of +{this our} fate, and ever bear fruit black and suited for mourning, as a +memorial of the blood of us two.’ {Thus} she said; and having fixed the +point under the lower part of her breast, she fell upon the sword, which +still was reeking with his blood. + +“Her prayers, however, moved the Gods, {and} moved their parents. For +the color of the fruit, when it has fully ripened, is black;[26] and +what was left of them, from the funeral pile, reposed in the same urn.†+ + [Footnote 1: _Minyas._--Ver. 1. Alcithoë was the daughter of + Minyas, who, according to some, was the son of Orchomenus, + according to others, his father. Pausanias says that the BÅ“otians, + over whom he reigned, were called ‘Minyæ’ from him; but he makes + no allusion to the females who are here mentioned by Ovid.] + + [Footnote 2: _Rites._--Ver. 1. ‘Orgia:’ this was the original name + of the Dionysia, or festival of Bacchus; but in time the word came + to be applied to any occasion of festivity.] + + [Footnote 3: _Her sisters._--Ver. 3. The names of the sisters of + Alcithoë, according to Plutarch, were Aristippe and Leucippe. The + names of the three, according to Ælian, were Alcathoë, Leucippe, + and Aristippe, who is sometimes called Arsinoë. The latter author + says, that the truth of the case was, that they were decent women, + fond of their husbands and families, who preferred staying at + home, and attending to their domestic concerns, to running after + the new rites; on which it was said, by their enemies, that + Bacchus had punished them.] + + [Footnote 4: _Work-baskets._--Ver. 10. The ‘calathus,’ which was + called by the Greeks κάλαθος, καλαθίσκος, and τάλαÏος, generally + signifies the basket in which women placed their work, and + especially the materials used for spinning. They were generally + made of osiers and reeds, but sometimes of more valuable + materials, such as silver, perhaps in filagree work. ‘Calathi’ + were also used for carrying fruits and flowers. Virgil (Ecl. v. l. + 71) speaks of cups for holding wine, under the name of ‘Calathi.’] + + [Footnote 5: _Bromius._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Bromius, from + βÏέμω, ‘to cry out,’ or ‘shout,’ from the yells and noise made by + his worshippers, whose peculiar cries were, Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, + Ιώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– σαβοῖ. ‘Evoë, Bacche! O, Iacche! Io, Bacche! Evoë + sabæ!’] + + [Footnote 6: _Lyæus._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Lyæus, from the + Greek word, λύειν, ‘to loosen,’ or ‘relax,’ because wine dispels + care.] + + [Footnote 7: _That had two mothers._--Ver. 12. The word ‘bimater’ + seems to have been fancied by Ovid as an appropriate epithet for + Bacchus, Jupiter having undertaken the duties of a mother for him, + in the latter months of gestation.] + + [Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._--Ver. 13. Bacchus was called Thyoneus, + either from Semele, his mother, one of whose names was Thyone, or + from the Greek, θύειν, ‘to be frantic,’ from which origin the + Bacchanals also received their name of Thyades.] + + [Footnote 9: _Lenæus._--Ver. 14. From the Greek word λῆνος, ‘a + wine-press.’] + + [Footnote 10: _Nyctelius._--Ver. 15. From the Greek word νὺξ, + ‘night,’ because his orgies were celebrated by night. Eleleus is + from the shout, or ‘huzza’ of the Greeks, which was ελελεῦ.] + + [Footnote 11: _Iacchus._--Ver. 15. From the Greek ἰαχὴ, ‘clamor,’ + or ‘noise.’] + + [Footnote 12: _Evan._--Ver. 15. From the exclamation, Εá½Î¿á¿–, or + ‘Evoë’ which the Bacchanals used in performing his orgies.] + + [Footnote 13: _Lycurgus._--Ver. 22. He was a king of Thrace, who + having slighted the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with + madness, and hewed off his own legs with a hatchet, and, according + to Apollodorus, mistaking his own son Dryas for a vine, destroyed + him with the same weapon.] + + [Footnote 14: _Unseasonable labor._--Ver. 32. ‘Minerva;’ the name + of the Goddess Minerva is here used for the exercise of the art of + spinning, of which she was the patroness. The term ‘intempestiva’ + is appropriately applied, as the arts of industry and frugality, + which were first invented by Minerva, but ill accorded with the + idle and vicious mode of celebrating the festival of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 15: _Dercetis._--Ver. 45. Lucian, speaking of Dercetis, + or Derceto, says, ‘I have seen in PhÅ“nicia a statue of this + goddess, of a very singular kind. From the middle upwards, it + represents a woman, but below it terminates in a fish. The statue + of her, which is shown at Hieropolis, represents her wholly as a + woman.’ He further says, that the temple of this last city was + thought by some to have been built by Semiramis, who consecrated + it not to Juno, as is generally believed, but to her own mother, + Derceto. Atergatis was another name of this Goddess. She was said, + by an illicit amour, to have been the mother of Semiramis, and in + despair, to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on which + she was changed into a fish.] + + [Footnote 16: _Palestine._--Ver. 46. Palæstina, or Philistia, + in which Ascalon was situate, was a part of Syria, lying in its + south-western extremity.] + + [Footnote 17: _How a Naiad._--Ver. 49. The Naiad here mentioned is + supposed to have been a Nymph of the Island of the Sun, called + also Nosola, between Taprobana (the modern Ceylon) and the coast + of Carmania (perhaps Coromandel), who was in the habit of changing + such youths as fell into her hands into fishes. As a reward for + her cruelty, she herself was changed into a fish by the Sun.] + + [Footnote 18: _Most beauteous of youths._--Ver. 55. Clarke + translates ‘juvenum pulcherrimus alter,’ ‘one of the most handsome + of all the young fellows.’] + + [Footnote 19: _Her lofty city._--Ver. 57. The magnificence of + ancient Babylon has been remarked by many ancient writers, from + Herodotus downwards. Its walls are said to have been 60 miles in + compass, 87 feet in thickness, and 350 feet in height.] + + [Footnote 20: _Walls of brick._--Ver. 58. The walls were built by + Semiramis of bricks dried in the sun, cemented together with + layers of bitumen.] + + [Footnote 21: _The tomb of Ninus._--Ver. 88. According to Diodorus + Siculus, the sepulchre of Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was + ten stadia in length, and nine in depth; it had the appearance of + a vast citadel, and was at a considerable distance from the city + of Babylon. Commentators have expressed some surprise that Ovid + here uses the word ‘busta,’ for ‘tomb,’ as the place of meeting + for these chaste lovers, as the prostitutes of Rome used to haunt + the ‘busta,’ or ‘tombs;’ whence they obtained the epithet of + ‘bustuariæ.’] + + [Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._--Ver. 122. ‘Fistula’ here means + ‘a water-pipe.’ Vitruvius speaks of three methods of conveying + water; by channels of masonry, earthen pipes, and leaden pipes. + The latter were smaller, and more generally used; to them + reference is here made. They were formed by bending plates of lead + into a form, not cylindrical, but the section of which was oblong, + and tapering towards the top like a pear. The description here + given, though somewhat homely, is extremely natural, and, as + frequent experience shows us, depicts the results when the + soldering of a water-pipe has become decayed.] + + [Footnote 23: _Paler than box-wood._--Ver. 134. From the light + color of boxwood, the words ‘buxo pallidiora,’ ‘paler than + boxwood,’ became a proverbial expression among the Romans.] + + [Footnote 24: _The sea which trembles._--Ver. 136. The ripple, or + shudder, which runs along the surface of the sea, when a breath of + wind is stirring in a calm, is very beautifully described here, + and is worthy of notice.] + + [Footnote 25: _The ivory sheath._--Ver. 148. The ‘vagina,’ or + ‘sheath’ of the sword, was often highly decorated; and we learn + from Homer and Virgil, as well as Ovid, that ivory was much used + for that purpose. The sheath was worn by the Greeks and Romans on + the left side of the body, so as to enable them to draw the sword + from it, by passing the right hand in front of the body, to take + hold of the hilt, with the thumb next to the blade.] + + [Footnote 26: _Is black._--Ver. 165. He thus accounts for the deep + purple hue of the mulberry which, before the event mentioned here, + he says was white.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is pretty clear, as we have already seen, that the establishment of + the worship of Bacchus in Greece met with great opposition, and that + his priests and devotees published several miracles and prodigies, the + more easily to influence the minds of their fellow-men. Thus, the + daughters of Minyas are said to have been changed into bats, solely + because they neglected to join in the orgies of that God; when, + probably, the fact was, that they were either secretly despatched, or + were forced to fly for their lives; and their absence was accounted + for to the ignorant and credulous, by the invention of this Fable. The + story of Dercetis, as related by Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and + Herodotus, is, that having offended Venus, that Goddess caused her to + fall in love with a young man, by whom she had a daughter. In despair + at her misfortune, she killed her lover, and exposed her child, and + afterwards drowned herself. The Syrians, lamenting her fate, built a + temple near where she was drowned, and honored her as a Goddess. They + stated that she was turned into a fish, and they there represented her + under the figure of a woman down to the waist, and of a fish thence + downwards. They also abstained from eating fish; though they offered + them to her in sacrifice, and suspended gilded ones in her temple. + Selden, in his Treatise on the Syrian Gods, suggests that the story of + Dercetis, or Atergatis, was founded on the figure and worship of + Dagon, the God of the Philistines, who was represented under the + figure of a fish; and that the name of Atergatis is a corruption of + ‘Adir Dagon,’ ‘a great fish,’ which is not at all improbable. The same + author supposes that Dercetis was originally the same Deity with + Venus, Astarte, Minerva, Juno, Isis, and the Moon; and that she was + worshipped under the name of Mylitta by the Assyrians, and as Alilac + by the Arabians. Lucian tells us, that Dercetis was reported to have + been the mother of Semiramis. + + Ovid and Hyginus are the only authors that make mention of the story + of Pyramus and Thisbe, and both agree in making Babylon the scene of + it. It seems to be rather intended as a moral tale, than to have been + built upon any actual circumstance. It affords a lesson to youth not + to enter rashly into engagements: and to parents not to pursue, too + rigorously, the gratification of their own resentment, but rather to + consult the inclination of their children, when not likely to be + productive of unhappiness at a future period. + + The reader cannot fail to call to mind the admirable travesty of this + story by Shakspere, in the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’ + + +FABLE II. [IV.167-233] + + The Sun discovers to Vulcan the intrigue between Mars and Venus, and + then, himself, falls in love with Leucothoë. Venus, in revenge for the + discovery, resolves to make his amours unfortunate. + +Here she ended; and there was {but} a short time betwixt, and {then} +Leuconoë began[27] to speak. Her sisters held their peace. “Love has +captivated even this Sun, who rules all things by his æthereal light. +I will relate the loves of the Sun. This God is supposed to have been +the first to see the adultery of Venus with Mars; this God is the first +to see everything. He was grieved at what was done, and showed to the +husband, the son of Juno,[28] the wrong done to his bed, and the place +of the intrigue. Both his senses, and the work which his skilful right +hand was {then} holding, quitted him {on the instant}. Immediately, he +files out some slender chains of brass, and nets, and meshes, which can +escape the eye. The finest threads cannot surpass that work, nor yet the +cobweb that hangs from the top of the beam. He makes it so, too, as to +yield to a slight touch, and a gentle movement, and skilfully arranges +it drawn around the bed. When the wife and the gallant come into the +same bed, being both caught through the artifice of the husband, and +chains prepared by this new contrivance, they are held fast in the +{very} midst of their embraces. + +“The Lemnian {God} immediately threw open the folding doors[29] of +ivory, and admitted the Deities. {There} they lay disgracefully bound. +And yet many a one of the Gods, not the serious ones, could fain wish +thus to become disgraced. The Gods of heaven laughed, and for a long +time was this the most noted story in all heaven. The Cytherean[30] +goddess exacts satisfaction of the Sun, in remembrance of this betrayal; +and, in her turn, disturbs him with the like passion, who had disturbed +her secret amours. What now, son of Hyperion,[31] does thy beauty, thy +heat, and thy radiant light avail thee? For thou, who dost burn all +lands with thy flames, art {now} burnt with a new flame; and thou, who +oughtst to be looking at everything, art gazing on Leucothoë, and on one +maiden art fixing those eyes which thou oughtst {to be fixing} on the +universe. At one time thou art rising earlier in the Eastern sky; at +another thou art setting late in the waves; and in taking time to gaze +{on her}, thou art lengthening the hours of mid-winter. Sometimes thou +art eclipsed, and the trouble of thy mind affects thy light, and, +darkened, thou fillest with terror the breasts of mortals. Nor art thou +pale, because the form of the moon, nearer to the earth, stands in thy +way. It is that passion which occasions this complexion. Thou lovest her +alone, neither does Clymene, nor Rhodos,[32] nor the most beauteous +mother[33] of the Ææan Circe engage thee, nor {yet} Clytie, who, though +despised, was longing for thy embraces; at that very time thou wast +suffering these grievous pangs. Leucothoë occasioned the forgetting of +many a damsel; she, whom Eurynome, the most beauteous of the +perfume-bearing[34] nation produced.[35] But after her daughter grew up, +as much as the mother excelled all {other Nymphs}, so much did the +daughter {excel} the mother. Her father, Orchamus, ruled over the +Achæmenian[36] cities, and he is reckoned the seventh in descent from +the ancient Belus.[37] + +“The pastures of the horses of the Sun are under the Western sky; +instead of grass, they have ambrosia.[38] That nourishes their limbs +wearied with their daily service, and refits them for labor. And while +the coursers are there eating their heavenly food, and night is taking +her turn; the God enters the beloved chamber, changed into the shape of +her mother Eurynome, and beholds Leucothoë among twice six handmaids, +near the threshold, drawing out the smooth threads with her twirling +spindle. When, therefore, as though her mother, he has given kisses to +her dear daughter, he says, “There is a secret matter, {which I have to +mention}; maids, withdraw, and take not from a mother the privilege of +speaking in private {with her daughter}.†They obey; and the God being +left in the chamber without any witness, he says, ‘I am he, who measures +out the long year, who beholds all things, {and} through whom the earth +sees all things; the eye, {in fact}, of the universe. Believe me, thou +art pleasing to me.’ She is affrighted; and in her alarm, both her +distaff and her spindle fall from her relaxed fingers. Her very fear +becomes her; and, he, no longer delaying, returns to his true shape, and +his wonted beauty. But the maiden, although startled at the unexpected +sight, overcome by the beauty of the God,[39] {and} dismissing {all} +complaints, submits to his embrace. + + [Footnote 27: _Leuconoë began._--Ver. 168. It is worthy of remark, + how strongly the affecting tale of Pyramus and Thisbe contrasts + with the loose story of the loves of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 28: _The son of Juno._--Ver. 173. Vulcan is called + ‘Junonigena,’ because, according to some, he was the son of Juno + alone. Other writers, however, say that he was the only son of + Jupiter and Juno.] + + [Footnote 29: _The folding doors._--Ver. 185. The plural word + ‘valvæ’ is often used to signify a door, or entrance, because + among the ancients each doorway generally contained two doors + folding together. The internal doors even of private houses were + bivalve; hence, as in the present case, we often read of the + folding doors of a bed-chamber. Each of these doors or valves was + usually wide enough to permit persons to pass each other in egress + and ingress without opening the other door as well. Sometimes each + valve was double, folding like our window-shutters.] + + [Footnote 30: _Cytherean._--Ver. 190. Cythera was an island on the + southern coast of Laconia; where Venus was supposed to have + landed, after she had risen from the sea. It was dedicated to her + worship.] + + [Footnote 31: _Hyperion._--Ver. 192. He was the son of CÅ“lus, or + Uranus, and the father of the Sun. The name of Hyperion is, + however, often given by the poets to the Sun himself.] + + [Footnote 32: _Rhodos._--Ver. 204. She was a damsel of the Isle of + Rhodes, the daughter of Neptune, and, according to some, of Venus. + She was greatly beloved by Apollo, to whom she bore seven + children.] + + [Footnote 33: _Beauteous mother._--Ver. 205. This was Persa, the + daughter of Oceanus, and the mother of the enchantress Circe, who + is here called ‘Ææa,’ from Ææa, a city and peninsula of Colchis. + Circe is referred to more at length in the 14th Book of the + Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 34: _Perfume-bearing._--Ver. 209. Being born in Arabia, + the producer of all kinds of spices and perfumes, which were much + in request among the ancients, for the purposes of sacrifice.] + + [Footnote 35: _Produced._--Ver. 210. Eurynome was the wife of + Orchamus, and was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 36: _Achæmenian._--Ver. 212. Persia is called + Achæmenian, from Achæmenes, one of its former kings.] + + [Footnote 37: _Ancient Belus._--Ver. 213. The order of descent is + thus reckoned from Belus; Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus, Bachæmon, + Achæmenes, and Orchamus.] + + [Footnote 38: _Ambrosia._--Ver. 215. Ambrosia was said to be the + food of the Deities, and nectar their drink.] + + [Footnote 39: _Beauty of the God._--Ver. 233. Clarke translates, + ‘Virgo victa nitore Dei.’ ‘The young lady--charmed with the + spruceness of the God.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch, in his Treatise ‘How to read the Poets,’ suggests a curious + explanation of the discovery by the Sun of the intrigue of Mars and + Venus. He says that such persons as are born under the conjunction of + the planets Mars and Venus, are naturally of an amorous temperament; + but that if the Sun does not happen then to be at a distance, their + indiscretions will be very soon discovered. + + Palæphatus gives a historical solution to the story. He says that + Helius, the son of Vulcan, king of Egypt, resolving to cause his + father’s laws against adultery to be strictly observed, and having + been informed that a lady of the court had an intrigue with one of the + courtiers, entered her apartment in the night, and obtaining ocular + proof of the courtier’s guilt, caused him to be severely punished. He + also tells us that the similarity of the name gave birth to the Fable + which Homer was the first to relate, with a small variation, and which + is here copied by Ovid. Libanius, deploring the burning of the Temple + of Apollo near Antioch, complains of the ingratitude of Vulcan to that + God, who had formerly discovered to him the infidelity of his wife; + a subject upon which St. Chrysostom seems to think that the + rhetorician would have done better to have been silent. + + +FABLE III. [IV.234-270] + + Clytie, in a fit of revenge, discovers the adventure of Leucothoë to + her father, who orders her to be buried alive. The Sun, grieved at her + misfortune, changed her into the frankincense tree; he also despises + the informer, who pines away for love of him, and is at last changed + into the sunflower. + +Clytie envied her, (for the love of the Sun[40] for her had not been +moderate), and, urged on by resentment at a rival, she published the +intrigue, and, when spread abroad, brought it to the notice of her +father. He, fierce and unrelenting, cruelly buried her alive deep in the +ground, as she entreated and stretched out her hands towards the light +of the Sun, and cried, “’Twas he that offered violence to me against my +will;†and upon her he placed a heap of heavy sand. The son of Hyperion +scattered it with his rays, and gave a passage to thee, by which thou +mightst be able to put forth thy buried features. + +But thou, Nymph, couldst not now raise thy head smothered with the +weight of the earth; and {there} thou didst lie, a lifeless body. The +governor of the winged steeds is said to have beheld nothing more +afflicting than that, since the lightnings that caused the death of +Phaëton. He, indeed, endeavors, if he can, to recall her cold limbs to +an enlivening heat, by the strength of his rays. But, since fate opposes +attempts so great, he sprinkles both her body and the place with +odoriferous nectar, and having first uttered many a complaint he says, +“Still shalt thou reach the skies.â€[41] Immediately, the body, steeped +in the heavenly nectar, dissolves, and moistens the earth with its +odoriferous juices; and a shoot of frankincense having taken root by +degrees through the clods, rises up and bursts the hillock with its top. + +But the author of light came no more to Clytie (although love might have +excused her grief, and her grief the betrayal); and he put an end to his +intercourse with her. From that time she, who had made so mad a use of +her passion, pined away, loathing the {other} Nymphs; and in the open +air, night and day, she sat on the bare ground, with her hair +dishevelled and unadorned. And for nine days, without water or food, she +subsisted in her fast, merely on dew and her own tears; and she did not +raise herself from the ground. She only used to look towards the face of +the God as he moved along, and to turn her own features towards him. +They say that her limbs became rooted fast in the ground; and a livid +paleness turned part of her color into {that of} a bloodless plant. +There is a redness in some part; and a flower, very like a violet,[42] +conceals her face. Though she is held fast by a root, she turns towards +the Sun, and {though} changed, she {still} retains her passion. + + [Footnote 40: _For the love of the Sun._--Ver. 234. This remark is + added, to show that the God had not been sufficiently cautious in + his courtship of her sister to conceal it from the observation of + Clytie.] + + [Footnote 41: _Reach the skies._--Ver. 251. That is to say, ‘You + shall arise from the earth as a tree bearing frankincense: the + gums of which, burnt in sacrifice to the Gods, shall reach the + heavens with their sweet odors.’ Persia and Arabia have been + celebrated by the poets, ancient and modern, for their great + fertility in frankincense and other aromatic plants.] + + [Footnote 42: _Like a violet._--Ver. 268. This cannot mean the + large yellow plant which is called the sunflower. The small + aromatic flower which we call heliotrope, with its violet hue and + delightful perfume, more nearly answers the description. The + larger flower probably derived its name from the resemblance which + it bears to the sun, surrounded with rays, as depicted by the + ancient painters.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + No ascertained historical fact can be found as the basis of the story + of Leucothoë being buried alive by her father Orchamus, or of her + rival Clytie being metamorphosed into a sunflower. The story seems to + have been most probably simply founded on principles of natural + philosophy. Leucothoë, it is not unreasonable to suppose, may have + been styled the daughter of Orchamus, king of Persia, for no other + reason but because that Prince was the first to introduce the + frankincense tree, which was called Leucothoë, into his kingdom; and + it was added that she fell in love with Apollo, because the tree + produces an aromatic drug much used in physic, of which that God was + fabled to have been the inventor. The jealousy of Clytie was, perhaps, + founded upon a fact, stated by some naturalists, that the sunflower is + a plant which kills the frankincense tree, when growing near it. + Pliny, however, who ascribes several properties to the sunflower, does + not mention this among them. + + Orchamus is nowhere mentioned by the ancient writers, except in the + present instance. + + +FABLE IV. [IV.271-284] + + Daphnis is turned into a stone. Scython is changed from a man into a + woman. Celmus is changed into adamant. Crocus and Smilax are made into + flowers. The Curetes are produced from a shower. + +{Thus} she spoke; and the wondrous deed charms their ears. Some deny +that it was possible to be done, some say that real Gods can do all +things; but Bacchus is not one of them. When her sisters have become +silent, Alcithoë is called upon; who running with her shuttle through +the warp of the hanging web, says, “I keep silence upon the well-known +amours of Daphnis, the shepherd of Ida,[43] whom the resentment of the +Nymph, his paramour, turned into a stone. Such mighty grief inflames +those who are in love. Nor do I relate how once Scython, the law of +nature being altered, was of both sexes first a man, then a woman. Thee +too, I pass by, O Celmus, now adamant, formerly most attached to Jupiter +{when} little; and the Curetes,[44] sprung from a plenteous shower of +rain; Crocus, too, changed, together with Smilax,[45] into little +flowers; and I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty.†+ + [Footnote 43: _Shepherd of Ida._--Ver. 277. This may mean either + Daphnis of Crete, or of Phrygia; for in both those countries there + was a mountain named Ida.] + + [Footnote 44: _The Curetes._--Ver. 282. According to Dionysius of + Halicarnassus, the Curetes were the ancient inhabitants of Crete. + We may here remark, that the story of their springing from the + earth after a shower of rain, seems to have no other foundation + than the fact of their having been of the race of the Titans; that + is, they were descended from Uranus, or CÅ“lus and Tita, by which + names were meant the heaven and the earth.] + + [Footnote 45: _Smilax._--Ver. 283. The dictionary meanings given + for this word are--1. Withwind, a kind of herb. 2. The yew tree. + 3. A kind of oak. The Nymph was probably supposed to have been + changed into the first.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Most probably, the story of the shepherd Daphnis being turned into a + stone, was no other than an allegorical method of expressing the + insensibility of an individual. Thalia was the name of the Nymph who + was thus affronted by Daphnis. + + The story of Scython changing his sex, is perhaps based upon the fact, + that the country of Thrace, which took the name of Thracia from a + famous sorceress, was before called Scython; and that as it lost a + name of the masculine gender for one of the feminine, in after times + it became reported that Scython had changed sexes. + + Pliny tells us that Celmus was a young man of remarkable wisdom and + moderation, and that the passions making no impression on him, he was + changed into adamant. Some, however, assert that he was foster-father + to Jupiter, by whom he was enclosed in an impenetrable tower, for + revealing the immortality of the Gods. + + According to one account, Crocus and Smilax were a constant and happy + married couple, who for their chaste and innocent life were said to + have been changed into flowers; but another story is, that Crocus was + a youth beloved by Smilax, and that on his rejecting the Nymph’s + advances, they were both turned into flowers. + + The story of the Curetes being sprung from rain, is possibly founded + on the report that they were descended from Uranus and Tita, the + Heaven and the Earth. Some suppose them to have been the original + inhabitants of the isle of Crete; and they are said to have watched + over the infancy of Jupiter, by whom they were afterwards slain, for + having concealed Epaphus from his wrath. + + +FABLE V. [IV.285-388] + + The Naiad Salmacis falls in love with the youth Hermaphroditus, who + rejects her advances. While he is bathing, she leaps into the water, + and seizing the youth in her arms, they become one body, retaining + their different sexes. + +Learn how Salmacis became infamous, {and} why it enervates, with its +enfeebling waters, and softens the limbs bathed {in it}. The cause is +unknown; {but} the properties of the fountain are very well known. The +Naiads nursed a boy, born to Mercury of the Cytherean Goddess in the +caves of Ida; whose face was such that therein both mother and father +could be discerned; he likewise took his name from them. As soon as he +had completed thrice five years, he forsook his native mountains, and +leaving Ida, the place of his nursing, he loved to wander over unknown +spots, {and} to see unknown rivers, his curiosity lessening the fatigue. +He went, too, to the Lycian[46] cities, and the Carians, that border +upon Lycia. Here he sees a pool of water, clear to the {very} ground at +the bottom; here there are no fenny reeds, no barren sedge, no rushes +with their sharp points. The water is translucent; but the edges of the +pool are enclosed with green turf, and with grass ever verdant. A Nymph +dwells {there}; but one neither skilled in hunting, nor accustomed to +bend the bow, nor to contend in speed; the only one, too, of {all} the +Naiads not known to the swift Diana. The report is, that her sisters +often said to her, “Salmacis, do take either the javelin, or the painted +quiver, and unite thy leisure with the toils of the chase.†She takes +neither the javelin, nor the painted quiver, nor does she unite her +leisure with the toils of the chase. But sometimes she is bathing her +beauteous limbs in her own spring; {and} often is she straitening her +hair with a comb of Citorian boxwood,[47] and consulting the waters, +into which she looks, what is befitting her. At other times, covering +her body with a transparent garment, she reposes either on the soft +leaves or on the soft grass. Ofttimes is she gathering flowers. And +then, too, by chance was she gathering them when she beheld the youth, +and wished to possess him, {thus} seen. + +But though she hastened to approach {the youth}, still she did not +approach him before she had put herself in order, and before she had +surveyed her garments, and put on her {best} looks, and deserved to be +thought beautiful. Then thus did she begin to speak: “O youth, most +worthy to be thought to be a God! if thou art a God, thou mayst {well} +be Cupid; but, if thou art a mortal, happy are they who begot thee, and +blessed is thy brother, and fortunate indeed thy sister, if thou hast +one, and the nurse {as well} who gave thee the breast. But far, far more +fortunate than all these {is she}; if thou hast any wife, if thou +shouldst vouchsafe any one {the honor of} marriage. And if any one is +thy {wife, then} let my pleasure be stolen; but, if thou hast none, let +me be {thy wife}, and let us unite in one tie.†After these things +{said}, the Naiad is silent; a blush tinges the face of the youth: he +knows not what love is, but even to blush becomes him. Such is the color +of apples, hanging on a tree exposed to the sun, or of painted ivory, or +of the moon blushing beneath her brightness when the aiding +{cymbals}[48] {of} brass are resounding in vain. Upon the Nymph +desiring, without ceasing, such kisses at least as he might give to his +sister, and now laying her hands upon his neck, white as ivory, he says, +“Wilt thou desist, or am I to fly, and to leave this place, together +with thee?†+ +Salmacis is affrighted, and says, “I freely give up this spot to thee, +stranger,†and, with a retiring step, she pretends to go away. But then +looking back, and hid in a covert of shrubs, she lies concealed, and +puts her bended knees down to the ground. But he, just like a boy, and +as though unobserved on the retired sward, goes here and there, and in +the sportive waves dips the soles of his feet, and {then} his feet as +far as his ankles. Nor is there any delay; being charmed with the +temperature of the pleasant waters, he throws off his soft garments from +his tender body. Then, indeed, Salmacis is astonished, and burns with +desire for his naked beauty. The eyes, too, of the Nymph are on fire, no +otherwise than as when the Sun,[49] most brilliant with his clear orb, +is reflected from the opposite image of a mirror. With difficulty does +she endure delay; hardly does she now defer her joy. Now she longs to +embrace him; and now, distracted, she can hardly contain herself. He, +clapping his body with his hollow palms, swiftly leaps into the stream, +and throwing out his arms alternately, shines in the limpid water, as if +any one were to cover statues of ivory, or white lilies, with clear +glass. + +“I have gained my point,†says the Naiad; “see, he is mine!†and, all +her garments thrown aside, she plunges in the midst of the waters, and +seizes him resisting her, and snatches reluctant kisses, and thrusts +down her hands, and touches his breast against his will, and clings +about the youth, now one way, and now another. Finally, as he is +struggling against her, and desiring to escape, she entwines herself +about him, like a serpent which the royal bird takes up and is bearing +aloft; and as it hangs, it holds fast his head and feet, and enfolds his +spreading wings with its tail. Or, as the ivy is wont to wind itself +along the tall trunks {of trees}; and as the polypus[50] holds fast its +enemy, caught beneath the waves, by letting down his suckers on all +sides; {so} does the descendant of Atlas[51] {still} persist, and deny +the Nymph the hoped-for joy. She presses him hard; and clinging to him +with every limb, as she holds fast, she says, “Struggle as thou mayst, +perverse one, still thou shalt not escape. So ordain it, ye Gods, and +let no time separate him from me, nor me from him.†Her prayers find +propitious Deities, for the mingled bodies of the two are united,[52] +and one human shape is put upon them; just as if any one should see +branches beneath a common bark join in growing, and spring up together. +So, when their bodies meet together in the firm embrace, they are no +more two, and their form is twofold, so that they can neither be styled +woman nor boy; they seem {to be} neither and both. + +Therefore, when Hermaphroditus sees that the limpid waters, into which +he had descended as a man, have made him but half a male, and that his +limbs are softened in them, holding up his hands, he says, but now no +longer with the voice of a male, “O, both father and mother, grant this +favor to your son, who has the name of you both, that whoever enters +these streams a man, may go out thence {but} half a man, and that he may +suddenly become effeminate in the waters when touched.†Both parents, +moved, give their assent to the words of their two-shaped son, and taint +the fountain with drugs of ambiguous quality. + + [Footnote 46: _Lycian._--Ver. 296. Lycia was a province of Asia + Minor, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Caria was another + province, adjoining to Lycia.] + + [Footnote 47: _Citorian boxwood._--Ver. 311. Citorus, or Cythorus, + was a mountain of Paphlagonia, famous for the excellence of the + wood of the box trees that grow there. The Greeks and Romans made + their combs of it. The Egyptians used them made of ivory and wood, + and toothed on one side only; those of the Greeks had teeth on + both sides. Great care was usually taken of the hair; to go with + it uncombed was a sign of affliction.] + + [Footnote 48: _The aiding cymbals._--Ver. 333. The witches and + magicians, in ancient times, and especially those of Thessaly, + professed to be able, with their charms and incantations, to bring + the moon down from heaven. The truth of these assertions being + commonly believed, at the period of an eclipse it was supposed by + the multitude that the moon was being subjected to the spells of + these magicians, and that she was struggling (laborabat) against + them, on which the sound of drums, trumpets, and cymbals was + resorted to, to distract the attention of the moon, and to drown + the charms repeated by the enchanters, for which reason, the + instruments employed for the purpose were styled ‘auxiliares.’] + + [Footnote 49: _As when the Sun._--Ver. 349. Bailey gives this + explanation of the passage,-- ‘The eyes of the Nymph seemed to + sparkle and shine, just as the rays of the sun in a clear sky when + a looking-glass is placed against them, for then they seem most + splendid, and contract the fire.’ From the mention of the eyes of + the Nymph burning ‘flagrant,’ we might be almost justified in + concluding that ‘speculum’ means here not a mirror, but a + burning-glass. The ‘specula,’ or looking-glasses, of the ancients + were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and + copper, or silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the + silver. Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now + called, the Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. Nero + is said to have used emeralds for mirrors. Pliny the Elder says + that mirrors were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, which + consisted of glass plates, with leaves of metal at the back; they + were probably of an inferior character. Those of copper and tin + were made chiefly at Brundisium. The white metal formed from this + mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge with powdered pumice stone was + usually fastened to the mirrors made of that composition. They + were generally small, of a round or oval shape, and having a + handle; and female slaves usually held them, while their + mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes + they were fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the + length of a person’s body. Venus was supposed often to use the + mirror; but Minerva repudiated the use of it.] + + [Footnote 50: _Polypus._--Ver. 366. This is a fish which entangles + its prey, mostly consisting of shell fish, in its great number of + feet or feelers. Ovid here calls them ‘flagella;’ but in the + Halieuticon he styles them ‘brachia’ and ‘crines.’ Pliny the Elder + calls them ‘crines’ and ‘cirri.’] + + [Footnote 51: _Descendant of Atlas._--Ver. 368. Hermaphroditus was + the great-grandson of Atlas; as the latter was the father of Maia, + the mother of Mercury, who begot Hermaphroditus.] + + [Footnote 52: _The two are united._--Ver. 374. Clarke translates, + ‘nam mixta duorum corpora junguntur,’ ‘for the bodies of both, + being jumbled together, are united.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The only probable solution of this story seems to have been the fact + that there was in Caria, near the town of Halicarnassus, as we read in + Vitruvius, a fountain which was instrumental in civilizing certain + barbarians who had been driven from that neighborhood by the Argive + colony established there. These men being obliged to repair to the + fountain for water, and meeting the Greek colonists there, their + intercourse not only polished them, but in course of time corrupted + them, by the introduction of the luxurious manners of Greece. Hence + the fountain had the reputation of changing men into women. + + Possibly the water of that fountain, by some peculiar chemical + quality, made those who drank of it become soft and effeminate, as + waters are to be occasionally found with extraordinary qualities. + Lylius Gyraldus suggests, that several disgraceful adventures happened + near this fountain (which was enclosed by walls), which in time gave + it a bad name. + + +FABLE VI. [IV.389-415] + + Bacchus, to punish the daughters of Minyas for their contempt of his + worship, changes them into bats, and their work into ivy and vine + leaves. + +There was {now} an end of their stories; and still do the daughters of +Minyas go on with their work, and despise the God, and desecrate his +festival; when, on a sudden, tambourines unseen resound with their +jarring noise; the pipe, too, with the crooked horn, and the tinkling +brass, re-echo; myrrh and saffron shed their fragrant odors; and, +a thing past all belief, their webs begin to grow green, and the cloth +hanging {in the loom} to put forth foliage like ivy. Part changes into +vines, and what were threads before, are {now} turned into vine shoots. +Vine branches spring from the warp, and the purple lends its splendor to +the tinted grapes. + +And now the day was past, and the time came on, which you could neither +call darkness nor light, but yet the {very} commencement of the dubious +night along with the light. The house seemed suddenly to shake, and +unctuous torches to burn, and the building to shine with glowing fires, +and the fictitious phantoms of savage wild beasts to howl. Presently, +the sisters are hiding themselves throughout the smoking house, and in +different places are avoiding the fires and the light. While they are +seeking a hiding-place, a membrane is stretched over their small limbs, +and covers their arms with light wings; nor does the darkness suffer +them to know by what means they have lost their former shape. No +feathers bear them up; yet they support themselves on pellucid wings; +and, endeavoring to speak, they utter a voice very diminutive {even} in +proportion to their bodies, and express their low complaints with a +squeaking sound. They frequent houses, not woods; and, abhorring the +light, they fly {abroad} by night. And from the late evening do they +derive their name.[53] + + [Footnote 53: _Derive their name._--Ver. 415. In Greek they + are called νυκτεÏίδες, from νυξ, ‘night;’ and in Latin, + ‘vespertiliones,’ from ‘vesper,’ ‘evening,’ on account of their + habits.] + + +FABLE VII. [IV.416-562] + + Tisiphone, being sent by Juno to the Palace of Athamas, causes him to + become mad; on which he dashes his son Learchus to pieces against a + wall. He then pursues his wife Ino, who throws herself headlong from + the top of a rock into the sea, with her other son Melicerta in her + arms: when Neptune, at the intercession of Venus, changes them into + Sea Deities. The attendants of Ino, who have followed her in her + flight, are changed, some into stone, and others into birds, as they + are about to throw themselves into the sea after their mistress. + +But then the Divine power of Bacchus is famed throughout all Thebes; and +his aunt is everywhere telling of the great might of the new Divinity; +she alone,[54] out of so many sisters, is free from sorrow, except that +which her sisters have occasioned. Juno beholds her, having her soul +elevated with her {children}, and her alliance with Athamas, and the God +her foster-child. She cannot brook this, and says to herself, “Was the +child of a concubine able to transform the Mæonian sailors, and to +overwhelm them in the sea, and to give the entrails of the son to be +torn to pieces by his mother, and to cover the three daughters of Minyas +with newly formed wings? Shall Juno be able to do nothing but lament +these griefs unrevenged? And is that sufficient for me? Is this my only +power? He himself instructs me what to do. It is right to be taught even +by an enemy. And what madness can do, he shows enough, and more than +enough, by the slaughter of Pentheus. Why should not Ino, {too}, be +goaded by madness, and submit to an example kindred to those of her +sisters?†+ +There is a shelving path, shaded with dismal yew, which leads through +profound silence to the infernal abodes. {Here} languid Styx exhales +vapors; and the new-made ghosts descend this way, and phantoms when they +have enjoyed[55] funeral rites. Horror and winter possess these dreary +regions far and wide, and the ghosts newly arrived know not where the +way is that leads to the Stygian city, {or} where is the dismal palace +of the black Pluto. The wide city has a thousand passages, and gates +open on every side. And as the sea {receives} the rivers for the whole +earth, so does that spot[56] receive all the souls; nor is it {too} +little for any {amount of} people, nor does it perceive the crowd to +increase. The shades wander about, bloodless, without body and bones; +and some throng the place of judgment; some the abode of the infernal +prince. Some pursue various callings, in imitation of their former life; +their own punishment confines others. + +Juno, the daughter of Saturn, leaving her celestial habitation, submits +to go thither, so much does she give way to hatred and to anger. Soon as +she has entered there, and the threshold groans, pressed by her sacred +body, Cerberus raises his threefold mouth, and utters triple barkings at +the same moment. She summons the Sisters,[57] begotten of Night, +terrible and implacable Goddesses. They are sitting before the doors of +the prison shut close with adamant, and are combing black vipers from +their hair. Soon as they recognize her amid the shades of darkness, +{these} Deities arise. This place is called “the accursed.†Tityus[58] +is giving his entrails to be mangled, and is stretched over nine acres. +By thee, Tantalus,[59] no waters are reached, and the tree which +overhangs thee, starts away. Sisyphus,[60] thou art either catching or +thou art pushing on the stone destined to fall again. Ixion[61] is +whirled round, and both follows and flies from himself. The +granddaughters, too, of Belus, who dared to plot the destruction of +their cousins, are everlastingly taking up the water which they lose. +After the daughter of Saturn has beheld all these with a stern look, and +Ixion before all; again, after him, looking upon Sisyphus, she says, + +“Why does he alone, of {all} the brothers, suffer eternal punishment? +and why does a rich palace contain the proud Athamas, who, with his +wife, has ever despised me?†And {then} she explains the cause of her +hatred and of her coming, and what it is she desires. What she desires +is, that the palace of Cadmus shall not stand, and that the Sister +{Furies} shall involve Athamas in crime. She mingles together promises, +commands, and entreaties, and solicits the Goddesses. When Juno has thus +spoken, Tisiphone, with her locks dishevelled as they are, shakes them, +and throws back from her face the snakes crawling over it; and thus she +says: “There is no need of a long preamble; whatever thou commandest, +consider it as done: leave these hateful realms, and betake thyself to +the air of a better heaven.†+ +Juno returns, overjoyed; and, preparing to enter heaven, Iris,[62] the +daughter of Thaumas, purifies her by sprinkling water. Nor is there any +delay; the persecuting Tisiphone[63] takes a torch reeking with gore, +and puts on a cloak red with fluid blood, and is girt with twisted +snakes, and {then} goes forth from her abode. Mourning attends her as +she goes, and Fright, and Terror, and Madness with quivering features. +She {now} reaches the threshold; the Æolian door-posts are said to have +shaken, and paleness tints the maple door; the Sun, too, flies from the +place. His wife is terrified at these prodigies; Athamas, {too}, is +alarmed, and they are {both} preparing to leave the house. The baneful +Erinnys stands in the way, and blocks up the passage; and extending her +arms twisted round with folds of vipers, she shakes her locks; the +snakes {thus} moved, emit a sound. Some lying about her shoulders, some +gliding around her temples, send forth hissings and vomit forth +corruption, and dart forth their tongues. Then she tears away two snakes +from the middle of her hair, which, with pestilential hand, she throws +against them. But these creep along the breasts of Ino and Athamas, and +inspire them with direful intent. Nor do they inflict any wounds upon +their limbs; it is the mind that feels the direful stroke. She had +brought, too, with her a monstrous composition of liquid poison, the +foam of the mouth of Cerberus, and the venom of Echidna;[64] and +purposeless aberrations, and the forgetfulness of a darkened +understanding, and crime, and tears, and rage, and the love of murder. +All these were blended together; and, mingled with fresh blood she had +boiled them in a hollow vessel of brass, stirred about with {a stalk of} +green hemlock. And while they are trembling, she throws the maddening +poison into the breasts of them both, and moves their inmost vitals. +Then repeatedly waving her torch in the same circle, she swiftly follows +up the flames {thus} excited with {fresh} flames. Thus triumphant, and +having executed her commands, she returns to the empty realms of the +great Pluto; and she ungirds the snakes which she had put on. +Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst +of his palace, “Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here +a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones.†And, in his +madness, he follows the footsteps of his wife, as though of a wild +beast; and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little +arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him +round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces[65] +the bones of the infant against the hard stones. Then, at last, the +mother being roused (whether it was grief that caused it, or whether the +power of the poison spread {over her}), yells aloud, and runs away +distracted, with dishevelled hair; and carrying thee, Melicerta, +a little {child}, in her bare arms, she cries aloud “Evoë, Bacche.†At +the name of Bacchus, Juno smiles, and says, “May thy foster-child[66] do +thee this service.†+ +There is a rock[67] that hangs over the sea; the lowest part is worn +hollow by the waves, and defends the waters covered {thereby} from the +rain. The summit is rugged, and stretches out its brow over the open +sea. This Ino climbs (madness gives her strength), and, restrained by no +fear, she casts herself and her burden[68] into the deep; the water, +struck {by her fall}, is white with foam. But Venus, pitying the +misfortunes of her guiltless granddaughter,[69] in soothing words thus +addresses her uncle: “O Neptune, thou God of the waters, to whom fell a +power next after the {empire of} heaven, great things indeed do I +request; but do thou take compassion on my kindred, whom thou seest +being tossed upon the boundless Ionian sea;[70] and add them to thy +Deities. I have {surely} some interest with the sea, if, indeed, I once +was foam formed in the hollowed deep, and my Grecian name is derived[71] +from that.†Neptune yields to her request; and takes away from them +{all} that is mortal, and gives them a venerable majesty; and alters +both their name and their shape, and calls Palæmon a Divinity,[72] +together with his mother Leucothoë. + +Her Sidonian attendants,[73] so far as they could, tracing the prints of +their feet, saw the last of them on the edge of the rock; and thinking +that there was no doubt of their death, they lamented the house of +Cadmus, with their hands tearing their hair and their garments; and they +threw the odium on the Goddess, as being unjust and too severe against +the concubine. Juno could not endure their reproaches, and said, “I will +make you yourselves tremendous memorials of my displeasure.†+Confirmation followed her words. For the one who had been especially +attached, said, “I will follow the queen into the sea;†and about to +give the leap, she could not be moved any way, and adhering to the rock, +{there} she stuck fast. Another, while she was attempting to beat her +breast with the accustomed blows, perceived in the attempt that her arms +had become stiff. One, as by chance she had extended her hands over the +waters of the sea, becoming a rock, held out her hands in those same +waters. You might see the fingers of another suddenly hardened in her +hair, as she was tearing her locks seized on the top of her head. In +whatever posture each was found {at the beginning of the change}, in the +same she remained. Some became birds; which, sprung from Ismenus, skim +along the surface of the waves in those seas, with the wings which they +have assumed. + + [Footnote 54: _She alone._--Ver. 419. This was Ino, whose only + sorrows hitherto had been caused by the calamities which befell + her sisters and their offspring: Semele having died a shocking + death, Autonoë having seen her son Actæon changed into a stag, and + then devoured by his dogs, and Agave having assisted in tearing to + pieces her own son Pentheus.] + + [Footnote 55: _When they have enjoyed._--Ver. 435. The spirits + whose bodies had not received the rites of burial, we learn from + Homer and Virgil, were not allowed to pass the river Styx, but + wandered on its banks for a hundred years.] + + [Footnote 56: _So does that spot._--Ver. 441. That is to say, + whatever number of ghosts arrives there, it receives them all with + ease, and is not sensible of the increase of number; either + because the place itself is of such immense extent, or because the + souls of the dead do not occupy space.] + + [Footnote 57: _The Sisters._--Ver. 450. These were the Furies, + fabled to be the daughters of Night and Acheron. They were three + in number, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megæra, and were supposed to be + the avengers of crime and wickedness.] + + [Footnote 58: _Tityus._--Ver. 456. Tityus was the son of Jupiter + and Elara. On account of his enormous size, the poets sometimes + style him a son of the earth. Attempting to commit violence upon + Latona, he was slain by the arrows of Apollo, and precipitated to + the infernal regions, where he was condemned to have his liver + constantly devoured by a vulture, and then renewed, to perpetuate + his torments.] + + [Footnote 59: _Tantalus._--Ver. 457. He was the son of Jupiter, by + the Nymph Plote. The crime for which he was punished is + differently related by the poets. Some say, that he divulged the + secrets of the Gods, that had been entrusted to him; while others + relate, that at an entertainment which he gave to the Deities, he + caused his own son, Pelops, to be served up, on which Ceres + inadvertently ate his shoulder. He was doomed to suffer intense + hunger and thirst, amid provisions of all kinds within his reach, + which perpetually receded from him.] + + [Footnote 60: _Sisyphus._--Ver. 459. Sisyphus, the son of Æolus, + was a daring robber, who infested Attica. He was slain by Theseus; + and being sent to the infernal regions, was condemned to the + punishment of rolling a great stone to the top of a mountain, + which it had no sooner reached than it fell down again, and + renewed his labor.] + + [Footnote 61: _Ixion._--Ver. 461. Being advanced by Jupiter to + heaven, he presumed to make an attempt on Juno. Jupiter, to + deceive him, formed a cloud in her shape, on which Ixion begot the + Centaurs. He was cast into Tartarus, and was there fastened to a + wheel, which turned round incessantly.] + + [Footnote 62: _Iris._--Ver. 480. Iris was the daughter of Thaumas + and Electra, and the messenger of Juno. She was the Goddess of the + Rainbow.] + + [Footnote 63: _Tisiphone._--Ver. 481. Clarke translates ‘Tisiphone + importuna,’ ‘the plaguy Tisiphone.’] + + [Footnote 64: _Echidna._--Ver. 501. This word properly means, + ‘a female viper;’ but it here refers to the Hydra, or dragon of + the marsh of Lerna, which Hercules slew. It was fabled to be + partly a woman, and partly a serpent, and to have been begotten by + Typhon. According to some accounts, this monster had seven heads.] + + [Footnote 65: _Dashes in pieces._--Ver. 519. Euripides and Hyginus + relate, that Athamas slew his son while hunting; and Apollodorus + says, that he mistook him for a stag.] + + [Footnote 66: _Thy foster-child._--Ver. 524. Bacchus was the + foster-child of Ino, who was the sister of his mother Semele. The + remaining portion of the story of Ino and Melicerta is again + related by Ovid in the sixth book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 67: _There is a rock._--Ver. 525. Pausanias calls this + the Molarian rock, and says, that it was one of the Scironian + rocks, near Megara, in Attica. It was a branch of the Geranian + mountain.] + + [Footnote 68: _And her burden._--Ver. 530. This was her son + Melicerta, who, according to Pausanias, was received by dolphins, + and was landed by them on the isthmus of Corinth.] + + [Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._--Ver. 531. Venus was the + grandmother of Ino, inasmuch as Hermione, or Harmonia, the wife of + Cadmus, was the daughter of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Boundless Ionian sea._--Ver. 535. The Ionian sea + must be merely mentioned here as a general name for the broad + expanse of waters, of which the Saronic gulf, into which the + Molarian rock projected, formed part. Ovid may, however, mean to + say that Ino threw herself from some rock in the Ionian sea, and + not from the Molarian rock; following, probably, the account of + some other writer, whose works are lost.] + + [Footnote 71: _Grecian name is derived._--Ver. 538. Venus was + called Aphrodite, by the Greeks, from ἄφÏος, ‘the foam of the + sea,’ from which she was said to have sprung.] + + [Footnote 72: _A Divinity._--Ver. 542. Ino and Melicerta were + worshipped as Divinities both in Greece and at Rome.] + + [Footnote 73: _Sidonian attendants._--Ver. 543. The Theban matrons + are meant, who had married the companions of Cadmus that + accompanied him from PhÅ“nices.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Ino, Athamas, and Melicerta appears to have been based + upon historical facts, as we are informed by Herodotus, Diodorus + Siculus, and Pausanias. + + Athamas, the son of Æolus, and great-grandson of Deucalion, having, on + the death of Themisto, his first wife, married Ino, the daughter of + Cadmus, divorced her soon afterwards, to marry Nephele, by whom he had + Helle and Phryxus. She having been divorced in her turn, he took Ino + back again, and by her had Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, not being able + to endure the presence of the children of Nephele, endeavored to + destroy them. The city of Thebes being at that time afflicted with + famine, which was said to have been caused by Ino, who ordered the + seed to be parched before it was sown, Athamas ordered the oracle of + Delphi to be consulted. The priests, either having been bribed, or the + messengers having been corrupted, word was brought, that, to remove + this affliction, the children of Nephele must be sacrificed. + + Phryxus being warned of the designs of his stepmother, embarked in a + ship, with his sister Helle, and sailed for Colchis, where he met with + a kind reception from his kinsman Æetes. The young princess, however, + either becoming sea-sick, and leaning over the bulwarks of the vessel, + fell overboard and was drowned, or died a natural death in the passage + of the Hellespont, to which she gave its name from that circumstance. + Athamas, having discovered the deceitful conduct of Ino, in his rage + killed her son Learchus, and sought her, for the purpose of + sacrificing her to his vengeance. To avoid his fury, she fled with her + son Melicerta, and, being pursued, threw herself from a rock into the + sea. To console her relatives, the story was probably invented, that + the Gods had changed Ino and Melicerta into Sea Deities, under the + names of Leucothoë and Palæmon. Melicerta was afterwards worshipped in + the Isle of Tenedos, where children were offered to him in sacrifice. + In his honor, Glaucus established the Isthmian games, which were + celebrated for many ages at Corinth; and, being interrupted for a + time, were revived by Theseus, in honor of Neptune. Leucothoë was also + worshipped at Rome, and the Roman women used to offer up their vows to + her for their brothers’ children, not daring to supplicate the Goddess + for their own, because she had been unfortunate in hers. This Ovid + tells us in the Sixth Book of the Fasti. The Romans gave the name of + Matuta to Ino, and Melicerta, or Palæmon, was called Portunus. + + The circumstance mentioned by Ovid, that some of Ino’s attendants were + changed into birds, and others into rocks, is, perhaps, only a + poetical method of saying that some of her attendants escaped, while + others perished with her. + + +FABLE VIII. [IV.563-603] + + The misfortunes of his family oblige Cadmus to leave Thebes, and to + retire with his wife Hermione to Illyria, where they are changed into + serpents. + +The son of Agenor knows not that his daughter and his little grandson +are {now} Deities of the sea. Forced by sorrow, and a succession of +calamities, and the prodigies which, many in number, he had beheld, the +founder flies from his city, as though the {ill}-luck of the spot, and +not his own, pressed {hard} upon him, and driven, in a long series of +wandering, he reaches the coast of Illyria, with his exiled wife. And +now, loaded with woes and with years, while they are reflecting on the +first disasters of their house, and in their discourse are recounting +their misfortunes, Cadmus says, “Was that dragon a sacred one, that was +pierced by my spear, at the time when, setting out from Sidon, I sowed +the teeth of the dragon in the ground, a seed {till then} unknown? If +the care of the Gods avenges this with resentment so unerring, I pray +that I myself, as a serpent, may be lengthened out into an extended +belly.†{Thus} he says; and, as a serpent, he is lengthened out into an +extended belly, and perceives scales growing on his hardened skin, and +his black body become speckled with azure spots; and he falls flat on +his breast, and his legs, joined into one, taper out by degrees into a +thin round point. His arms are still remaining; those arms which remain +he stretches out; and, as the tears are flowing down his face, still +that of a man, he says, “Come hither, wife, come hither, most unhappy +one, and, while something of me yet remains, touch me; and take my hand, +while it is {still} a hand, {and} while I am not a serpent all over.†+He, indeed, desires to say more, but, on a sudden, his tongue is divided +into two parts. Nor are words in his power when he offers {to speak}; +and as often as he attempts to utter any complaints, he makes a hissing: +this is the voice that Nature leaves him. His wife, smiting her naked +breast with her hand, cries aloud, “Stay, Cadmus! and deliver thyself, +unhappy one, from this monstrous form. Cadmus, what means this? Where +are thy feet? where are both thy shoulders and thy hands? where is thy +color and thy form, and, while I speak, {where} all else {besides}? Why +do ye not, celestial Gods, turn me as well into a similar serpent?†+{Thus} she spoke; he licked the face of his wife, and crept into her +dear bosom, as though he recognized her; and gave her embraces, and +reached her well-known neck. + +Whoever is by, (some attendants are present), is alarmed; but the +crested snakes soothe them with their slippery necks, and suddenly they +are two {serpents}, and in joined folds they creep along, until they +enter the covert of an adjacent grove. Now, too, do they neither shun +mankind, nor hurt them with wounds, and the gentle serpents keep in mind +what once they were. + + +EXPLANATION. + + After Cadmus had reigned at Thebes many years, a conspiracy was formed + against him. Being driven from the throne, and his grandson Pentheus + assuming the crown, he and his wife Hermione retired into Illyria, + where, as Apollodorus says, he commanded the Illyrian army, and at + length was chosen king: on his death, the story here related by Ovid + was invented. It is possible that it may have been based on the + following grounds:-- + + The PhÅ“nicians were anciently called ‘Achivi,’ which name they still + retained after their establishment in Greece. ‘Chiva’ being also the + Hebrew, and perhaps PhÅ“nician word for ‘a serpent,’ the Greeks, + probably in reference to the PhÅ“nician origin of Cadmus, reported + after his death, that he and his wife were serpents; and in time, that + transformation may have been stated to have happened at the end of his + life. According to Aulus Gellius, the ancient inhabitants of Illyria + had two eyelids to each eye, and with their looks, when angered, they + were able to kill those whom they beheld stedfastly. The Greeks hence + called them serpents and basilisks; and, it is not unlikely, that when + Cadmus retired among them, they said that he had become one of the + Illyrians, otherwise a dragon, or a serpent. All the ancient writers + who mention his history agree that Cadmus really did retire into + Illyria, where he first assisted the Enchelians in their war against + the Illyrians. The latter were defeated, and, to obtain a peace from + the Enchelians, they gave the crown to Cadmus; to which, on his death, + his son Illyrus succeeded. The historian Christodorus, quoted by + Pausanias, says that he built the city of Nygnis, in the country of + the Enchelians. + + Some writers have supposed, upon the authority of Euhemerus as quoted + by Eusebius that Cadmus was not the son of Agenor, but was one of his + officers, who eloped thence with Hermione, a singing girl. Others + suppose that Cadmus is not really a proper name, but that it signifies + a ‘leader,’ or ‘conductor;’ and that he received the name from leading + a colony into Greece. Bochart says that he was called Cadmus, because + he came from the eastern part of PhÅ“nicia, which is called in + Scripture ‘Cadmonia,’ or ‘oriental;’ and that Hermione probably + received her name from Mount Hermon. + + +FABLE IX. [IV.604-662] + + Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danaë, having killed Medusa, carries + her head into Africa, where the blood that runs from it produces + serpents. Atlas, king of that country, terrified at the remembrance of + an oracle, which had foretold that his golden fruit should be taken by + one of the sons of Jupiter, not only orders him to depart, but even + resorts to violence to drive him away, on which Perseus shows him the + Gorgon’s head, and changes him into a mountain. + +But yet their grandson, {Bacchus} gave them both a great consolation, +under this change of form; whom India, subdued {by him}, worshipped {as +a} God, {and} whom Achaia honored with erected temples. Acrisius the son +of Abas,[74] descended of the same race,[75] alone remained, to drive +him from the walls of the Argive city, and to bear arms against the God, +and to believe him not to be the offspring of Jove. Neither did he think +Perseus to be the offspring of Jupiter, whom Danaë had conceived in a +shower of gold; but soon (so great is the power of truth) Acrisius was +sorry, both that he had insulted the God, and that he had not +acknowledged his grandson. The one was now placed in heaven, while the +other, bearing the memorable spoil of the viperous monster, cut the +yielding air with hissing wings; and while the conqueror was hovering +over the Libyan sands, bloody drops, from the Gorgon’s head, fell down, +upon receiving {which, the} ground quickened them into various serpents. +For this cause, that region is filled and infested with snakes. + +Carried thence, by the fitful winds, through boundless space, he is +borne now here, now there, just like a watery cloud, and, from the lofty +sky, looks down upon the earth, removed afar; and he flies over the +whole world. Three times he saw the cold Bears, thrice did he see the +claws of the Crab; ofttimes he was borne to the West, many a time to the +East. And now, the day declining, afraid to trust himself to the night, +he stopped in the Western part of the world, in the kingdom of Atlas; +and {there} he sought a little rest, until Lucifer should usher forth +the fires of Aurora, Aurora, the chariot of the day. Here was Atlas, the +son of Iapetus, surpassing all men in the vastness of his body. Under +this king was the extremity of the earth, and the sea which holds its +waters under the panting horses of the Sun, and receives the wearied +chariot. For him, a thousand flocks, and as many herds, wandered over +the pastures, and no neighboring places disturbed the land. Leaves of +the trees, shining with radiant gold, covered branches of gold, {and} +apples of gold. “My friend,†said Perseus to him, “if the glory of a +noble race influences thee, Jupiter is the author of my descent; or if +thou art an admirer of exploits, thou wilt admire mine. I beg of thee +hospitality, and a resting place.†The other was mindful of an ancient +oracle. The Parnassian Themis had given this response: “A time will +come, Atlas, when thy tree shall be stripped of its gold, and a son of +Jove shall have the honor of the prize.†Dreading this, Atlas had +enclosed his orchard with solid walls, and had given it to be kept by a +huge dragon;[76] and expelled all strangers from his territories. {To +Perseus}, too, he says, “Far hence begone, lest the glory of the +exploits, to which thou falsely pretendest, and Jupiter as well, be far +from protecting thee.†He adds violence as well to his threats, and +tries to drive him from his doors, as he hesitates and mingles resolute +words with persuasive ones. Inferior in strength (for who could be a +match for Atlas in strength?), he says “Since my friendship is of so +little value to thee, accept {this} present;†and then, turning his face +away, he exposes on the left side the horrible features of Medusa. +Atlas, great as he is, becomes a mountain. Now his beard and his hair +are changed into woods; his shoulders and his hands become mountain +ridges, and what was formerly his head, is the summit on the top of the +mountain. His bones become stones; then, enlarged on every side, he +grows to an immense height (so you willed it, ye Gods), and the whole +heaven, with so many stars, rests upon him. + + [Footnote 74: _Son of Abas._--Ver. 608. Acrisius was the son of + Abas, king of Argos. He was the father of Danaë, by whom Jupiter + was the father of Perseus.] + + [Footnote 75: _Of the same race._--Ver. 607. Some suppose that by + this it is meant that as Belus, the father of Abas, and + grandfather of Acrisius, was the son of Jupiter, who was also the + father of Bacchus, the latter and Acrisius were consequently + related.] + + [Footnote 76: _A huge dragon._--Ver. 647. The name of the dragon + was Ladon.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the seduction of Danaë, the mother of Perseus, by + Jupiter, in the form of a shower of gold, has been thus explained by + some of the ancient writers. Acrisius, hearing of a prediction that + Danaë, his daughter, should bring forth a child that would kill him, + caused her to be shut in a tower with brazen gates, or, according to + some, in a subterraneous chamber, covered with plates of that metal; + which place, according to Pausanias, remained till the time of + Perilaus, the king of Argos, by whom it was destroyed. The precautions + of Acrisius were, however, made unavailing by his brother PrÅ“tus; who, + falling in love with his niece, corrupted the guards with gold, and + gained admission into the tower. Danaë, being delivered of Perseus, + her father caused them to be exposed in a boat to the mercy of the + waves. Being cast on shore near Seriphus, the king, Polydectes, gave + them a hospitable reception, and took care of the education of + Perseus. + + Diodorus Siculus says that the Gorgons were female warriors, who + inhabited the neighborhood of Lake Tritonis, in Libya. Pausanias + explains the story of Medusa, by saying that she ruled the people in + that neighborhood, and laid waste the lands of the nations in her + vicinity. Perseus, having fled, with some companions, from + Peloponnesus, surprised her by night, and killed her, together with + her escort. The next morning, the beauty of her face appeared so + remarkable that he cut it off, and afterwards took it with him to + Greece, to show it to the people, who could not look on it without + being struck with astonishment. On this explanation we may remark, + that if it is true, Perseus must have had more skill than the surgeons + of our day, in being able to preserve the beauty of the features so + long after death. + + Again, many of the ancient historians, with Pliny, Athenæus, and + Solinus, think that the Gorgons were wild women of a savage nature, + living in caves and forests, who, falling on wayfarers, committed + dreadful atrocities. Palæphatus and Fulgentius think that the Gorgons + really were three young women, possessed of great wealth, which they + employed in a very careful manner; Phorcus, their father, having left + them three islands, and a golden statue of Minerva, which they placed + in their common treasury. They had one minister in common for the + management of their affairs, who used to go for that purpose from one + island to another, whence arose the story that they had but one eye, + and that they lent it to one another alternately. Perseus, a fugitive + from Argos, hearing of the golden statue, determined to obtain it; and + with that view, seized their minister, or, in the allegorical language + of the poets, took their eye away from them. He then sent them word, + that if they would give him the statue, he would deliver up his + captive, and threatened, in case of refusal, to put him to death. + Stheno and Euryale consented to this; but Medusa resisting, she was + killed by Perseus. Upon his obtaining the statue, which was called the + Gorgon, or Gorgonian, he broke it in pieces, and placed the head on + the prow of his ship. As the sight of this, and the fame of the + exploits of Perseus, spread terror everywhere, and caused passive + submission to him, the fable originated, that with Medusa’s head he + turned his enemies into stone. Landing in the Isle of Seriphus, the + king fled, with all his subjects; and, on entering the chief city, + finding nothing but the bare stones there, he caused the report to be + spread, that he had petrified the inhabitants. + + Servius, in his Commentary on the Æneid, quotes an opinion of Ammonius + Serenus, that the Gorgons were young women of such beauty as to make a + great impression on all that saw them; for which reason they were said + to turn them into statues. Le Clerc thinks that the story bears + reference to a voyage which the PhÅ“nicians had made in ancient times + to the coast of Africa, whence they brought a great number of horses; + and that the name ‘Perseus’ comes from the PhÅ“nician word ‘pharscha,’ + ‘a horseman;’ while the horse Pegasus was so called from the PhÅ“nician + ‘pagsous,’ ‘a bridled horse,’ according to the conjecture of Bochart. + Alexander of Myndus, a historian quoted by Athenæus, says that Libya + had an animal which the natives called ‘gorgon;’ that it resembled a + sheep, and with its breath killed all those who approached it; that a + tuft of hair fell over its eyes, which was so heavy as to be removed + with difficulty, for the purpose of seeing the objects around it; but + that when it was removed, by its looks it struck dead any person whom + it gazed upon. He says, that in the war with Jugurtha, some of the + soldiers of Marius were thus slain by it, and that it was at last + killed by means of arrows discharged from a great distance. + + The Gorgons are said to have inhabited the Gorgades, islands in the + Æthiopian Sea, the chief of which was called Cerna, according to + Diodorus and Palæphatus. It is not improbable that the Cape Verde + Islands were called by this name. The fable of the transformation of + Atlas into the mountain of that name may possibly have been based upon + the simple fact, that Perseus killed him in the neighborhood of that + range, from which circumstance it derived the name which it has borne + ever since. The golden apples, which Atlas guarded with so much care, + were probably either gold mines, which Atlas had discovered in the + mountains of his country, and had secured with armed men and watchful + dogs; or sheep, whose fleeces were extremely valuable for their + fineness; or else oranges and lemons, and other fruits peculiar to + very hot climates, for the production of which the poets especially + remarked the country of Tingitana (the modern Tangier), as being very + celebrated. + + +FABLE X. [IV.663-803] + + Perseus, after his victory over Atlas, and his change into a mountain, + arrives in Æthiopia, at the time when Andromeda is exposed to be + devoured by a monster. He kills it, and hides the Gorgon’s head under + the sand, covered with sea-weed and plants; which are immediately + turned into coral. He then renders thanks to the Gods for his victory, + and marries Andromeda. At the marriage feast he relates the manner in + which he had killed Medusa; and the reason why Minerva had changed her + hair into serpents. + +The grandson of Hippotas[77] had shut up the winds in their eternal +prison; and Lucifer, who reminds {men} of their work, was risen in the +lofty sky, in all his splendor. Resuming his wings, {Perseus} binds his +feet with them on either side, and is girt with his crooked weapon, and +cleaves the liquid air with his winged ankles. Nations innumerable being +left behind, around and below, he beholds the people of the Æthiopians +and the lands of Cepheus. There the unjust Ammon[78] had ordered the +innocent Andromeda to suffer punishment for her mother’s tongue.[79] + +Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her, with her arms bound to the +hard rock, but that the light breeze was moving her hair, and her eyes +were running with warm[80] tears, he would have thought her to be a work +of marble. Unconsciously he takes fire, and is astonished; captivated +with the appearance of her beauty, {thus} beheld, he almost forgets to +wave his wings in the air. When he has lighted {on the ground}, he says, +“O thou, undeserving of these chains, but {rather} of those by which +anxious lovers are mutually united, disclose to me, inquiring both the +name of this land and of thyself, and why thou wearest {these} chains.†+At first she is silent, and, a virgin, she does not dare address[81] a +man; and with her hands she would have concealed her blushing features, +if she had not been bound; her eyes, ’twas {all} she could do, she +filled with gushing tears. Upon his often urging her, lest she should +seem unwilling to confess her offence, she told the name both of her +country and herself, and how great had been the confidence of her mother +in her beauty. All not yet being told, the waves roared, and a monster +approaching,[82] appeared with its head raised out of the boundless +ocean, and covered the wide expanse with its breast. The virgin shrieks +aloud; her mournful father, and her distracted mother, are there, both +wretched, but the latter more justly so. Nor do they bring her any help +with them, but tears suitable to the occasion, and lamentations, and +they cling round her body, bound {to the rock}. + +Then thus the stranger says: “Plenty of time will be left for your tears +{hereafter}, the season for giving aid is {but} short. If I were to +demand her {in marriage}, I, Perseus, the son of Jove, and of her whom, +in prison, Jove embraced in the impregnating {shower of} gold, Perseus, +the conqueror of the Gorgon with her serpent locks, and who has dared, +on waving wings, to move through the ætherial air, I should surely be +preferred before all as your son-in-law. To so many recommendations I +endeavor to add merit (if only the Deities favor me). I {only} stipulate +that she may be mine, {if} preserved by my valor.†Her parents embrace +the condition, (for who could hesitate?) and they entreat {his aid}, and +promise as well, the kingdom as a dowry. Behold! as a ship onward +speeding, with the beak fixed {in its prow}, plows the waters, impelled +by the perspiring arms[83] of youths; so the monster, moving the waves +by the impulse of its breast, was as far distant from the rocks, as +{that distance} in the mid space of air, which a Balearic string can +pass with the whirled plummet of lead; when suddenly the youth, spurning +the earth with his feet, rose on high into the clouds. As the shadow of +the hero was seen on the surface of the sea, the monster vented its fury +on the shadow {so} beheld. And as the bird of Jupiter,[84] when he has +espied on the silent plain a serpent exposing its livid back to the +sun, seizes it behind; and lest it should turn upon him its raging +mouth, fixes his greedy talons in its scaly neck; so did the winged +{hero}, in his rapid flight through the yielding {air}, press the back +of the monster, and the descendant of Inachus thrust his sword up to the +very hilt in its right shoulder, as it roared aloud. + +Tortured by the grievous wound, it sometimes raises itself aloft in the +air, sometimes it plunges beneath the waves, sometimes it wheels about, +just like a savage boar, which a pack of hounds in full cry around him +affrights. With swift wings he avoids the eager bites[85] {of the +monster}, and, with his crooked sword, one while wounds its back covered +with hollow shells, where it is exposed, at another time the ribs of its +sides, and now, where its tapering tail terminates in {that of} a fish. +The monster vomits forth from its mouth streams mingled with red blood; +its wings, {made} heavy {by it}, are wet with the spray. Perseus, not +daring any longer to trust himself on his dripping pinions,[86] beholds +a rock, which with its highest top projects from the waters {when} +becalmed, {but is now} covered by the troubled sea. Resting on that, and +clinging to the upper ridge[87] of the rock with his left hand, three or +four times he thrusts his sword through its entrails aimed at {by him}. +A shout, with applause, fills the shores and the lofty abodes of the +Gods. Cassiope and Cepheus, the father, rejoice, and salute him as their +son-in-law, and confess that he is the support and the preserver of +their house. + +Released from her chains, the virgin walks along, both the reward and +the cause of his labors. He himself washes his victorious hands in water +taken {from the sea}; and that it may not injure the snake-bearing head +with the bare sand, he softens the ground with leaves; and strews some +weeds produced beneath the sea, and lays upon them the face of Medusa, +the daughter of Phorcys. The fresh weeds, being still alive, imbibed the +poison of the monster in their spongy pith, and hardened by its touch; +and felt an unwonted stiffness in their branches and their leaves. But +the Nymphs of the sea attempt the wondrous feat on many {other} weeds, +and are pleased at the same result; and raise seed again from them +scattered on the waves. Even now the same nature remains in the coral, +that it receives hardness from contact with the air; and what was a +plant in the sea, out of the sea becomes stone. + +To three Deities he erects as many altars of turf; the left one to +Mercury; the right to thee, warlike Virgin; the altar of Jove is in the +middle. A cow is sacrificed to Minerva; a calf to the wing-footed {God, +and} a bull to thee, greatest of the Deities. Forthwith he takes +Andromeda, and the reward of an achievement so great, without any dowry. +Hymenæus and Cupid wave their torches before them; the fires are heaped +with abundant perfumes. Garlands, too, are hanging from the houses: +flageolets and lyres, and pipes, and songs resound, the happy tokens of +a joyous mind. The folding-doors thrown open, the entire gilded halls +are displayed, and the nobles of king Cepheus sit down at a feast +furnished with splendid preparations. After they have done the feast, +and have cheered their minds with the gifts of the generous Bacchus, the +grandson of Abas inquires the customs and habits of the country. +Immediately one {of them}, Lyncides, tells him, on his inquiring, the +manners and habits of the inhabitants. Soon as he had told him these +things, he said, “Now, most valiant Perseus, tell us, I beseech thee, +with how great valor and by what arts thou didst cut off the head all +hairy with serpents.†The descendant of Abas tells them that there is a +spot situate beneath cold Atlas, safe in its bulwark of a solid mass; +that, in the entrance of this, dwelt the two sisters, the daughters of +Phorcys, who shared the use of a single eye; that he stealthily, by sly +craft, while it was being handed over,[88] obtained possession of this +by putting his hand in the way; and that through rocks far remote, and +pathless, and bristling with woods on their craggy sides, he had arrived +at the abodes of the Gorgons, and saw everywhere, along the fields and +the roads, statues of men and wild beasts turned into stone, from their +{natural form}, at the sight of Medusa; yet that he himself, from the +reflection on the brass of the shield[89] which his left hand bore, +beheld the visage of the horrible Medusa; and that, while a sound sleep +held her and her serpents {entranced}, he took the head from off the +neck; and that Pegasus and his brother,[90] fleet with wings, were +produced from the blood of {her}, their mother. He added, too, the +dangers of his lengthened journey, {themselves} no fiction;[91] what +seas, what lands he had seen beneath him from on high, and what stars he +had reached with his waving wings. + +Yet, before it was expected,[92] he was silent; {whereupon} one of the +nobles rejoined, inquiring why she alone, of the sisters, wore snakes +mingled alternately with her hair. “Stranger,†said he, “since thou +inquirest on a matter worthy to be related, hear the cause of the thing +thou inquirest after. She was the most famed for her beauty, and the +coveted hope of many wooers; nor, in the whole of her person, was any +part more worthy of notice than her hair: I have met {with some} who +said they had seen it. The sovereign of the sea is said to have +deflowered her in the Temple of Minerva. The daughter of Jove turned +away, and covered her chaste eyes with her shield. And that this might +not be unpunished, she changed the hair of the Gorgon into hideous +snakes. Now, too, that she may alarm her surprised foes with terror, she +bears in front upon her breast, those snakes which she {thus} produced.†+ + [Footnote 77: _Hippotas._--Ver. 663. Æolus, the God of the Winds, + was the son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.] + + [Footnote 78: _Ammon._--Ver. 671. Jupiter, with the surname of + Ammon, had a temple in the deserts of Libya, where he was + worshipped under the shape of a ram; a form which he was supposed + to have assumed, when, in common with the other Deities, he fled + from the attacks of the Giants. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon being + consulted relative to the sea monster, which Neptune, at the + request of the Nereids, had sent against the Ethiopians, answered + that Andromeda must be exposed to be devoured by it; which Ovid + here, not without reason, calls an unjust demand.] + + [Footnote 79: _Mother’s tongue._--Ver. 670. Cassiope, the mother + of Andromeda, had dared to compare her own beauty with that of the + Nereids. Cepheus, the son of PhÅ“nix, was the father of Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warm._--Ver. 674. ‘Tepido,’ ‘warm,’ is decidedly + preferable here to ‘trepido,’ ‘trembling.’] + + [Footnote 81: _Dare address._--Ver. 682. Heinsius thinks that + ‘appellare’ here is not the correct reading; and suggests + ‘aspectare,’ which seems to be more consistent with the sense of + the passage, which would then be, ‘and does not dare to look down + upon the hero.’] + + [Footnote 82: _Monster approaching._--Ver. 689. Pliny the Elder + and Solinus tell us that the bones of this monster were afterwards + brought from Joppa, a seaport of Judæa, to Rome, and that the + skeleton was forty feet in length, and the spinal bone was six + feet in circumference.] + + [Footnote 83: _The perspiring arms._--Ver. 707. ‘Juvenum + sudantibus acta lacertis’ is translated by Clarke, ‘forced forward + by the arms of sweating young fellows.’] + + [Footnote 84: _Bird of Jupiter._--Ver. 714. The eagle was the bird + sacred to Jove. The larger kinds of birds which afforded auguries + from their mode of flight, were called ‘præpetes.’] + + [Footnote 85: _Avoids the eager bites._--Ver. 723. Clarke + translates this line, ‘He avoids the monster’s eager snaps with + his swift wings.’] + + [Footnote 86: _His dripping pinions._--Ver. 730. ‘Talaria’ were + either wings fitted to the ankles, or shoes having such wings + fastened to them; they were supposed to be usually worn by + Mercury.] + + [Footnote 87: _Clinging to the upper ridge._--Ver. 733. ‘Tenens + juga prima sinistra’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘seizing the tip-top + of it with his left hand.’] + + [Footnote 88: _Being handed over._--Ver. 766. Of course, as they + had but one eye between them, they must have both been blind while + it was passing from one hand to another, so that Perseus could + have had but little difficulty in effecting the theft here + mentioned.] + + [Footnote 89: _Brass of the shield._--Ver. 783. This reflecting + shield Perseus is said to have received from Minerva, and by + virtue of it he was enabled to see without being seen. Lucian says + that Minerva herself held this reflecting shield before him, and + by that means afforded him the opportunity of seeing the + reflection of Medusa’s figure; and that Perseus, seizing her by + the hair with his left hand, and keeping his eye fixed on the + image reflected in the shield, took his sword in his right, and + cut off her head, and then, by the aid of his wings, flew away + before the other Gorgon sisters were aware of what he had done.] + + [Footnote 90: _Pegasus and his brother._--Ver. 786. Pegasus and + Chrysaor were two winged horses, which were fabled to have sprung + up from the blood of Medusa, when slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 91: _Themselves no fiction._--Ver. 787. His dangers were + not false or imaginary, inasmuch as he was pursued by Sthenyo and + Euryale, the sisters of Medusa, who were fabled to have wings, and + claws of iron on their hands. Ovid deals a sly hit in the words + ‘non falsa pericula cursus,’ at the tales of travellers, who, even + in his day, seem to have commenced dealing in the marvellous; as, + indeed, we may learn for ourselves, on turning to the pages of + Herodotus, who seems to have been often imposed upon.] + + [Footnote 92: _Before it was expected._--Ver. 790. Showing thereby + how delighted his audience was with his narrative.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is extremely difficult to surmise what may have given rise to many + of the fabulous circumstances here narrated. It has been conjectured + by some, that Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor, the two horses + produced from the blood of Medusa, were really two ships in the harbor + of the island where that princess was residing at the time when she + was slain by Perseus; and that, on that event, they were seized by + him. Perhaps they had the figure of a winged horse on the prow; from + which circumstance the fable had its origin. Possibly, the story of + the production of coral from the blood of Medusa may have originated + in the fact, that on the defeat of the Gorgons, navigation became more + safe, and, consequently, the fishing for coral more common than it had + been before. + + The story of the exposure of Andromeda may be founded on the fact, + that she was contracted by her parents against her will to some + fierce, piratical prince, who infested the adjacent seas with his + depredations; and that the betrothal was made, on condition that he + should allow the realms of her father, Cepheus, to be free and + undisturbed; Perseus, being informed of this, slew the pirate, and + Phineus having been kept in a state of inactivity through dread of the + valor of Perseus, it was fabled that he had been changed into a stone. + This interpretation of the story is the one suggested by Vossius. + + Some writers think, that Phineus, the uncle of Andromeda, was the + enemy from which she was rescued by Perseus, and who is here + represented under the form of a monster; while others suggest that + this monster was the name of the ship in which the pirate before + mentioned was to have carried away Andromeda. + + + + +BOOK THE FIFTH. + + +FABLE I. [V.1-242] + + While Perseus is continuing the relation of the adventures of Medusa, + Phineus, to whom Andromeda has been previously promised in marriage, + rushes into the palace, with his adherents, and attacks his rival. + A furious combat is the consequence, in which Perseus gives signal + proofs of his valor. At length, perceiving himself likely to be + overpowered by the number of his enemies, he shows them the head of + the Gorgon; on which Phineus and his followers are turned into statues + of stone. After this victory, he takes Andromeda with him to Argos, + his native city, where he turns the usurper PrÅ“tus into stone, and + re-establishes his grandfather Acrisius on the throne. + +And while the hero, the son of Danaë, is relating these things in the +midst of the company of the subjects of Cepheus, the royal courts are +filled with a raging multitude; nor is the clamor such as celebrates a +marriage-feast, but one which portends dreadful warfare. You might +compare the banquet, changed into a sudden tumult, to the sea, which, +when calm, the boisterous rage of the winds disturbs by raising its +waves. + +Foremost among these, Phineus,[1] the rash projector of the onslaught, +shaking an ashen spear with a brazen point, cries, “Behold! {now}, +behold! I am come, the avenger of my wife, ravished from me; neither +shall thy wings nor Jupiter turned into fictitious gold, deliver thee +from me.†As he is endeavoring to hurl {his lance}, Cepheus cries out, +“What art thou doing? What fancy, my brother, impels thee, in thy +madness, to this crime? Is this the due acknowledgment to return +for deserts so great? Dost thou repay the life of her {thus} preserved, +with this reward? ’Twas not Perseus, if thou wouldst know the truth, +that took her away from thee; but the incensed majesty of the Nereids, +and horned Ammon, and the monster of the sea, which came to be glutted +with my bowels. She was snatched from thee at that moment, at which she +was to have perished; unless it is that thou dost, in thy cruelty, +insist upon that very thing, that she should perish, and wilt be +appeased only by my affliction. It is not enough, forsooth, that in thy +presence she was bound and that thou, both her uncle and her betrothed, +didst give no assistance; wilt thou be grieving, besides, that she was +saved by another, and wilt thou deprive him of his reward? If this +appears great to thee, thou shouldst have recovered it from the rock to +which it was fastened. Now, let him who has recovered it, through whom +my old age is not childless, have what he stipulated for, both by his +merits and his words; and know that he was preferred not before thee, +but before certain death.†+ +{Phineus said} nothing, on the other hand; but viewing both him and +Perseus, with alternate looks, he was uncertain whether he should +{first} attack the one or the other; and, having paused a short time, he +vainly threw his spear, hurled with all the force that rage afforded. As +it stood fixed in the cushion,[2] then, at length, Perseus leapt off +from the couch, and in his rage would have pierced the breast of his +enemy with the weapon, thrown back, had not Phineus gone behind an +altar, and {thus} (how unworthily!) an altar[3] protected a miscreant. +However, the spear, not thrown in vain, stuck in the forehead of RhÅ“tus; +who, after he fell, and the steel was wrenched from the skull, he +{still} struggled, and besprinkled the laid tables with his blood. But +then does the multitude burst forth into ungovernable rage, and hurl +their weapons. Some there are, who say that Cepheus ought to die with +his son-in-law; but Cepheus has gone out by the entrance of the house, +calling right and good faith to witness, and the Gods of hospitality,[4] +that this disturbance is made contrary to his will. The warlike Pallas +comes; and with her shield protects her brother {Perseus}, and gives him +courage. There was an Indian, Athis {by name},[5] whom Limnate, the +daughter of the river Ganges, is believed to have brought forth beneath +the glassy waters; excelling in beauty, which he improved by his rich +dress; in his prime, as yet but twice eight years of age, dressed in a +purple tunic, which a golden fringe bordered; a gilded necklace graced +his neck, and a curved hair-pin his hair wet with myrrh. He, indeed, had +been taught to hit things, although at a distance, with his hurled +javelin, but {he was} more skilled at bending the bow. {Perseus} struck +him even then, as he was bending with his hands the flexible horns {of a +bow}, with a billet, which, placed in the middle of the altar, was +smoking, and he crushed his face into his broken skull. + +When the Assyrian Lycabas, who was a most attached friend of his, and no +concealer of his real affection, saw him rolling his features, the +objects of such praises, in his blood; after he had bewailed Athis, +breathing forth his life from this cruel wound, he seized the bow which +he had bent, and said, “And {now} let the contest against thee be with +me; not long shalt thou exult in the fate of the youth, by which thou +acquirest more hatred than praise.†All this he had not yet said, {when} +the piercing weapon darted from the string, and {though} avoided, still +it hung in the folds of his garment. The grandson of Acrisius turned +against him his falchion,[6] {already} proved in the slaughter of +Medusa, and thrust it into his breast. But he, now dying, with his eyes +swimming in black night, looked around for Athis, and sank upon him, and +carried to the shades the consolation of a united death. Lo! Phorbas of +Syene,[7] the son of Methion, and Amphimedon, the Libyan, eager to +engage in the fight, fell down, slipping in the blood with which the +earth was warm, soaked on every side; as they arose the sword met them, +being thrust in the ribs of the one, {and} in the throat of Phorbas. But +Perseus does not attack Erithus, the son of Actor, whose weapon is a +broad battle-axe, by using his sword, but he takes up, with both hands, +a huge bowl,[8] standing out with figures deeply embossed, and of vast +mass in its weight, and hurls it against the man. The other vomits forth +red blood, and, falling on his back, beats the ground with his dying +head. Then he slays Polydæmon, sprung from the blood of Semiramis, and +the Caucasian Abaris, and Lycetus, the son of Sperchius,[9] and Elyces, +with unshorn locks, and Phlegias, and Clytus; and he tramples upon the +heaps of the dying, which he has piled up. + +But Phineus, not daring to engage hand to hand with his enemy, hurls his +javelin, which accident carries against Idas, who, in vain, has declined +the warfare[10] and has followed the arms of neither. He, looking at the +cruel Phineus with stern eyes, says, “Since I am {thus} forced to take a +side, take the enemy, Phineus, that thou hast made, and make amends for +my wound with this wound.†And now, just about to return the dart drawn +from his body, he falls sinking down upon his limbs void of blood. Here, +too, Odytes, the next in rank among the followers of Cepheus, after the +king, lies prostrate under the sword of Clymenus; Hypseus kills +Protenor, {and} Lyncides Hypseus. There is, too, among them the aged +Emathion, an observer of justice, and a fearer of the Gods; as his years +prevent him from fighting, he engages by talking, and he condemns and +utters imprecations against their accursed arms. As he clings to the +altars[11] with trembling hands, Chromis cuts off his head with his +sword, which straightway falls upon the altar, and there, with his dying +tongue he utters words of execration, and breathes forth his soul in the +midst of the fires. Upon this, two brothers, Broteas and Ammon +invincible at boxing, if swords could only be conquered by boxing, fell +by the hand of Phineus; Ampycus, too, the priest of Ceres, having his +temples wreathed with a white fillet. Thou too, son of Iapetus, not to +be employed for these services; but one who tuned the lyre, the work of +peace, to thy voice, hadst been ordered to attend the banquet and +festival with thy music. As thou art standing afar, and holding the +unwarlike plectrum, Pettalus says, laughing, “Go sing the rest to the +Stygian ghosts,†and fixes the point of the sword in his left temple. He +falls, and with his dying fingers he touches once again the strings of +the lyre; and in his fall he plays a mournful dirge.[12] The fierce +Lycormas does not suffer him to fall unpunished; and tearing away a +massive bar from the doorpost on the right, he dashes it against the +bones of the middle of the neck {of Pettalus}; struck, he falls to the +ground, just like a slaughtered bullock. + +The Cinyphian[13] Pelates, too, was trying to tear away the oaken bar of +the doorpost on the left; as he was trying, his right hand was fastened +{thereto} by the spear of Corythus, the son of Marmarus, and it stood +riveted to the wood. {Thus} riveted, Abas pierced his side; he did not +fall, however, but dying, hung from the post, which still held fast his +hand. Melaneus, too, was slain, who had followed the camp of Perseus, +and Dorylas, very rich in Nasamonian land.[14] Dorylas, rich in land, +than whom no one possessed it of wider extent, or received {thence} so +many heaps of corn. The hurled steel stood fixed obliquely in his groin; +the hurt was mortal. When the Bactrian[15] Halcyoneus, the author of the +wound, beheld him sobbing forth his soul, and rolling his eyes, he said, +“Take {for thine own} this {spot} of earth which thou dost press, out of +so many fields,†and he left his lifeless body. The descendant of Abas, +as his avenger, hurls against {Halcyoneus} the spear torn from his wound +{yet} warm, which, received in the middle of the nostrils, pierced +through his neck, and projected on both sides. And while fortune is +aiding his hand, he slays, with different wounds, Clytius and Clanis, +born of one mother. For an ashen spear poised with a strong arm is +driven through both the thighs of Clytius; with his mouth does Clanis +bite the javelin. Celadon, the Mendesian,[16] falls, too; Astreus falls, +born of a mother of Palestine, {but} of an uncertain father. Æthion, +too, once sagacious at foreseeing things to come, {but} now deceived[17] +by a false omen; and Thoactes, the armor-bearer of the king, and +Agyrtes, infamous for slaying his father. + +More work still remains, than what is {already} done; for it is the +intention of all to overwhelm one. The conspiring troops fight on all +sides, for a cause that attacks both merit and good faith. The one side, +the father-in-law, attached in vain, and the new-made wife, together +with her mother, encourage; and {these} fill the halls with their +shrieks. But the din of arms, and the groans of those that fall, +prevail; and for once, Bellona[18] is deluging the household Gods +polluted with plenteous blood, and is kindling the combat anew. Phineus, +and a thousand that follow Phineus, surround Perseus {alone}; darts are +flying thicker than the hail of winter, on both his sides, past his +eyes, and past his ears. On this, he places his shoulders against the +stone of a large pillar, and, having his back secure, and facing the +adverse throng, he withstands their attack. Chaonian[19] Molpeus presses +on the left, Nabathæan Ethemon on the right. As a tiger, urged on by +hunger, when it hears the lowings of two herds, in different valleys, +knows not on which side in preference to rush out, and {yet} is eager to +rush out on both; so Perseus, being in doubt whether to bear onward to +the right or to the left, repulses Molpeus by a wound in the leg, which +he runs through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does +Ethemon give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to +inflict a wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with +incautious force; and against the extremity of a column which he has +struck, the blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its +owner; yet that blow has not power sufficient to {effect} his death. +Perseus stabs him with his Cyllenian[20] falchion, trembling, and vainly +extending his unarmed hands. + +But when Perseus saw his valor {likely} to yield to such numbers, he +said, “Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will seek assistance +from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my friends are here;†and +{then} he produced the head of the Gorgon. “{Go}, seek some one else,†+said Thescelus, “for thy miracles to affect;†and, as he was preparing +to hurl his deadly javelin with his hand, he stood fast in that posture, +a statue of marble. Ampyx, being next him, made a pass with his sword at +the breast of Lyncidas, full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his +right hand became stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But +Nileus, who had falsely boasted that he was begotten by the +seven-mouthed Nile, and who had engraved on his shield its seven +channels, partly in silver, partly in gold, said, “Behold, Perseus, the +origin of my race; thou shalt carry to the silent shades a great +consolation for thy death, that thou wast killed by one so great.†The +last part of his address was suppressed in the midst of the utterance; +and you would think his half-open mouth was attempting to speak, but it +gave no passage for his words. Eryx rebuked them,[21] and said, “Ye are +benumbed by the cowardice of your minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon; +rush on with me, and strike to the ground {this} youth that wields his +magic arms.†He was about to rush on, {when} the earth arrested his +steps, and he remained an immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all +these met with the punishment they had deserved: there was one man, +however, Aconteus {by name}, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was +fighting, on beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon +him. Astyages, thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword; +the sword resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in +amazement, he took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in +surprise remained on his marble features. It is a tedious task to +recount the names of the men of the lower rank. Two hundred bodies were +{yet} remaining for the fight: two hundred bodies, on beholding the +Gorgon, grew stiff. + +Now at length Phineus repents of this unjust warfare. But what can he +do? He sees statues varying in form, and he recognizes his friends, and +demands help of them each, called by name; and not {yet} persuaded, he +touches the bodies next him; they are marble. He turns away {his eyes}; +and thus suppliant, and stretching forth his hands, that confessed {his +fault}, and his arms obliquely extended, he says, “Perseus, thou hast +conquered; remove the direful monster, and take away that stone-making +face of thy Medusa, whatever she may be; take it away, I pray. It is not +hatred, or the desire of a kingdom, that has urged me to war: for a wife +I wielded arms. Thy cause was the better in point of merit, mine in +point of time. I am not sorry to yield. Grant me nothing, most valiant +man, beyond this life; the rest be thine.†Upon his saying such things, +and not daring to look upon him, whom he is entreating with his voice, +{Perseus} says, “What am I able to give thee, most cowardly Phineus, +and, a great boon to a craven, that will I give; lay aside thy fears; +thou shalt be hurt by no weapon. Moreover, I will give thee a monument +to last forever, and in the house of my father-in-law thou shalt always +be seen, that my wife may comfort herself with the form of her +betrothed.†{Thus} he said, and he turned the daughter of Phorcys to +that side, towards which Phineus had turned himself with trembling face. +Then, even as he endeavored to turn away his eyes, his neck grew stiff, +and the moisture of his eyes hardened in stone. But yet his timid +features, and his suppliant countenance, and his hands hanging down, and +his guilty attitude, still remained. + +The descendant of Abas, together with his wife, enters the walls of his +native city; and as the defender and avenger of his innocent mother, he +attacks PrÅ“tus.[22] For, his brother being expelled by force of arms, +PrÅ“tus had taken possession of the citadel of Acrisius; but neither by +the help of arms, nor the citadel which he had unjustly seized, did he +prevail against the stern eyes of the snake-bearing monster. + + [Footnote 1: _Phineus._--Ver. 8. He was the brother of Cepheus, to + whom Andromeda had been betrothed. There was another person of the + same name, who entertained the Argonauts, and who is also + mentioned in the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 2: _In the cushion._--Ver. 34. This was probably the + mattress or covering of the couch on which the ancients reclined + during meals. It was frequently stuffed with wool; but among the + poorer classes, with straw and dried weeds.] + + [Footnote 3: _An altar._--Ver. 36. This was either the altar + devoted to the worship of the Penates; or, more probably, perhaps, + in this instance, that erected for sacrifice to the Gods on the + occasion of the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 4: _Gods of hospitality._--Ver. 45. Jupiter was + especially considered to be the avenger of a violation of the laws + of hospitality.] + + [Footnote 5: _Athis by name._--Ver. 47. Athis, or Atys, is here + described as of Indian birth, to distinguish him from the Phrygian + youth of the same name, beloved by Cybele, whose story is told by + Ovid in the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 6: _His falchion._--Ver. 69. The “Harpe†was a short, + crooked sword, or falchion: such as we call a “scimitar.â€] + + [Footnote 7: _Syene._--Ver. 74. This was a city on the confines of + Æthiopia, bordering upon Egypt. Ovid tells us in the Pontic + Epistles (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79), that “there, at the time of the + summer solstice, bodies as they stand, have no shadow.â€] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge bowl._--Ver. 82. Clarke calls “ingentem + cratera†“a swingeing bowl.â€] + + [Footnote 9: _Sperchius._--Ver. 86. This was probably a person, + and not the river of Thessaly, flowing into the Malian Gulf.] + + [Footnote 10: _Has declined the warfare._--Ver. 91. This is an + illustration of the danger of neutrality, when the necessity of + the times requires a man to adopt the side which he deems to be in + the right.] + + [Footnote 11: _Clings to the altars._--Ver. 103. In cases of + extreme danger, it was usual to fly to the temples of the Deities, + and to take refuge behind the altar or statue of the God, and even + to cling to it, if necessity required.] + + [Footnote 12: _A mournful dirge._--Ver. 118. Clarke translates + ‘Casuque canit miserabile carmen;’ ‘and in his fall plays but a + dismal ditty.’] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyphian._--Ver. 124. Cinyps, or Cinyphus, was the + name of a river situate in the north of Africa.] + + [Footnote 14: _Nasamonian land._--Ver. 129. The Nasamones were a + people of Libya, near the Syrtes, or quicksands, who subsisted by + plundering the numerous wrecks on their coasts.] + + [Footnote 15: _Bactrian._--Ver. 135. Bactris was the chief city of + Bactria, a region bordering on the western confines of India.] + + [Footnote 16: _The Mendesian._--Ver. 144. Mendes was a city of + Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile, where Pan was worshipped, + according to Pliny. Celadon was a native of either this place, or + of the city of Myndes, in Syria.] + + [Footnote 17: _Now deceived._--Ver. 147. Because he had not + foreseen his own approaching fate.] + + [Footnote 18: _Bellona._--Ver. 155. She was the sister of Mars, + and was the Goddess of War.] + + [Footnote 19: _Chaonian._--Ver. 163. Chaonia was a mountainous + part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, who was accidentally killed, + while hunting, by Helenus, the son of Priam. It has been, however, + suggested that the reading ought to be ‘Choanius;’ as the Choanii + were a people bordering on Arabia; and very justly, for how should + the Chaonians and Nabathæans, or Epirotes, and Arabians become + united in the same sentence, as meeting in a region so distant as + Æthiopia?] + + [Footnote 20: _Cyllenian._--Ver. 176. His falchion had been given + to him by Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Eryx rebuked them._--Ver. 195. ‘Increpat hos Eryx’ + is translated by Clarke, ‘Eryx rattles these blades.’] + + [Footnote 22: _PrÅ“tus._--Ver. 238. He was the brother of Acrisius, + the grandfather of Perseus.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The scene of this story is supposed by some to have been in Æthiopia, + but it is more probably on the coast of Africa. Josephus and Strabo + assert that this event happened near the city of Joppa, or Jaffa: + indeed, Josephus says that the marks of the chains with which + Andromeda was fastened, were remaining on the rock in his time. + Pomponius Mela says, that Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, was king + of Joppa, and that the memory of that prince and of his brother + Phineus was honored there with religious services. He says, too, that + the inhabitants used to show the bones of the monster which was to + have devoured Andromeda. Pliny tells us the same, and that Scaurus + carried these bones with him to Rome. He calls the monster ‘a + Goddess,’ ‘Dea Cete.’ Vossius believes that he means the God Dagon, + worshipped among the Syrians under the figure of a fish, or + sea-monster. Some authors have suggested that the story of the + creature which was to have devoured Andromeda, was a confused version + of that of the prophet Jonah. + + The alleged power of Perseus, to turn his enemies into stone, was + probably, a metaphorical mode of describing his heroism, and the + terror which everywhere followed the fame of his victory over the + Gorgons. This probably caused such consternation, that it was reported + that he petrified his enemies by showing them the head of Medusa. + Bochart supposes that the rocky nature of the island of Seriphus, + where Polydectes reigned, was the ground of the various stories of the + alleged metamorphoses into stone, effected by means of the Gorgon’s + head. + + +FABLE II. [V.243-340] + + Polydectes continues his hatred against Perseus, and treats his + victories and triumphs over Medusa as mere fictions, on which Perseus + turns him into stone. Minerva leaves her brother, and goes to Mount + Helicon to visit the Muses, who show the Goddess the beauties of their + habitation, and entertain her with their adventure at the court of + Pyreneus, and the death of that prince. They also repeat to her the + song of the Pierides, who challenged them to sing. + +Yet, O Polydectes,[23] the ruler of little Seriphus, neither the valor +of the youth proved by so many toils, nor his sorrows have softened +thee; but thou obstinately dost exert an inexorable hatred, nor is there +any limit to thy unjust resentment. Thou also detractest from his +praises, and dost allege that the death of Medusa is {but} a fiction. +“We will give thee a proof of the truth,†says Perseus; “have a regard +for your eyes, {all besides};†and he makes the face of the king +{become} stone, without blood, by means of the face of Medusa. + +Hitherto Tritonia had presented herself as a companion to her +brother,[24] begotten in the golden shower. Now, enwrapped in an +encircling cloud, she abandons Seriphus, Cythnus and Gyarus[25] being +left on the right. And where the way seems the shortest over the sea, +she makes for Thebes and Helicon, frequented by the virgin {Muses}; +having reached which mountain she stops, and thus addresses the learned +sisters: “The fame of the new fountain[26] has reached my ears, which +the hard hoof of the winged steed sprung from the blood of Medusa has +opened. That is the cause of my coming. I wished to see this wondrous +prodigy; I saw him spring from the blood of his mother.†Urania[27] +replies, “Whatever, Goddess, is the cause of thy visiting these abodes, +thou art most acceptable to our feelings. However, the report is true, +and Pegasus is the originator of this spring;†and {then} she conducts +Pallas to the sacred streams. She, long admiring the waters produced by +the stroke of his foot, looks around upon the groves of the ancient +wood, and the caves and the grass studded with flowers innumerable; and +she pronounces the Mnemonian[28] maids happy both in their pursuits and +in their retreat; when one of the sisters {thus} addresses her: + +“O Tritonia, thou who wouldst have come to make one of our number, had +not thy valor inclined thee to greater deeds, thou sayest the truth, and +with justice thou dost approve both our pursuits and our retreat; and if +we are but safe, happy do we reckon our lot. But (to such a degree is no +denial borne by villany) all things affright our virgin minds, and the +dreadful Pyreneus is placed before our eyes; and not yet have I wholly +recovered my presence of mind. He, in his insolence, had taken the +Daulian and Phocean[29] land with his Thracian troops, and unjustly held +the government. We were making for the temple of Parnassus; he beheld us +going, and adoring our Divinities[30] in a feigned worship he said (for +he had recognized us), ‘O Mnemonian maids, stop, and do not scruple, +I pray, under my roof to avoid the bad weather and the showers (for it +was raining); oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.’ +Moved by his invitation and the weather, we assented to the man, and +entered the front part of his house. The rain had {now} ceased, and the +South Wind {now} subdued by the North, the black clouds were flying from +the cleared sky. It was our wish to depart. Pyreneus closed his house, +and prepared for violence, which we escaped by taking wing. He himself +stood aloft on the top {of his abode}, as though about to follow us, and +said ‘Wherever there is a way for you, by the same road there will be +{one} for me.’ And then, in his insanity, he threw himself from the +height of the summit of the tower, and fell upon his face, and with the +bones of his skull thus broken, he struck the ground stained with his +accursed blood.†+ +{Thus} spoke the Muse. Wings resounded through the air, and a voice of +some saluting them[31] came from the lofty boughs. The daughter of +Jupiter looked up, and asked whence tongues that speak so distinctly +made that noise, and thought that a human being had spoken. They were +birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting their fate, they +stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the Goddess wondered, +thus did the Goddess {Urania} commence: “Lately, too, did these being +overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the birds. Pierus, rich in +the lands of Pella,[32] begot them; the Pæonian[33] Evippe[34] was their +mother. Nine times did she invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times +in labor. This set of foolish sisters were proud of their number, and +came hither through so many cities of Hæmonia, {and} through so many of +Achaia,[35] and engaged in a contest in words such as these: “Cease +imposing upon the vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any +confidence {in your skill}, ye Thespian Goddesses, contend with us; we +will not be outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number. +Either, if vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of +Medusa, and the Hyantean Aganippe,[36] or we will retire from the +Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Pæonians. Let the Nymphs decide the +contest.†It was, indeed, disgraceful to engage, but to yield seemed +{even} more disgraceful. The Nymphs that are chosen swear by the rivers, +and they sit on seats made out of the natural rock. Then, without +casting lots, she who had been the first to propose the contest, sings +the wars of the Gods above, and gives the Giants honor not their due, +and detracts from the actions of the great Divinities; and {sings} how +that TyphÅ“us, sent forth from the lowest realms of the earth, had struck +terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and {how} they had all turned +their backs in flight, until the land of Egypt had received them in +their weariness, and the Nile, divided into its seven mouths. She tells, +how that TyphÅ“us had come there, too, and the Gods above had concealed +themselves under assumed shapes; and ‘Jupiter,’ she says, ‘becomes the +leader of the flock, whence, even at the present day, the Libyan Ammon +is figured with horns. {Apollo}, the Delian {God}, lies concealed as a +crow, the son of Semele as a he-goat, the sister of PhÅ“bus as a cat, +{Juno}, the daughter of Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a +fish,[37] {Mercury}, the Cyllenian {God}, beneath the wings of an +Ibis.’[38] + +“Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to {the sound of} the lyre; we +of Aonia[39] were {then} called upon; but perhaps thou hast not the +leisure, nor the time to lend an ear to our strains.†Pallas says, “Do +not hesitate, and repeat your song to me in its order;†and she takes +her seat under the pleasant shade of the grove. The Muse {then} tells +her story. “We assigned the management of the contest to one {of our +number}. Calliope rises, and, having her long hair gathered up with ivy, +tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and {then} sings these lines +in concert with the strings when struck.†+ + [Footnote 23: _Polydectes._--Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the + little island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys + had removed Perseus, with his mother Danaë, to the kingdom of + Polydectes. The latter became smitten with love for Danaë, though + he was about to marry Hippodamia. On this occasion he exacted a + promise from Perseus, of the head of the Gorgon Medusa. When + Perseus returned victorious, he found that his mother, with her + protector Dictys, had taken refuge at the altars of the Deities, + against the violence of Polydectes; on which Perseus changed him + into stone. The story of Perseus afforded abundant materials to + the ancient poets. Æschylus wrote a Tragedy called Polydectes, + Sophocles one called Danaë, while Euripides composed two, called + respectively Danaë and Dictys. Pherecydes also wrote on this + subject, and his work seems to have been a text book for + succeeding poets. Polygnotus painted the return of Perseus with + the head of Medusa, to the island of Seriphus.] + + [Footnote 24: _To her brother._--Ver. 250. As both Tritonia, or + Minerva, and Perseus had Jupiter for their father.] + + [Footnote 25: _Gyarus._--Ver. 252. Cythnus and Gyarus were two + islands of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 26: _The new fountain._--Ver. 256. This was Helicon, + which was produced by a blow from the hoof of Pegasus.] + + [Footnote 27: _Urania._--Ver. 260. One of the Muses, who presided + over Astronomy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Mnemonian._--Ver. 268. The Muses are called + ‘Mnemonides,’ from the Greek word μνήμων ‘remembering,’ or + ‘mindful,’ because they were said to be the daughters, by Jupiter, + of Mnemosyne, or Memory.] + + [Footnote 29: _Phocean._--Ver. 276. Daulis was a city of Phocis; + a district between BÅ“otia and Ætolia, in which the city of Delphi + and Mount Parnassus were situate.] + + [Footnote 30: _Our Divinities._--Ver. 279. ‘Nostra veneratus + numina,’ is translated by Clarke, ‘and worshipping our + Goddessships.’] + + [Footnote 31: _Some saluting them._--Ver. 295. That is, crying out + χαῖÏε, χαῖÏε, the usual salutation among the Greeks, equivalent to + our ‘How d’ye do?’ From two lines of Persius, it seems to have + been a common thing to teach parrots and magpies to repeat these + words.] + + [Footnote 32: _Lands of Pella._--Ver. 302. Pella was a city of + Macedonia, in that part of it which was called Emathia. It was + famed for being the birthplace of Philip, and Alexander the + Great.] + + [Footnote 33: _Pæonian._--Ver. 303. Pæonia was a mountainous + region of Macedonia, adjacent to Emathia.] + + [Footnote 34: _Evippe._--Ver. 303. Evippe was the wife of Pierus, + and the mother of the Pierides.] + + [Footnote 35: _Achaia._--Ver. 306. The Achaia here mentioned was + the Hæmonian, or Thessalian Achaia. The other parts of Thessaly + were Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis.] + + [Footnote 36: _Aganippe._--Ver. 312. Aganippe was the name of a + fountain in BÅ“otia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses. It is + called Hyantean, from the ancient name of the inhabitants of the + country.] + + [Footnote 37: _Venus as a fish._--Ver. 331. The story of the + transformation of Venus into a fish, to escape the fury of the + Giants, is told, at length, in the second Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 38: _Wings of an Ibis._--Ver. 331. The Ibis was a bird + of Egypt, much resembling a crane, or stork. It was said to be of + peculiarly unclean habits, and to subsist upon serpents.] + + [Footnote 39: _We of Aonia._--Ver. 333. The Muses obtained the + name of Aonides from Aonia, a mountainous district of BÅ“otia.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Plutarch, the adventure of the Muses with Pyreneus, and + of their asking wings of the Gods to save themselves, is a metaphor, + which shows that he, when reigning in Phocis, was no friend to + learning. As he had caused all the institutions in which it was taught + to be destroyed, it was currently reported, that he had offered + violence to the Muses, and that he lost his life in pursuing them. + Ovid is the only writer that mentions him by name. + + The challenge given by the Pierides to the Muses is not mentioned by + any writer before the time of Ovid. By way of explaining it, it is + said, that Pierus was a very bad poet, whose works were full of + stories injurious to the credit of the Gods. Hence, in time, it became + circulated, that his daughters, otherwise his works, were changed into + magpies, thereby meaning that they were full of idle narratives, + tiresome and unmeaning. It is not improbable that the story of + TyphÅ“us, who forces the Gods to conceal themselves in Egypt, under the + forms of various animals, was a poem which Pierus composed on the war + of the Gods with the Giants. + + +FABLE III. [V.341-384] + + One of the Muses repeats to Minerva the song of Calliope, in answer to + the Pierides; in which she describes the defeat of the Giant TyphÅ“us, + and Pluto viewing the mountains of Sicily, where Venus persuades her + son Cupid to pierce his heart with one of his arrows. + +“Ceres was the first to turn up the clods with the crooked plough; she +first gave corn and wholesome food to the earth; she first gave laws; +everything is the gift of Ceres. She is to be sung by me; I only wish +that I could utter verses worthy of the Goddess, {for} doubtless she is +a Goddess worthy of my song. The vast island of Trinacria[40] is heaped +up on the limbs of the Giant, and keeps down TyphÅ“us, that dared to hope +for the abodes of Heaven, placed beneath its heavy mass. He, indeed, +struggles, and attempts often to rise, but his right hand is placed +beneath the Ausonian Pelorus,[41] his left under thee, Pachynus;[42] his +legs are pressed down by LilybÅ“um;[43] Ætna bears down his head; under +it TyphÅ“us, on his back, casts forth sand, and vomits flame from his +raging mouth; often does he struggle to throw off the load of earth, and +to roll away cities and huge mountains from his body. Then does the +earth tremble, and the King of the shades himself is in dread, lest it +may open, and the ground be parted with a wide chasm, and, the day being +let in, may affright the trembling ghosts. + +“Fearing this ruin, the Ruler had gone out from his dark abode; and, +carried in his chariot by black horses, he cautiously surveyed the +foundations of the Sicilian land. After it was sufficiently ascertained +that no place was insecure, and fear was laid aside, Erycina,[44] +sitting down upon her mountain, saw him wandering; and, embracing her +winged son, she said, Cupid, my son, my arms, my hands, and my might, +take up those darts by which thou conquerest all, and direct the swift +arrows against the breast of the God, to whom fell the last lot of the +triple kingdom.[45] Thou subduest the Gods above, and Jupiter himself; +thou {subduest} the conquered Deities of the deep, and him who rules +over the Deities of the deep. Why is Tartarus exempt? Why dost thou not +extend the Empire of thy mother and thine own? A third part of the world +is {now} at stake. And yet so great power is despised even in our own +heaven, and, together with myself, the influence of Love becomes but a +trifling matter. Dost thou not see how that Pallas, and Diana, who +throws the javelin, have renounced me? The daughter of Ceres, too, will +be a virgin, if we shall permit it, for she inclines to similar hopes. +But do thou join the Goddess to her uncle, if I have any interest with +thee in favor of our joint sway. + +“Venus {thus} spoke. He opened his quiver, and, by the direction of his +mother, set apart one out of his thousand arrows; but one, than which +there is not any more sharp or less unerring, or which is more true to +the bow. And he bent the flexible horn, by pressing his knee against it, +and struck Pluto in the breast with the barbed arrow.†+ + [Footnote 40: _Trinacria._--Ver. 347. Sicily was called Trinacris, + or Trinacria, from its three corners or promontories, which are + here named by the Poet.] + + [Footnote 41: _Pelorus._--Ver. 350. This cape, or promontory, now + called Capo di Faro, is on the east of Sicily, looking towards + Italy, whence its present epithet, ‘Ausonian.’ It was so named + from Pelorus, the pilot of Hannibal, who, suspecting him of + treachery, had put him to death, and buried him on that spot.] + + [Footnote 42: _Pachynus._--Ver. 351. This Cape, now Capo Passaro, + looks towards Greece, from the south of Sicily.] + + [Footnote 43: _Lilybæum._--Ver. 351. Now called Capo Marsala. It + is on the west of Sicily, looking towards the African coast.] + + [Footnote 44: _Erycina._--Ver. 363. Venus is so called from Eryx, + the mountain of Sicily, on which her son Eryx, one of the early + Sicilian kings, erected a magnificent temple in her honor.] + + [Footnote 45: _The triple kingdom._--Ver. 368. In the partition of + the dominion of the universe the heavens fell to the lot of + Jupiter, the seas to that of Neptune; while the infernal regions, + or, as some say, the earth, were awarded to Pluto.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancients frequently accounted for natural phænomena on fabulous + grounds: and whatever they found difficult to explain, from their + ignorance of the principles of natural philosophy, they immediately + attributed to the agency of a supernatural cause. Ætna was often seen + to emit flames, and the earth was subjected to violent shocks from the + forces of its internal fires when struggling for a vent. Instead of + looking for the source of these eruptions in the sulphur and + bituminous matter in which the mountain abounds, they fabled, that the + Gods, having vanquished the Giant TyphÅ“us, or, according to some + authors, Enceladus, threw Mount Ætna on his body; and that the + attempts he made to free himself from the superincumbent weight were + the cause of those fires and earthquakes. + + +FABLE IV. [V.385-461] + + Pluto surprises Proserpina in the fields of Henna, and carries her + away by force. The Nymph Cyane endeavors, in vain, to stop him in his + passage, and through grief and anguish, dissolves into a fountain. + Ceres goes everywhere in search of her daughter, and, in her journey, + turns the boy Stellio into a newt. + +“Not far from the walls of Henna[46] there is a lake of deep water, +Pergus by name; Cayster does not hear more songs of swans, in his +running streams, than that. A wood skirts the lake, surrounding it on +every side, and with its foliage, as though with an awning, keeps out +the rays of the sun. The boughs produce a coolness, the moist ground +flowers of Tyrian hue. {There} the spring is perpetual. In this grove, +while Proserpina is amusing herself, and is plucking either violets or +white lilies, and while, with childlike eagerness, she is filling her +baskets and her bosom, and is striving to outdo {her companions} of the +same age in gathering, almost at the same instant she is beheld, +beloved, and seized by Pluto;[47] in such great haste is love. The +Goddess, affrighted, with lamenting lips calls both her mother and her +companions,[48] but more frequently her mother;[49] and as she has torn +her garment from the upper edge, the collected flowers fall from her +loosened robes. So great, too, is the innocence of her childish years, +this loss excites the maiden’s grief as well. The ravisher drives on his +chariot, and encourages his horses, called, each by his name, along +whose necks and manes he shakes the reins, dyed with swarthy rust. He is +borne through deep lakes, and the pools of the Palici,[50] smelling +strong of sulphur, {and} boiling fresh from out of the burst earth; and +where the Bacchiadæ,[51] a race sprung from Corinth, with its two +seas,[52] built a city[53] between unequal harbors. + +“There is a stream in the middle, between Cyane and the Pisæan Arethusa, +which is confined within itself, being enclosed by mountain ridges at a +short distance {from each other}. Here was Cyane,[54] the most +celebrated among the Sicilian Nymphs, from whose name the pool also was +called, who stood up from out of the midst of the water, as far as the +higher part of her stomach, and recognized the God, and said, ‘No +further shall you go. Thou mayst not be the son-in-law of Ceres against +her will. {The girl} should have been asked {of her mother}, not carried +away. But if I may be allowed to compare little matters with great ones, +Anapis[55] also loved me. Yet I married him, courted, and not frightened +{into it}, like her.’ She {thus} said, and stretching her arms on +different sides, she stood in his way. The son of Saturn no longer +restrained his rage; and encouraging his terrible steeds, he threw his +royal sceptre, hurled with a strong arm, into the lowest depths of the +stream. The earth, {thus} struck, made a way down to Tartarus, and +received the descending chariot in the middle of the yawning space. But +Cyane, lamenting both the ravished Goddess, and the slighted privileges +of her spring, carries in her silent mind an inconsolable wound, and is +entirely dissolved into tears, and melts away into those waters, of +which she had been but lately the great guardian Divinity. You might see +her limbs soften, her bones become subjected to bending, her nails lay +aside their hardness: each, too, of the smaller extremities of the whole +of her body melts away; both her azure hair, her fingers, her legs, and +her feet; for easy is the change of those small members into a cold +stream. After that, her back, her shoulders, her side, and her breast +dissolve, vanishing into thin rivulets. Lastly, pure water, instead of +live blood, enters her corrupted veins, and nothing remains which you +can grasp {in your hand}. + +“In the mean time, throughout all lands and in every sea, the daughter +is sought in vain by her anxious mother. Aurora, coming with her ruddy +locks does not behold her taking any rest, neither does Hesperus. She, +with her two hands, sets light to some pines at the flaming Ætna, and +giving herself no rest, bears them through the frosty darkness. Again, +when the genial day has dulled the light of the stars, she seeks her +daughter from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. Fatigued by +the labor, she has {now} contracted thirst, and no streams have washed +her mouth, when by chance she beholds a cottage covered with thatch, and +knocks at its humble door, upon which an old woman[56] comes out and +sees the Goddess, and gives her, asking for water, a sweet drink which +she has lately distilled[57] from parched pearled barley. While she is +drinking it {thus} presented, a boy[58] of impudent countenance and +bold, stands before the Goddess, and laughs, and calls her greedy. She +is offended; and a part being not yet quaffed, the Goddess sprinkles +him, as he is {thus} talking, with the barley mixed with the liquor. + +“His face contracts the stains, and he bears legs where just now he was +bearing arms; a tail is added to his changed limbs; and he is contracted +into a diminutive form, that no great power of doing injury may exist; +his size is less than {that of} a small lizard. He flies from the old +woman, astounded and weeping, and trying to touch the monstrosity; and +he seeks a lurking place, and has a name suited to his color, having his +body speckled with various spots.†+ + [Footnote 46: _Henna._--Ver. 385. Henna, or Enna, was a city so + exactly situated in the middle of Sicily that it was called the + navel of that island. The worship of Ceres there was so highly + esteemed, that ancient writers remarked, that you might easily + take the whole place for one vast temple of that Goddess, and all + the inhabitants for her priests. Proserpine is said by many + authors, besides Ovid, to have been carried away by Pluto in the + vicinity of Henna; though some writers say that it took place in + Attica, and others again in Asia, while the Hymn of Orpheus + mentions the western coast of Spain. Cicero describes this spot in + his Oration against Verres: his words are, ‘It is said that + Libera, who is the Deity that we call Proserpine, was carried away + from the Grove of Enna. Enna, where these events took place to + which I now refer, is in a lofty and exposed situation; but on the + summit the ground presents a level surface, and there are springs + of everflowing water. The spot is entirely cut off and separated + from all [ordinary] means of approach. Around it are many lakes + and groves, and flowers in bloom at all seasons of the year; so + that the very spot seems to portray the rape of the damsel, with + which story, from our very infancy, we have been familiar. Close + by, there is a cavern with its face towards the north, of an + immense depth, from which they say that father Pluto, in his + chariot, suddenly emerged, and carrying off the maiden, bore her + away from that spot, and then, not far from Syracuse, descended + into the earth, from which place a lake suddenly arose; where, at + the present day, the inhabitants of Syracuse celebrate a yearly + festival.’] + + [Footnote 47: _Seized by Pluto._--Ver. 395. Pluto is here called + ‘Dis.’ This name was given to him as the God of the Earth, from + the bowels of which riches are dug up.] + + [Footnote 48: _Her companions._--Ver. 397. Pausanias, in his + Messeniaca, has preserved the names of the companions of Ceres, + having copied them from the works of Homer.] + + [Footnote 49: _Her mother._--Ver. 397. Homer, in his poem on the + subject, represents that Ceres heard the cries of her daughter, + when calling upon her mother for assistance. Ovid recounts this + tale much more at length in the fourth Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 50: _The Palici._--Ver. 406. The Palici were two + brothers, sons of Jupiter and the Nymph Thalea, and, according to + some, received their name from the Greek words πάλιν ἱκέσθαι, ‘to + come again [to life].’ Their mother, when pregnant, prayed the + earth to open, and to hide her from the vengeful wrath of Juno. + This was done; and when they had arrived at maturity, the Palici + burst from the ground in the island of Sicily. They were Deities + much venerated there, but their worship did not extend to any + other countries. We learn from Macrobius that the natives of + Sicily pointed out two small lakes, from which the brothers were + said to have emerged, and that the veneration attached to them was + such, that by their means they decided disputes, as they imagined + that perjurers would meet their death in these waters, while the + guiltless would be able to come forth from them unharmed. They + were fetid, sulphureous pools of water, probably affected by the + volcanic action of Mount Ætna.] + + [Footnote 51: _The Bacchiadæ._--Ver. 407. Archias, one of the race + of the Bacchiadæ, a powerful Corinthian family, being expelled + from Corinth, was said to have founded Syracuse, the capital of + Sicily. The family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of + Dionysus, or Bacchus, or from the fifth king of Corinth, who was + named Bacchis. The family was expelled from Corinth by Cypselus, + either on account of their luxury and extravagant mode of life, or + because they were supposed to aim at the sovereignty.] + + [Footnote 52: _With its two seas._--Ver. 407. Corinth is called + ‘Bimaris’ by the Latin poets, from its having the Ægean sea on one + side of it, and the Ionian sea on the other.] + + [Footnote 53: _Built a city._--Ver. 408. Syracuse had two harbors, + one of which was much larger than the other.] + + [Footnote 54: _Cyane._--Ver. 412. According to Claudian, Cyane was + one of the companions of Proserpine, when she was carried off by + Pluto.] + + [Footnote 55: _Anapis._--Ver. 417. This was a river of Sicily, + which, mingling with the waters of the fountain Cyane, falls into + the sea at Syracuse, opposite to the island of Ortygia. This + island, in which the fountain of Arethusa was situate, was + separated from the isle of Sicily by a narrow strait of the sea, + and communicating with the city of Syracuse by a bridge, was + considered as part of it.] + + [Footnote 56: _An old woman._--Ver. 449. Arnobius calls this old + woman here mentioned by the name of Baubo. Nicander, in his + Theriaca, calls her Metaneira. Antoninus Liberalis calls her + Misma, and Ovid, in the fourth Book of the Fasti, Melanina.] + + [Footnote 57: _Lately distilled._--Ver. 450. Orpheus, in his Hymn, + calls the drink given by the old woman to Ceres κυκεὼν. According + to Arnobius, it was a mixed liquor, called by the Romans ‘cinnus;’ + made of parched pearled barley, honey, and wine, with flowers and + various herbs floating in it. Antoninus Liberalis says, that Ceres + drank it off, ἀθÏόως, ‘at one draught.’] + + [Footnote 58: _A boy._--Ver. 451. According to Nicander, the boy + was the son of the old woman. If so, the Goddess made her but a + poor return for her hospitality.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the rape of Proserpine has caused much inquiry among + writers, both ancient and modern, as to the facts on which it was + founded. Some have grounded it on principles of natural philosophy; + while others have supposed it to contain some portion of ancient + history, defaced and blemished in lapse of time. + + The antiquarian Pezeron is of opinion, that in the partition of the + world among the Titan kings, Pluto had the west for his share; and + that he carried a colony to the further end of Spain, where he caused + the gold and silver mines of that region to be worked. The situation + of his kingdom, which lay very low, comparatively with Greece, and + which the ancients believed to be covered with eternal darkness, gave + rise to the fable, that Pluto had got Hell for his share; and this + notion was much encouraged by the subterranean nature of the mines + which he caused to be worked. He thinks that the river Tartarus, so + famed in the realms of Pluto, was no other than the Tartessa, or + Guadalquivir of the present day, which runs through the centre of + Spain. Lethe, too, he thinks to have been the Guadalaviar, in the same + country. Pluto, he suggests, had heard of the beauty of Proserpine, + the daughter of Ceres, queen of Sicily, and carried her thence, which + gave rise to the tradition that she had been carried to the Infernal + Regions. + + Le Clerc, on the other hand, thinks that it was not Pluto that carried + away Proserpine, but Aidoneus, king of Epirus, or Orcus king of the + Molossians. Aidoneus is supposed to have wrought mines in his kingdom, + and, as the entrance into it was over a river called Acheron, that + prince has often been confounded with Pluto; Epirus too, which was + situate very low, may have been figuratively described as the Infernal + Regions; for which reason, the journeys of Theseus and Hercules into + Epirus may have been spoken of as descents into the Stygian abodes. + Le Clerc supposes that Ceres was reigning in Sicily at the time when + Aidoneus was king of Epirus, and that she took great care to instruct + her subjects in the art of tilling the ground and sowing corn, and + established laws for regulating civil government and the preservation + of private property; for which reasons she was afterward deemed to be + the Goddess of the Earth, and of Corn. Cicero and Diodorus Siculus + tell us that Ceres made her residence at Enna, or Henna, in Sicily, + which name, according to Bochart, signifies ‘agreeable fountain.’ + Cicero and Strabo agree with Ovid in telling us that Proserpine, the + only daughter of Ceres, whom other writers name Pherephata, was + walking in the adjacent meadows, and gathering flowers with her + companions; upon which, certain pirates seized her, and, placing her + in a chariot, carried her to the seaside, whence they embarked for + Epirus. As Pausanias tells us, it was immediately spread abroad, that + Aidoneus, or Pluto, as he was called, had done it, the act having been + really committed by others, according to his orders. As those who + carried her off concealed themselves in the caverns of Mount Ætna, + awaiting their opportunity to escape, it was afterwards fabled that + Pluto came out of the Infernal Regions at that place; as that + mountain, from its nature, was always deemed one of the outlets of + Hell. Upon this, Ceres went to Greece, in search of her daughter; and, + resting at Eleusis, in Attica, she heard that the ship in which her + daughter was carried away had sailed westward. On this, she complained + to Jupiter, one of the Titan kings, but could obtain no further + satisfaction than that her daughter should be permitted to visit her + occasionally, whereby, at length, her grief was mitigated. + + Banier does not agree with these suggestions of Pezeron and Le Clerc, + and thinks that Ceres is no other personage than the Isis of the + Egyptians, supposing that the story is founded on the following + circumstance:--Greece, he says, was afflicted with famine in the + reign of Erectheus, who was obliged to send to Egypt for corn, when + those who went for it brought back the worship of the Deity who + presided over agriculture. The evils which the Athenians had suffered + by the famine, and the dread of again incurring the same calamity, + made them willingly embrace the rites of a Goddess whom they believed + able to protect them from it. Triptolemus established her worship in + Eleusis, and there instituted the mysteries which he had brought over + from Egypt. These had been previously introduced into Sicily, which + was the reason why it was said that Ceres came from Sicily to Athens. + Her daughter was said to have been taken away, because corn and fruit + had not been produced in sufficient quantities, for some time, to + furnish food for the people. Pluto was said to have carried her to the + Infernal regions, because the grain and seeds at that time remained + buried, as it were, at the very center of the earth. Jupiter was said + to have decided the difference between Ceres and Pluto, because the + earth again became covered with crops. + + This appears to be an ingenious allegorical explanation of the story; + but it is not at all improbable that it may have been founded upon + actual facts, and that, having lost her daughter, and going to Attica + to seek her, Ceres taught Triptolemus the mysteries of Isis; and that, + in process of time, Ceres, having become enrolled among the Divinities + of Greece, her worship became confounded with that of Isis. + + It is very possible that the story of the transformation of Stellio + into a newt may have had no other foundation than the Poet’s fancy. + + +FABLE V. +[V. 462-563] + + Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search for her daughter over the whole + earth, until the Nymph Arethusa acquaints her with the place of her + ravisher’s abode. The Goddess makes her complaint to Jupiter, and + obtains his consent for her daughter’s return to the upper world, + provided she has not eaten anything since her arrival in Pluto’s + dominions. Ascalaphus, however, having informed that she has eaten + some seeds of a pomegranate, Ceres is disappointed, and Proserpine, in + her wrath, metamorphoses the informer into an owl. The Sirens have + wings given them by the Gods, to enable them to be more expeditious in + seeking for Proserpine. Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss, + decides that her daughter shall remain six months each year with her + mother upon earth, and the other six with her husband, in the Infernal + Regions. + +“It were a tedious task[59] to relate through what lands and what seas +the Goddess wandered; for her search the world was too limited. She +returns to Sicily; and while, in her passage, she views all {places}, +she comes, too, to Cyane; she, had she not been transformed, would have +told her everything. But both mouth and tongue were wanting to her, +{thus} desirous to tell, and she had no means whereby to speak. Still, +she gave unmistakable tokens, and pointed out, on the top of the water, +the girdle[60] of Proserpine, well known to her parent, which by chance +had fallen off in that place into the sacred stream. + +“Soon as she recognized this, as if then, at last, she fully understood +that her daughter had been carried away[61] the Goddess tore her +unadorned hair, and struck her breast again and again with her hands. +Not as yet does she know where she is, yet she exclaims against all +countries, and calls them ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of +corn; {and} Trinacria before {all} others, in which she has found the +proofs of her loss. Wherefore, with vengeful hand, she there broke the +ploughs that were turning up the clods, and, in her anger, consigned to +a similar death both the husbandmen and the oxen that cultivated the +fields, and ordered the land to deny a return of what had been deposited +{therein}, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the soil, +famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the early +blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the sun, sometimes excessive +showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and the winds injure it, and +the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is sown; darnel, and thistles, +and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of wheat. + +“Then the Alpheian Nymph[62] raised her head from out of the Elean +waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, +and said, “O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole world, and +of the crops {as well}, cease {at length} thy boundless toil, and in thy +wrath be not angered with a region that is faithful to thee. This land +does not deserve it; and against its will it gave a path for {the +commission of} the outrage. Nor am I {now} a suppliant for {my own} +country; a stranger I am come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from +Elis do I derive my birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this +land is more pleasing to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have +this for my abode, this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly +{Goddess}, preserve. Why I have been removed from my {native} place, and +have been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious, +a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be +eased of thy cares, and {wilt be} of more cheerful aspect. The pervious +earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest caverns, +here I lift my head {again}, and behold the stars which I have not been +used {to see}. While, then, I was running under the earth, along the +Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.[63] {She} +indeed {was} sad, and not as yet without alarm in her countenance, but +still {she is} a queen, and the most ennobled {female} in the world of +darkness; still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King.†+ +“The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she {had +been made} of stone, and for a long time was like one stupefied; and +when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight of her grief, +she departed in her chariot into the ætherial air, and there, with her +countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much to his +discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, “I have come, +Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for +thine. If thou hast no respect for the mother, {still} let the daughter +move her father; and I pray thee not to have the less regard for her, +because she was brought forth by my travail. Lo! my daughter, so long +sought for, has been found by me at last; if you call it finding[64] to +be more certain of one’s loss; or if you call it finding, to know where +she is. I will endure {the fact}, that she has been carried off, if he +will only restore her. For, indeed, a daughter of thine is not deserving +of a ravisher for a husband, if now my own daughter is.†Jupiter +replied, “Thy daughter is a pledge and charge, in common to me and thee; +but, should it please thee only to give right names to things, this deed +is not an injury, but it is {a mark of} affection, nor will he, as a +son-in-law, be any disgrace to us, if thou only, Goddess, shouldst give +thy consent. Although other {recommendations} were wanting, how great a +thing is it to be the brother of Jupiter! and besides, is it not because +other points are not wanting, and because he is not my inferior, except +by the accident {of his allotment of the Stygian abodes}? But if thy +eagerness is so great for their separation, let Proserpine return to +heaven; still upon this fixed condition, if she has touched no food +there with her lips; for thus has it been provided by the law of the +Destinies.†+ +“{Thus} he spoke; still Ceres is {now} resolved to fetch away her +daughter; but not so do the Fates permit. For the damsel had broke her +fast; and, while in her innocence she was walking about the +finely-cultivated garden, she had plucked a pomegranate[65] from the +bending tree, and had chewed in her mouth seven grains[66] taken from +the pale rind. Ascalaphus[67] alone, of all persons, had seen this, whom +Orphne, by no means the most obscure among the Nymphs of Avernus,[68] is +said once to have borne to her own Acheron within {his} dusky caves. He +beheld {this}, and cruelly prevented her return by his discovery. The +Queen of Erebus grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird, +and turned his head, sprinkled with the waters of Phlegethon,[69] into a +beak, and feathers, and great eyes. He, {thus} robbed of his own +{shape}, is clothed with tawny wings, his head becomes larger, his long +nails bend inwards, and with difficulty can he move the wings that +spring through his sluggish arms. He becomes an obscene bird, the +foreboder of approaching woe, a lazy owl, a direful omen to mortals. + +“But he, by his discovery, and his talkativeness, may seem to have +merited punishment. Whence have you, daughters of Acheloüs,[70] feathers +and the feet of birds, since you have the faces of maidens? Is it +because, when Proserpine was gathering the flowers of spring, you were +mingled in the number of her companions? After you had sought her in +vain throughout the whole world, immediately, that the waters might be +sensible of your concern, you wished to be able, on the support of your +wings, to hover over the waves, and you found the Gods propitious, and +saw your limbs grow yellow with feathers suddenly formed. But lest the +sweetness of your voice, formed for charming the ear, and so great +endowments of speech, should lose the gift of a tongue, your virgin +countenance and your human voice {still} remained.†+ + [Footnote 59: _A tedious task._--Ver. 463. ‘Dicere longa mora + est,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘It is a tedious business to tell.’] + + [Footnote 60: _The girdle._--Ver. 470. The zone, or girdle, + a fastening round the loins, was much worn by both sexes among + the ancients. It was sometimes made of netted work, and the chief + use of it was for holding up the tunic, and keeping it from + dragging on the ground. Among the Romans, the Magister Equitum, or + ‘Master of the Horse,’ wore a girdle of red leather, embroidered + by the needle, and having its extremities joined by a gold buckle. + It also formed part of the cuirass of the warrior. The girdle was + used sometimes by men to hold money instead of a purse; and the + ‘pera,’ ‘wallet,’ or ‘purse,’ was generally fastened to the + girdle. As this article of dress was used to hold up the garments + for the sake of expedition, it was loosened when people were + supposed to be abstracted from the cares of the world, as in + performing sacrifice or attending at funeral rites. A girdle was + also worn by the young women, even when the tunic was not girt up; + and it was only discontinued by them on the day of marriage. To + that circumstance, allusion is made in the present instance, as a + proof of the violence that had been committed on Proserpine.] + + [Footnote 61: _Had been carried away._--Ver. 471. Clarke + translates ‘tunc denique raptam Scisset,’ ‘knew that she had been + kidnapped.’] + + [Footnote 62: _Alpheian Nymph._--Ver. 487. Alpheus was a river of + Elis, in the northwestern part of Peloponnesus. Its present name + is ‘Carbon.’] + + [Footnote 63: _Beheld by my eyes._--Ver. 505. Ovid here makes + Arethusa the discoverer to Ceres of the fate of her daughter. In + the Fourth Book of the Fasti, he represents the Sun as giving her + that information, in which he follows the account given by Homer. + Apollodorus describes the descent of Pluto as taking place at + Hermione, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, and the people of + that place as informing Ceres of what had happened to her + daughter.] + + [Footnote 64: _If you call it finding._--Ver. 520. This remark of + the Goddess is very like that of the Irish sailor, who vowed that + a thing could not be said to be lost when one knows where it is; + and that his master’s kettle was quite safe, for he knew it to be + at the bottom of the sea.] + + [Footnote 65: _Plucked a pomegranate._--Ver. 535. It was for this + reason that the Thesmophoriazusæ, in the performance of the rites + of Ceres, were especially careful not to taste the pomegranate. + This fruit was most probably called ‘malum,’ or ‘pomum punicum,’ + or ‘puniceum,’ from the deep red or purple color of the inside, + and not as having been first introduced from PhÅ“nicia.] + + [Footnote 66: _Seven grains._--Ver. 537. He says here ‘seven,’ but + in the Fourth Book of the Fasti, only ‘three’ grains.] + + [Footnote 67: _Ascalaphus._--Ver. 539. He was the son of Acheron, + by the Nymph Orphne, or Gorgyra, according to Apollodorus. The + latter author says, that for his unseasonable discovery, Ceres + placed a rock upon him; but that, having been liberated by + Hercules, she changed him into an owl, called ὦτον. The Greek name + of a lizard being ἀσκάλαβος, Mellman thinks that the + transformation of the boy into a newt, or kind of lizard, which + has just been related by the Poet, may have possibly originated in + a confused version of the story of Ascalaphus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Avernus._--Ver. 540. Avernus was a lake of + Campania, near Baiæ, of a fetid smell and gloomy aspect. Being + feigned to be the mouth, or threshold, of the Infernal Regions, + its name became generally used to signify Tartarus, or the + Infernal Regions. The name is said to have been derived from the + Greek word ἄοÏνος, ‘without birds,’ or ‘unfrequented by birds,’ as + they could not endure the exhalations that were emitted by it.] + + [Footnote 69: _Phlegethon._--Ver. 544. This was a burning river of + the Infernal Regions; which received its name from the Greek word + φλέγω, ‘to burn.’] + + [Footnote 70: _Acheloüs._--Ver. 552. The Sirens were said to be + the daughters of the river Acheloüs and of one of the Muses, + either Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Apollodorus says, that the terms of the treaty respecting Proserpine + were, that she should stay on earth nine months with Ceres, and three + with Pluto, in the Infernal Regions. Other writers divide the time + equally; six months to Ceres, and six to Pluto. They also tell us that + the story of Ascalaphus is founded on the fact, that he was one of the + courtiers of Pluto, who, having advised his master to carry away + Proserpine, did all that lay in his power to obstruct the endeavors of + Ceres, and hinder the restoration of her daughter, on which Proserpine + had him privately destroyed; to screen which deed the Fable was + invented; the pernicious counsels which he gave his master being + signified by the seeds of the pomegranate. It has also been suggested + that the story of his change into an owl was based on the circumstance + that he was the overseer of the mines of Pluto, in which he perished, + removed from the light of day. Perhaps he was there crushed to death + by the fall of a rock, which caused the poets to say that Proserpine + had covered him with a large stone, as Apollodorus informs us, who + also says that it was Ceres who inflicted the punishment upon him. The + name ‘Ascalaphus’ signifies, ‘one that breaks stones,’ and, very + probably, that name was only given him to denote his employment. Some + writers state that he was changed into a lizard, which the Greeks call + ‘Ascalabos,’ and, probably, the resemblance between the names gave + rise to this version of the story. + + Probably, the story of the Nymph Cyane reproaching Pluto with his + treatment of Proserpine, and being thereupon changed by him into a + fountain, has no other foundation than the propinquity of the place + where Pluto’s emissaries embarked to a stream of that name near the + city of Syracuse; which was, perhaps, overflowing at that time, and + may have impeded their passage. + + Ovid, probably, feigned that the Sirens begged the Gods to change them + into birds, that they might seek for Proserpine, on the ground of some + existing tradition, that living on the coast of Italy, near the island + of Sicily, and having heard of the misfortune that had befallen her, + they ordered a ship with sails to be equipped to go in search of her. + Further reference to the Sirens will be made, on treating of the + adventures of Ulysses. + + +FABLE VI. [V.564-641] + + The Muse continues her song, in which Ceres, being satisfied with the + decision of Jupiter relative to her daughter, returns to Arethusa, to + learn the history of her adventures. The Nymph entertains the Goddess + with the Story of the passion of Alpheus, and his pursuit of her; to + avoid which, she implores the assistance of Diana, who changes her + into a fountain. + +“But Jupiter being the mediator between his brother and his disconsolate +sister, divides the rolling year equally {between them}. For {now}, the +Goddess, a common Divinity of two kingdoms, is so many months with her +mother, and just as many with her husband. Immediately the appearance of +both her mind and her countenance is changed; for the brow of the +Goddess, which, of late, might appear sad, even to Pluto, himself, is +full of gladness; as the Sun, which has lately been covered with watery +clouds, when he comes forth from the clouds, {now} dispersed. The genial +Ceres, {now} at ease on the recovery of her daughter, {thus} asks, ‘What +was the cause of thy wanderings? Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred +spring?’ The waters are silent, {and}, the Goddess raises her head from +the deep fountain; and, having dried her green tresses with her hand, +she relates the old amours of the stream of Elis.[71] + +“‘I was,’ says she, ‘one of the Nymphs which exist in Achaia, nor did +any one more eagerly skim along the glades than myself, nor with more +industry set the nets. But though the reputation for beauty was never +sought by me, although, {too}, I was of robust make, {still} I had the +name of being beautiful. But my appearance, when so much commended, did +not please me; and I, like a country lass, blushed at those endowments +of person in which other females are wont to take a pride, and I deemed +it a crime to please. I remember, I was returning weary from the +Stymphalian[72] wood; the weather was hot, and my toil had redoubled the +intense heat. I found a stream gliding on without any eddies, without +any noise, {and} clear to the bottom; through which every pebble, at so +great a depth, might be counted, {and} which you could hardly suppose to +be in motion. The hoary willows[73] and poplars, nourished by the water, +furnished a shade, spontaneously produced, along the shelving banks. +I approached, and, at first, I dipped the soles of my feet, and then, as +far as the knee. Not content with that, I undressed, and I laid my soft +garments upon a bending willow; and, naked, I plunged into the waters. + +“‘While I was striking them, and drawing them {towards me}, moving in a +thousand ways, and was sending forth my extended arms, I perceived a +most unusual murmuring noise beneath the middle of the stream; and, +alarmed, I stood on the edge of the nearer bank. ‘Whither dost thou +hasten, Arethusa?’ said Alpheus from his waves. ‘Whither dost thou +hasten?’ again he said to me, in a hollow tone. Just as I was, I fled +without my clothes; {for} the other side had my garments. So much the +more swiftly did he pursue, and become inflamed; and, because I was +naked, the more tempting to him did I appear. Thus was I running; thus +unrelentingly was he pursuing me; as the doves are wont to fly from the +hawk with trembling wings, and as the hawk is wont to pursue the +trembling doves, I held out in my course even as far as Orchomenus,[74] +and Psophis,[75] and Cyllene, and the Mænalian valleys, and cold +Erymanthus and Elis. Nor was he swifter than I, but unequal to {him} in +strength, I was unable, any longer, to keep up the chase; for he was +able to endure prolonged fatigue. However, I ran over fields {and} over +mountains covered with trees, rocks too, and crags, and where there was +no path. The sun was upon my back; I saw a long shadow advancing before +my feet, unless, perhaps, it was my fear that saw it. But, at all +events, I was alarmed at the sound of his feet, and his increased +hardness of breathing was {now} fanning the fillets of my hair. Wearied +with the exertion of my flight, I said, ‘Give aid, Dictynna, to thy +armor-bearer, {or} I am overtaken; {I}, to whom thou hast so often given +thy bow to carry, and thy darts enclosed in a quiver.’ The Goddess was +moved, and, taking one of the dense clouds, she threw it over me. The +river looked about for me, concealed in the darkness, and, in his +ignorance sought about the encircling cloud and twice, unconsciously did +he go around the place where the Goddess had concealed me, and twice did +he cry, ‘Ho, Arethusa![76] Ho, Arethusa!’ What, then, were my feelings +in my wretchedness? Were they not just those of the lamb, as it hears +the wolves howling around the high sheep-folds? Or of the hare, which, +lurking in the bush, beholds the hostile noses of the dogs, and dares +not make a single movement with her body? Yet he does not depart; for no +{further} does he trace any prints of my feet. He watches the cloud and +the spot. A cold perspiration takes possession of my limbs {thus} +besieged, and azure colored drops distil from all my body. Wherever I +move my foot, {there} flows a lake; drops trickle from my hair, and, in +less time than I take in acquainting thee with my fate, I was changed +into a stream. But still the river recognized the waters, the objects of +his love; and, having laid aside the shape of a mortal, which he had +assumed, he was changed into his own waters, that he might mingle with +me. {Thereupon}, the Delian Goddess cleaved the ground. Sinking, I was +carried through dark caverns to Ortygia,[77] which, being dear to me, +from the surname of my own Goddess, was the first to introduce me to the +upper air.’†+ + [Footnote 71: _Stream of Elis._--Ver. 576. The Alpheus really rose + in Arcadia; but, as it ran through the territory of the Eleans, + and discharged itself into the sea, near Cyllene, the seaport of + that people, they worshipped it with divine honors.] + + [Footnote 72: _Stymphalian._--Ver. 585. Stymphalus was the name of + a city, mountain, and river of Arcadia, near the territory of + Elis.] + + [Footnote 73: _Hoary willows._--Ver. 590. The leaf of the willow + has a whitish hue, especially on one side of it.] + + [Footnote 74: _Orchomenus._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia, + in a marshy district, near to Mantinea. There was another place of + the same name, in BÅ“otia, between Elatea and Coronea, famous for a + splendid temple to the Graces, there erected.] + + [Footnote 75: _Psophis._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia + also, adjoining to the Elean territory, which received its name + from Psophis, the daughter of Lycaon, or of Eryx, according to + some writers. There were several other towns of the same name. + The other places here mentioned, with the exception of Elis, were + mountains of Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 76: _Ho, Arethusa!_--Ver. 625-6. Clarke thus translates + these lines:--‘And twice called out Soho, Arethusa! Soho, + Arethusa! What thought had I then, poor soul!’] + + [Footnote 77: _To Ortygia._--Ver. 640. From the similarity of its + name to that of the Goddess Diana, who was called Ortygia, from + the Isle of Delos, where she was born.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river + Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her, + has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language + of the first inhabitants of Sicily. The PhÅ“nicians, who went to settle + in that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it + the name of ‘Alphaga,’ or ‘the fountain of the willows.’ Others, + again, gave it the name of ‘Arith,’ signifying ‘a stream.’ The Greeks, + arriving there in after ages, not understanding the signification of + these words, and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis, + imagined that since the river and the fountain had nearly the same + name, Alpheus had crossed the sea, to arrive in Sicily. + + This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity, + they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of + the river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient + historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have + believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us, + that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises + again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more + learned, this fable gained credit; for we find the oracle of Delphi + ordering Archias to conduct a colony of Corinthians to Syracuse, and + the priestess giving the following directions:--‘Go into that island + where the river Alpheus mixes his waters with the fair Arethusa.’ + + Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as + a mere fable; but, not daring to dispute a fact established by the + response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river + running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it + can happen. + + +FABLE VII. [V.642-678] + + Ceres entrusts her chariot to Triptolemus, and orders him to go + everywhere, and cultivate the earth. He obeys her, and, at length, + arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, designing to kill him, is changed + into a lynx. The Muse then finishes her song, on which the daughters + of Pierus are changed into magpies. + +“Thus far Arethusa. The fertile Goddess yoked[78] two dragons to her +chariot, and curbed their mouths with bridles; and was borne through the +mid air of heaven and of earth, and guided her light chariot to the +Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; and she ordered him to scatter the +seeds that were entrusted {to him} partly in the fallow ground, {and} +partly {in the ground} restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now +had the youth been borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,[79] +and he arrived at the coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He +entered the house of the king. Being asked whence he came, and the +occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, ‘My +country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came neither in +a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious sky made a +way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered over the wide +fields, are to yield {you} the fruitful harvests, and wholesome food.’ +The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be {deemed} the author +of so great a benefit, he receives him with hospitality, and, when +overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the sword. {But}, while +attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him a lynx; and again sent +the Mopsopian[80] youth to drive the sacred drawers of her chariot +through the air. + +“The greatest of us[81] had {now} finished her learned song. But the +Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit +Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, {thus} vanquished, +began to scatter their abuse: ‘Since,’ said she, ‘it is a trifling +matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you add +abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we shall +proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall +follow.’ The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening +language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent +hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails, +and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the +other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the +woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the +motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, {as} magpies, the +scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness remains in +{them} as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their enormous love of +chattering.†+ + [Footnote 78: _Goddess yoked._--Ver. 642. Clarke renders ‘geminos + Dea fertilis angues curribus admovit,’ ‘the fertile Goddess + clapped two snakes to her chariot.’] + + [Footnote 79: _Lands of Asia._--Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here + meant; the other parts of Asia being included under the term + ‘Scythicas oras.’] + + [Footnote 80: _Mopsopian._--Ver. 661. This very uneuphonious name + is derived from Mopsopus, one of the ancient kings of Attica. It + here means ‘Athenian.’] + + [Footnote 81: _The greatest of us._--Ver. 662. Namely, Calliope, + who had commenced her song as the representative of the Muses, at + line 341.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Triptolemus reigned at Eleusis at the time when the mysteries of Ceres + were established there. As we are told by Philochorus, he went with a + ship, to carry corn into different countries, and introduced there the + worship of Ceres, whose priest he was. This is, doubtless, the key for + the explanation of the story, that Ceres nursed him on her own milk, + and purified him by fire. Some have supposed that the fable refers to + the epoch when agriculture was introduced into Greece: but it is much + more probable that it relates simply to the introduction there of the + mysterious worship of Ceres, which was probably imported from Egypt. + It is possible that, at the same period, the Greeks may have learned + some improved method of tilling the ground, acquired by their + intercourse with Egypt. + + Probably, the dangers which Triptolemus experienced in his voyages and + travels, gave rise to the story of Lyncus, whose cruelty caused him to + be changed into a lynx. Bochart and Le Clerc think that the fable of + Triptolemus being drawn by winged dragons, is based upon the equivocal + meaning of a PhÅ“nician word, which signified either ‘a winged dragon,’ + or ‘a ship fastened with iron nails or bolts.’ Philochorus, however, + as cited by Eusebius, says that his ship was called a flying dragon, + from its carrying the figure of a dragon on its prow. We learn from a + fragment of Stobæus, that Erectheus, when engaged in a war against the + Eleusinians, was told by the oracle that he would be victorious, if he + sacrificed his daughter Proserpine. This, perhaps, may have given + rise, or added somewhat, to the story of the rape of Proserpine by + Pluto. + + According to a fragment of Homer, cited by Pausanias, the names of the + first Greeks, who were initiated into the mysteries of Ceres, + were,--Celeus, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles. Clement of + Alexandria calls them Baubon, Dysaulus, Eubuleüs, Eumolpus, and + Triptolemus. Eumolpus being the Hierophant, or explainer of the + mysteries of Eleusis, made war against Erectheus, king of Athens. They + were both killed in battle, and it was thereupon agreed that the + posterity of Erectheus should be kings of Athens, and the descendants + of Eumolpus should, in future, retain the office of Hierophant. + + + + +BOOK THE SIXTH. + + +FABLE I. [VI.1-145] + + Arachne, vain-glorious of her ingenuity, challenges Minerva to a + contest of skill in her art. The Goddess accepts the challenge, and, + being enraged to see herself outdone, strikes her rival with her + shuttle; upon which, Arachne, in her distress, hangs herself. Minerva, + touched with compassion, transforms her into a spider. + +Tritonia had {meanwhile} lent an ear to such recitals as these, and she +approved of the songs of the Aonian maids, and their just resentment. +Then {thus she says} to herself: “To commend is but a trifling matter; +let us, too, deserve commendation, and let us not permit our divine +majesty to be slighted without {due} punishment.†And {then} she turns +her mind to the fate of the Mæonian Arachne; who, as she had heard, did +not yield to her in the praises of the art of working in wool. She was +renowned not for the place {of her birth}, nor for the origin of her +family, but for her skill {alone}. Idmon, of Colophon,[1] her father, +used to dye the soaking wool in Phocæan[2] purple.[3] Her mother was +dead; but she, too, was of the lower rank, and of the same condition +with her husband. Yet {Arachne}, by her skill, had acquired a memorable +name throughout the cities of Lydia; although, born of a humble family, +she used to live in the little {town} of Hypæpæ.[4] Often did the Nymphs +desert the vineyards of their own Tymolus, that they might look at her +admirable workmanship; {often} did the Nymphs of the {river} Pactolus[5] +forsake their streams. And not only did it give them pleasure to look at +the garments when made, but even, too, while they were being made, so +much grace was there in her working. Whether it was that she was rolling +the rough wool into its first balls, or whether she was unravelling the +work with her fingers, and was softening the fleeces worked over again +with long drawings out, equalling the mists {in their fineness}; or +whether she was moving the {smooth} round spindle with her nimble thumb, +or was embroidering with the needle, you might perceive that she had +been instructed by Pallas. + +This, however, she used to deny; and, being displeased with a mistress +so famed, she said, “Let her contend with me. There is nothing which, if +conquered, I should refuse {to endure}.†Pallas personates an old woman; +she both places false gray hair on her temples, and supports as well her +infirm limbs by a staff. Then thus she begins to speak: “Old age has not +everything which we should avoid; experience comes from lengthened +years. Do not despise my advice; let the greatest fame for working wool +be sought by thee among mortals. {But} yield to the Goddess, and, rash +woman, ask pardon for thy speeches with suppliant voice. She will grant +pardon at my entreaty.†{The other} beholds her with scowling {eyes}, +and leaves the threads she has begun; and scarcely restraining her hand, +and discovering her anger by her looks, with such words as these does +she reply to the disguised Pallas: “Thou comest {here} bereft of thy +understanding, and worn out with prolonged old age; and it is thy +misfortune to have lived too long. If thou hast any daughter-in-law, if +thou hast any daughter {of thy own}, let her listen to these remarks. +I have sufficient knowledge for myself in myself, and do not imagine +that thou hast availed anything by thy advice; my opinion is {still} the +same. Why does not she come herself? why does she decline this contest?†+ +Then the Goddess says, “Lo! she is come;†and she casts aside the figure +of an old woman, and shows herself {as} Pallas. The Nymphs and the +Mygdonian[6] matrons venerate the Goddess. The virgin alone is not +daunted. But still she blushes, and a sudden flush marks her reluctant +features, and again it vanishes; {just} as the sky is wont to become +tinted with purple, when Aurora is first stirring, and after a short +time to grow white from the influence of the Sun. She persists in her +determination, and, from a desire for a foolish victory, she rushes upon +her own destruction. Nor, indeed, does the daughter of Jupiter decline +{it}, or advise her any further, nor does she now put off the contest. +There is no delay; they both take their stand in different places, and +stretch out two webs {on the loom} with a fine warp. The web is tied +around the beam; the sley separates the warp; the woof is inserted in +the middle with sharp shuttles, which the fingers hurry along, and being +drawn within the warp, the teeth notched in the moving sley strike it. +Both hasten on, and girding up their garments to their breasts, they +move their skilful arms, their eagerness beguiling their fatigue. There +both the purple is being woven, which is subjected to the Tyrian brazen +vessel,[7] and fine shades of minute difference; just as the rainbow, +with its mighty arch, is wont to tint a long tract of the sky by means +of the rays reflected by the shower: in which, though a thousand +different colors are shining, yet the very transition eludes the eyes +that look upon it; to such a degree is that which is adjacent the same; +and yet the extremes are different. There, too, the pliant gold is mixed +with the threads, and ancient subjects are represented on the webs. + +Pallas embroiders the rock of Mars[8] in {Athens}, the citadel of +Cecrops, and the old dispute about the name of the country. Twice six[9] +celestial Gods are sitting on lofty seats in august state, with Jupiter +in the midst. His own proper likeness distinguishes each of the Gods. +The form of Jupiter is that of a monarch. She makes the God of the sea +to be standing {there}, and to be striking the rugged rocks with his +long trident, and a wild {horse} to be springing forth[10] out of the +midst of the opening of the rock; by which pledge {of his favor} he lays +claim to the city. But to herself she gives the shield, she gives the +lance with its sharp point; she gives the helmet to her head, {and} her +breast is protected by the Ægis. She {there} represents, too, the earth +struck by her spear, producing a shoot of pale olive with its berries, +and the Gods admiring it. Victory is the end of her work. But that the +rival of her fame may learn from precedents what reward to expect for an +attempt so mad, she adds, in four {different} parts, four contests +bright in their coloring, and distinguished by diminutive figures. One +corner contains Thracian Rhodope and Hæmus, now cold mountains, formerly +human bodies, who assumed to themselves the names of the supreme Gods. +Another part contains the wretched fate of the Pygmæan matron.[11] Her, +overcome in a contest, Juno commanded to be a crane, and to wage war +against her own people. She depicts, too, Antigone,[12] who once dared +to contend with the wife of the great Jupiter; {and} whom the royal Juno +changed into a bird; nor did Ilion protect her, or her father Laomedon, +from assuming wings, and {as} a white crane, from commending herself +with her chattering beak. The only corner that remains, represents the +bereft Cinyras;[13] and he, embracing the steps of a temple, {once} the +limbs of his own daughters, and lying upon the stone, appears to be +weeping. She surrounds the exterior borders with peaceful olive. That is +the close; and with her own tree she puts an end to the work. + +The Mæonian Nymph delineates Europa, deceived by the form of the bull; +and you would think it a real bull, and real sea. She herself seems to +be looking upon the land which she has left, and to be crying out to her +companions, and to be in dread of the touch of the dashing waters, and +to be drawing up her timid feet. She drew also Asterie,[14] seized by +the struggling eagle; and made Leda, reclining beneath the wings of the +swan. She added, how Jupiter, concealed under the form of a Satyr, +impregnated {Antiope},[15] the beauteous daughter of Nycteus, with a +twin offspring; {how} he was Amphitryon, when he beguiled thee, +Tirynthian[16] dame; how, turned to gold, he deceived Danaë; {how}, +changed into fire, the daughter of Asopus;[17] {how}, as a shepherd, +Mnemosyne;[18] and as a speckled serpent, Deois.[19] She depicted thee +too, Neptune, changed into a fierce bull, with the virgin daughter[20] +of Æolus. Thou, seeming to be Enipeus,[21] didst beget the Aloïdæ; as a +ram, thou didst delude {Theophane}, the daughter of Bisaltis.[22] Thee +too the most bounteous mother of corn, with her yellow hair, +experienced[23] as a steed; thee, the mother[24] of the winged horse, +with her snaky locks, received as a bird; Melantho,[25] as a dolphin. To +all these did she give their own likeness, and the {real} appearance of +the {various} localities. There was PhÅ“bus, under the form of a rustic; +and how, {besides}, he was wearing the wings of a hawk at one time, at +another the skin of a lion; how, too, as a shepherd, he deceived +Isse,[26] the daughter of Macareus. How Liber deceived Erigone,[27] in a +fictitious bunch of grapes; {and} how Saturn[28] begot the two-formed +Chiron, in {the form of} a horse. The extreme part of the web, being +enclosed in a fine border, had flowers interwoven with the twining ivy. + +Pallas could not blame that work, nor could Envy {censure} it. The +yellow-haired Virgin grieved at her success, and tore the web +embroidered with the criminal acts of the Gods of heaven. And as she was +holding her shuttle {made of boxwood} from Mount Cytorus, three or four +times did she strike the forehead of Arachne, the daughter of Idmon. The +unhappy creature could not endure it; and being of a high spirit, she +tied up her throat in a halter. Pallas, taking compassion, bore her up +as she hung; and thus she said: “Live on indeed, wicked one,[29] but +still hang; and let the same decree of punishment be pronounced against +thy race, and against thy latest posterity, that thou mayst not be free +from care in time to come.†After that, as she departed, she sprinkled +her with the juices of an Hecatean herb;[30] and immediately her hair, +touched by the noxious drug, fell off, and together with it her nose and +ears. The head of herself, {now} small as well throughout her whole +body, becomes very small. Her slender fingers cleave to her sides as +legs; her belly takes possession of the rest {of her}; but out of this +she gives forth a thread; and {as} a spider, she works at her web as +formerly. + + [Footnote 1: _Colophon._--Ver. 8. Colophon was an opulent city of + Lydia, famous for an oracle of Apollo there.] + + [Footnote 2: _Phocæan._--Ver. 9. Phocæa was a city of Æolia, in + Ionia, on the shores of the Mediterranean, famous for its purple + dye.] + + [Footnote 3: _Purple._--Ver. 9. ‘Murex’ was a shell-fish, now + called ‘the purple,’ the juices of which were much used by the + ancients for dyeing a deep purple color. The most valuable kinds + were found near Tyre and Phocæa, mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 4: _Hypæpæ._--Ver. 13. This was a little town of Lydia, + near the banks of the river Cayster. It was situate on the descent + of Mount Tymolus, or Tmolus, famed for its wines and saffron.] + + [Footnote 5: _Pactolus._--Ver. 16. This was a river of Lydia, + which was said to have sands of gold.] + + [Footnote 6: _Mygdonian._--Ver. 45. Mygdonia was a small territory + of Phrygia, bordering upon Lydia, and colonized by a people from + Thrace. Probably these persons had come from the neighboring + country, to see the exquisite works of Arachne. As the Poet tells + us, many were present when the Goddess discovered herself, and + professed their respect and veneration, while Arachne alone + remained unmoved.] + + [Footnote 7: _Brazen vessel._--Ver. 60. It seems that brazen + cauldrons were used for the purposes of dyeing, in preference to + those of iron.] + + [Footnote 8: _Rock of Mars._--Ver. 70. This was the spot called + Areiopagus, which was said to have received its name from the + trial there of Mars, when he was accused by Neptune of having + slain his son Halirrothius.] + + [Footnote 9: _Twice six._--Ver. 72. These were the ‘Dii + consentes,’ mentioned before, in the note to Book i., l. 172. They + are thus enumerated in an Elegiac couplet, more consistent with + the rules of prosody than the two lines there quoted:-- + + ‘Vulcanus, Mars, Sol, Neptunus, Jupiter, Hermes, + Vesta, Diana, Ceres, Juno, Minerva, Venus.’] + + [Footnote 10: _To be springing forth._--Ver. 76-7. Clarke renders + ‘facit--e vulnere saxi Exsiluisse ferum,’ ‘she makes a wild horse + bounce out of the opening in the rock.’] + + [Footnote 11: _Pygmæan matron._--Ver. 90. According to Ælian, the + name of this queen of the Pigmies was Gerane, while other writers + call her Pygas. She was worshipped by her subjects as a Goddess, + which raised her to such a degree of conceit, that she despised + the worship of the Deities, especially of Juno and Diana, on which + in their indignation, they changed her into a crane, the most + active enemy of the Pygmies. These people were dwarfs, living + either in India, Arabia, or Thrace, and they were said not to + exceed a cubit in height.] + + [Footnote 12: _Antigone._--Ver. 93. She was the daughter of + Laomedon, king of Troy, and was remarkable for the extreme beauty + of her hair. Proud of this, she used to boast that she resembled + Juno; on which the Goddess, offended at her presumption, changed + her hair into serpents. In compassion, the Deities afterwards + transformed her into a stork.] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyras._--Ver. 98. Cinyras had several daughters + (besides Myrrha), remarkable for their extreme beauty. Growing + insolent upon the strength of their good looks, and pretending to + surpass even Juno herself in beauty, they incurred the resentment + of that Goddess, who changed them into the steps of a temple, and + transformed their father into a stone, as he was embracing the + steps.] + + [Footnote 14: _Asterie._--Ver. 108. She was the daughter of Cæus, + the Titan, and of PhÅ“be, and was ravished by Jupiter under the + form of an eagle. She was the wife of Perses, and the mother of + Hecate. Flying from the wrath of Jupiter, she was first changed by + him into a quail; and afterwards into a stone.] + + [Footnote 15: _Antiope._--Ver. 110. Antiope was the daughter of + Nycteus, a king of BÅ“otia. Being seduced by Jupiter under the form + of a Satyr, she bore two sons, Zethus and Amphion. On being + insulted by Dirce, she was seized with madness, and was cured by + Phocus, whom she is said to have afterwards married.] + + [Footnote 16: _Tirynthian._--Ver. 112. Tirynthus was a city near + Argos, where Hercules was born and educated, and from which place + his mother, Alcmene, derived her present appellation.] + + [Footnote 17: _Daughter of Asopus._--Ver. 113. Jupiter changed + himself into fire, or, according to some, into an eagle, to seduce + Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, king of BÅ“otia. By her he was the + father of Æacus.] + + [Footnote 18: _Mnemosyne._--Ver. 114. This Nymph, as already + mentioned, became the mother of the Nine Muses, having been + seduced by Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 19: _Deois._--Ver. 114. Proserpine was called Deois, or + Dêous Δηοῦς κόÏη, from her mother Ceres, who was called Δηὼ by the + Greeks, from the verb δήω, ‘to find;’ because as it was said, when + seeking for her daughter, the universal answer of those who wished + her success in her search, was, δήεις, ‘You will find her.’] + + [Footnote 20: _Virgin daughter._--Ver. 116. This was Canace, or + Arne, the daughter of Æolus, whom Neptune seduced under the form + of a bull.] + + [Footnote 21: _Enipeus._--Ver. 116. Under the form of Enipeus, + a river of Thessaly, Neptune committed violence upon Iphimedeia, + the wife of the giant Aloëus, and by her was the father of the + giants Otus and Ephialtes.] + + [Footnote 22: _Bisaltis._--Ver. 117. Theophane was the daughter of + Bisaltis. Changing her into a sheep, and himself into a ram, + Neptune begot the Ram with the golden fleece, that bore Phryxus to + Colchis.] + + [Footnote 23: _Experienced._--Ver. 119. ‘Te sensit,’ repeated + twice in this line, Clarke translates, not in a very elegant + manner, ‘had a bout with thee,’ and ‘had a touch from thee.’ By + Neptune, Ceres became the mother of the horse Arion; or, according + to some, of a daughter, whose name it was not deemed lawful to + mention.] + + [Footnote 24: _Thee the mother._--Ver. 119. This was Medusa, who, + according to some, was the mother of the horse Pegasus, by + Neptune, though it is more generally said that it sprang from her + blood, when she was slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Melantho._--Ver. 120. Melantho was the daughter + either of Proteus, or of Deucalion, and was the mother of Delphus, + by Neptune.] + + [Footnote 26: _Isse._--Ver. 124. She was a native of either + Lesbos, or EubÅ“a. Her father, Macareus, was the son of Jupiter and + Cyrene.] + + [Footnote 27: _Erigone._--Ver. 125. She was the daughter of + Icarus, and was placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 28: _How Saturn._--Ver. 126. By Phillyra, Saturn was the + father of the Centaur Chiron. We may here remark, that Arachne was + not very complimentary to the Gods, in the choice of her subjects; + probably it was not her intention or wish to be so.] + + [Footnote 29: _Wicked one._--Ver. 136. Clarke translates + ‘improba,’ ‘thou wicked jade.’] + + [Footnote 30: _An Hecatean Herb._--Ver. 139. This was aconite, or + wolfsbane, said to have been discovered by Hecate, the mother of + Medea. She was the first who sought after, and taught the + properties of poisonous herbs. Some accounts say, that the aconite + was produced from the foam of Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules + from the infernal regions.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Arachne is most probably based upon the simple fact, that + she was the most skilful artist of her time, at working in silk and + wool. Pliny the Elder tells us, that Arachne, the daughter of Idmon, + a Lydian by birth, and of low extraction, invented the art of making + linen cloths and nets; which invention was also by some attributed to + Minerva. This competition, then, for the merit of the invention, is + the foundation of the challenge here described by the Poet. As, + however, Arachne is said to have hanged herself in despair, she + probably fell a prey to some cause of grief or discontent, the + particulars of which, in their simple form, have not come down to us. + Perhaps the similarity of her name and employment with those of the + spider, as known among the Greeks, gave rise to the story of her + alleged transformation; unless we should prefer to attribute the story + to the fact of the Hebrew word “arag,†signifying to spin, and, in + some degree, resembling her name. + + In this story, Ovid takes the opportunity of touching upon several + fables, the subjects whereof he states to have been represented in the + works of Minerva and Arachne. He alludes, among other matters, to the + dispute between Neptune and Minerva, about giving a name to the city + of Athens. St. Augustine, on the authority of Varro, says, that + Cecrops, in building that city, found an olive tree and a fountain, + and that the oracle at Delphi, on being consulted, stating that both + Minerva and Neptune had a right to name the city, the Senate decided + in favor of the Goddess; and this circumstance, he says, gave rise to + the story. According to some writers, it was based on the fact, that + Cranaüs changed the name of the city from Poseidonius, which it was + called after Neptune, to Athenæ, after his own daughter Athena: and as + the Areiopagus sanctioned this change, it was fabled that Neptune had + been overcome by the judgment of the Gods. + + The Jesuit Tournemine suggests the following explanation of the + story:--He says, that the aborigines of Attica, being conquered by the + Pelasgians, learned from them the art of navigation, which they turned + to account by becoming pirates. Cecrops, bringing a colony from Saïs, + in Egypt, tried to abolish this barbarous custom, and taught them a + more civilized mode of life; and, among other things, he showed them + how to till the earth, and to raise the olive, for the cultivation of + which he found the soil very favorable. He also introduced the worship + of Minerva, or Athena, as she was called, a Goddess highly honored at + Saïs, and to whom the olive tree was dedicated. Her the Athenians + afterwards regarded as the patroness of their city, which they called + after her name. Athens becoming famous for its olives, and, + considerable profit arising from their cultivation, the new settlers + attempted to wean the natives from piracy, by calling their attention + to agricultural pursuits. To succeed in this, they composed a fable, + in which Neptune was said to be overcome by Minerva; who, even in the + judgment of the twelve greater deities, had found out something of + more utility than he. This fable Tournemine supposes to have been + composed in the ancient language of the country, which was the + Phrygian, mingled with many PhÅ“nician words; and, as in those + languages the same word signifies either a ship or a horse, those who + afterwards interpreted the fable, took the word in the latter + signification, and spoke of a horse instead of a ship, which was + really the original emblem employed in the fiction. + + Vossius thinks that the fable originated in a dispute between the + sailors of Athens, who acknowledged Neptune for their chief, and the + people, who followed the Senate, governed by Minerva. The people + prevailed, and a life of civilization, marked by attention to the + pursuits of agriculture, was substituted for one of piracy; which gave + occasion for the saying, that Minerva had overcome Neptune. + + With reference to the intrigues and lustful actions attributed to the + various Deities by Arachne in the delineations on her embroidery, we + may here remark, by way of elucidating the origin of these stories in + general, that, in early times, when the earth was sunk in ignorance + and superstition, and might formed the only right in the heathen + world, where a king or petty chieftain demanded the daughter of a + neighbor in marriage, and met with a refusal, he immediately had + recourse to arms, to obtain her by force. Their standards and ships, + on these expeditions, carrying their ensigns, consisting of birds, + beasts, or fabulous monsters, gave occasion to those who described + their feats of prowess to say, that the ravisher had changed himself + into a bull, an eagle, or a lion, for the purpose of effecting his + object. The kings and potentates of those days, being frequently + called Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, etc., and the priests of the Gods so + named often obtaining their ends by assuming the names of the + Divinities they served, we can account the more easily for the number + of intrigues and abominable actions, attended by changes and + transformations, which the poets and mythologists attribute to many of + the Deities. + + Palæphatus suggests a very ingenious method of accounting for these + stories; founded, however, it must be owned, on a very low estimate of + female virtue in those times. He says, that these fabulous narratives + originate in the figures of different animals which were engraved on + the coins of those times; and that, when money was given to buy over + or to procure the seduction of a female, it was afterward said that + the lover had himself taken the figure which was represented on the + coin, by means of which his object had been effected. + + Ovid, in common with many of the ancient historians, geographers, and + naturalists, mentions the Pygmies, of which, from the time of Homer + downwards, a nation was supposed to exist, in a state of continual + warfare with the Cranes. Aristotle, who believed in their existence, + placed them in Æthiopia; Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus in India, + near the source of the Ganges; others again, in Scythia, on the banks + of the Danube. Some of the moderns have attempted to explain the + origin of this prevalent notion. Olaüs Magnus thinks the Samoeids and + Laplanders to have been the Pygmies of Homer. Gesner and others fancy + that they have found their originals in Thuringia; while Albertus + Magnus supposed that the Pygmies were the monkeys, which are so + numerous in the interior of Africa, and which were taken for human + beings of diminutive stature. Vander Hart, who has written a most + ingenious treatise on the subject, suggests that the fable originated + in a war between two cities in Greece, Pagæ and Gerania, the + similarity of whose names to those of the Pygmies and the Cranes, gave + occasion to their neighbors, the Corinthians, to confer on them those + nicknames. It is most probable, however, that the story was founded + upon the diminutive stature of some of the native tribes of the + interior of Africa. + + As to the fable of Pygas being changed into a crane, Banier suggests, + that the origin of it may be found in the work of Antoninus Liberalis, + quoting from the Theogony of BÅ“us. That poet, whose works are lost, + says, that among the Pygmies there was a very beautiful princess, + named Å’noë, who greatly oppressed her subjects. Having married + Nicodamas, she had by him a son, named Mopsus, whom her subjects + seized upon, to educate him in their own way. She accordingly raised + levies against her own subjects; and that circumstance, together with + the name of Gerane, which, according to Ælian, she also bore, gave + rise to the fable, which said that she was changed into a crane; the + resemblance which it bore to ‘geranos,’ the Greek for ‘a crane,’ + suggesting the foundation of the story. + + +FABLE II. [VI.146-312] + + The Theban matrons, forming a solemn procession in honor of Latona, + Niobe esteems herself superior to the Goddess, and treats her and her + offspring with contempt; on which, Apollo and Diana, to avenge the + affront offered to their mother, destroy all the children of Niobe; + and she, herself, is changed into a statue. + +All Lydia is in an uproar, and the rumor of the fact goes through the +town of Phrygia, and fills the wide world with discourse {thereon}. +Before her own marriage Niobe had known her,[31] at the time, when still +single, she was inhabiting Mæonia and Sipylus.[32] And yet by the +punishment of her countrywoman, Arachne, she was not warned to yield to +the inhabitants of Heaven, and to use less boastful words. Many things +augmented her pride; but yet, neither the skill of her husband, nor the +descent of them both, nor the sovereignty of a mighty kingdom, pleased +her so much (although all of them did please her) as her own progeny; +and Niobe might have been pronounced the happiest of mothers, if she had +not so seemed to herself. + +For Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, foreknowing the future, urged by a +divine impulse, had proclaimed through the middle of the streets, “Ye +women of Ismenus, go all of you,[33] and give to Latona, and the two +children of Latona, the pious frankincense, together with prayers, and +wreathe your hair with laurel; by my mouth does Latona command {this}.†+Obedience is paid; and all the Theban women adorn their temples with +leaves {of laurel}, as commanded, and offer frankincense on the sacred +fires, and words of supplication. Lo! Niobe comes, surrounded with a +crowd of attendants, conspicuous for the gold interwoven in her Phrygian +garments, and beautiful, so far as anger will allow; and tossing her +hair, hanging down on both shoulders, with her graceful head, she stands +still; and as she loftily casts around her haughty eyes, she says, “What +madness is this to prefer the inhabitants of Heaven, that you have +{only} heard of, to those who are seen? or why is Latona worshipped at +the altars, {and} my Godhead is still without its {due} frankincense? +Tantalus was my father, who alone was allowed to approach the tables of +the Gods above. The sister of the Pleiades[34] is my mother; the most +mighty Atlas is my grandsire, who bears the æthereal skies upon his +neck. Jupiter is my other grandsire; of him, too, I boast as my +father-in-law.[35] The Phrygian nations dread me; the palace of Cadmus +is subject to me as its mistress; and the walls that were formed by the +strings of my husband’s {lyre}, together with their people, are governed +by me and my husband; to whatever part of the house I turn my eyes, +immense wealth is seen. To this is added a face worthy of a Goddess. Add +to this my seven daughters,[36] and as many sons, and, at a future day, +sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. Now inquire what ground my pride has +{for its existence}; and presume to prefer Latona the Titaness, the +daughter of some obscure Cæus, to whom, when in travail,[37] the great +earth once refused a little spot, to myself. Neither by heaven, nor by +earth, nor by water, was your Goddess received; she was banished the +world, till Delos, pitying the wanderer, said, “Thou dost roam a +stranger on the land, I in the waves;†and gave her an unstable place +{of rest}. She was made the mother of two children, that is {but} the +seventh part of my issue. I am fortunate, and who shall deny it? and +fortunate I shall remain; who, too, can doubt of that? Plenty has made +me secure; I am too great for Fortune possibly to hurt; and, though she +should take away many things from me, {even then} much more will she +leave me: my {many} blessings have now risen superior to apprehensions. +Suppose it possible for some part of this multitude of my children to be +taken away {from me}; still, thus stripped, I shall not be reduced to +two, the number of Latona; an amount, by the number of which, how far, +{I pray}, is she removed from one that is childless? Go from the +sacrifice; hasten away from the sacrifice, and remove the laurel from +your hair!†+ +They remove it, and the sacrifice they leave unperformed; and what they +can do, they adore the Divinity in gentle murmurs. The Goddess was +indignant; and on the highest top of {Mount} Cynthus, she spoke to her +two children in such words as these: “Behold! I, your mother, proud of +having borne you, and who shall yield to no one of the Goddesses, except +to Juno {alone}, am called in question whether I am a Goddess, and, for +all future ages, I am driven from the altars devoted {to me}, unless you +give me aid. Nor is this my only grief; the daughter of Tantalus has +added abusive language to her shocking deeds, and has dared to postpone +you to her own children, and (what {I wish} may fall upon herself), she +has called me childless; and the profane {wretch} has discovered a +tongue like her father’s.â€[38] To this relation Latona was going to add +entreaties, when PhÅ“bus said, “Cease thy complaints, ’tis prolonging the +delay of her punishment.†PhÅ“be said the same; and, by a speedy descent +through the air, they arrived, covered with clouds, at the citadel of +Cadmus. + +There was near the walls a plain, level, and extending far and wide, +trampled continually by horses, where multitudes of wheels and hard +hoofs had softened the clods placed beneath them. There, part of the +seven sons of Amphion are mounting upon their spirited steeds, and press +their backs, red with the Tyrian dye, and wield the reins heavy with +gold; of these, Ismenus, who had formerly been the first burden of his +mother, while he is guiding the steps of the horses in a perfect circle, +and is curbing their foaming mouths, cries aloud, “Ah, wretched me!†+and, pierced through the middle of his breast, bears a dart {therein}; +and the reins dropping from his dying hand, by degrees he falls on his +side, over {the horse’s} shoulder. The next {to him}, Sipylus, on +hearing the sound of a quiver in the air, gives rein[39] {to his horse}; +as when the pilot, sensible of the storm {approaching}, flies on seeing +a cloud, and unfurls the hanging sails on every side, that the light +breeze may by no means escape them. He gives rein, {I said}; while thus +giving it, the unerring dart overtakes him, and an arrow sticks +quivering in the top of his neck, and the bare steel protrudes from his +throat. He, as he is bending forward, rolls over the neck, {now} let +loose, and {over} the mane, and stains the ground with his warm blood. +The unhappy Phædimus, and Tantalus, the heir to the name of his +grandsire, when they had put an end to their wonted exercise {of +riding}, had turned to the youthful exercises of the palæstra, glowing +with oil;[40] and now had they brought[41] breast to breast, struggling +in a close grapple, when an arrow, sped onward from the stretched bow, +pierced them both, just as they were united together. At the same +instant they groaned aloud, and together they laid their limbs on the +ground, writhing with pain; together as they lay, for the last time, +they rolled their eyeballs, and together they breathed forth their life. + +Alphenor sees this, and, beating his torn breast, flies to them, to lift +up their cold limbs in his embrace, and falls in this affectionate duty. +For the Delian God pierces the inner part of his midriff with the fatal +steel. Soon as it is pulled out, a part of his lungs is dragged forth on +the barbs, and his blood is poured forth, with his life, into the air; +but no single wound reaches the unshaven Damasicthon. He is struck where +the leg commences, and where the sinewy ham makes the space between the +joints soft; and while he is trying with his hand to draw out the fatal +weapon, another arrow is driven through his neck, up to the feathers. +The blood drives this out, and itself starting forth, springs up on +high, and, piercing the air, spouts forth afar. The last {of them}, +Ilioneus, had raised his unavailing arms in prayer, and had said, +“O, all ye Gods, in common, (not knowing that all were not to be +addressed) spare me!†The {God}, the bearer of the bow, was moved, when +now his arrow could not be recalled; yet he died with the slightest +wound {of all}, his heart not being struck deep by the arrow. + +The report of this calamity, and the grief of the people, and the tears +of her family, made the mother acquainted with a calamity so sudden, +wondering that it could have happened, and enraged that the Gods above +had dared this, {and} that they enjoyed a privilege so great. For +Amphion the father, thrusting his sword through his breast, dying, had +ended his grief together with his life. Alas! how different is this +Niobe from that Niobe who had lately driven the people from the altars +of Latona, and, with lofty head, had directed her steps through the +midst of the city, envied by her own people, but now to be pitied even +by an enemy! She falls down upon the cold bodies, and with no +distinction she distributes her last kisses among all her sons. Raising +her livid arms from these towards heaven, she says, “Glut thyself, cruel +Latona, with my sorrow; glut thyself, and satiate thy breast with my +mourning; satiate, too, thy relentless heart with seven deaths. I have +received my death-blow;[42] exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But +why victorious? More remains to me, in my misery, than to thee, in thy +happiness. Even after so many deaths, I am the conqueror.†{Thus} she +spoke; {when} the string twanged from the bent bow, which affrighted all +but Niobe alone; she {became} bold by her misfortunes. + +The sisters were standing in black array, with their hair dishevelled, +before the biers[43] of their brothers. One of these, drawing out the +weapon sticking in her entrails, about to die, swooned away, with her +face placed upon her brother. Another, endeavoring to console her +wretched parent, was suddenly silent, and was doubled together with an +invisible wound; and did not close her mouth, until after the breath had +departed. Another, vainly flying, falls down; another dies upon her +sister; another lies hid; another you might see trembling. And {now} six +being put to death, and having received different wounds, the last +{only} remains; her mother covering her with all her body, {and} with +all her garments, cries, “Leave me but one, and that the youngest; the +youngest only do I ask out of so many, and {that but} one.†And while +she was entreating, she, for whom she was entreating, was slain. +Childless, she sat down among her dead sons and daughters and husband, +and became hardened by her woes. The breeze moves no hair {of hers}; in +her features is a color without blood; her eyes stand unmoved in her sad +cheeks; in her form there is no {appearance} of life. Her tongue itself, +too, congeals within, together with her hardened palate, and the veins +cease to be able to be moved. Her neck can neither be bent, nor can her +arms give any motion, nor her feet move. Within her entrails, too, it is +stone. + +Still did she weep on; and, enveloped in a hurricane of mighty wind, she +was borne away to her native land. There, fixed on the top of a +mountain,[44] she dissolves; and even yet does the marble distil tears. + + [Footnote 31: _Had known her._--Ver. 148. This was the more + likely, as Tantalus, the father of Niobe, was king of both Phrygia + and Lydia.] + + [Footnote 32: _Sipylus._--Ver. 149. This was the name of both a + city and a mountain of Lydia.] + + [Footnote 33: _Go all of you._--Ver. 159. Clarke renders the words + ‘Ismenides, ite frequentes,’ ‘Go, ye Theban ladies in general.’] + + [Footnote 34: _Sister of the Pleiades._--Ver. 174. Taygete, one of + the Pleiades, was the mother of Niobe.] + + [Footnote 35: _As my father-in-law._--Ver. 176. Because Jupiter + was the father of her husband, Amphion.] + + [Footnote 36: _Seven daughters._--Ver. 182. Tzetzes enumerates + fourteen daughters of Niobe, and gives their names.] + + [Footnote 37: _When in travail._--Ver. 187. She alludes to the + occasion on which Latona fled from the serpent Python, which Juno, + in her jealousy, had sent against her; and when Delos, which had + hitherto been a floating island, became immovable, for the + convenience of Latona, in labor with Apollo and Diana. That island + was said to have received its name from the Greek, δῆλος, + ‘manifest,’ or ‘appearing,’ from having risen to the surface of + the sea on that occasion.] + + [Footnote 38: _Like her father’s._--Ver. 213. Latona alludes to + one of the crimes of Tantalus, the father of Niobe, who was + accused of having indiscreetly divulged the secrets of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 39: _Gives rein._--Ver. 230. This was done with the + intention of making his escape.] + + [Footnote 40: _Glowing with oil._--Ver. 241. Clarke renders this + line, ‘Were gone to the juvenile work of neat wrestling.’ It would + be hard to say what ‘neat’ wrestling is. He seems not to have + known, that the ‘Palæstra’ was called ‘nitida,’ as shining with + the oil which the wrestlers used for making their limbs supple, + and the more difficult for their antagonist to grasp. Juvenal + gives the epithet ‘ceromaticum’ to the neck of the athlete, or + wrestler, which word means ‘rubbed with wrestler’s oil.’] + + [Footnote 41: _Now had they brought._--Ver. 243-4. Clarke thus + translates ‘Et jam contulerant arcto luctantia nexu Pectora + pectoribus;’ ‘And now they had clapped breast to breast, + struggling in a close hug.’] + + [Footnote 42: _I have received my death-blow._--Ver. 283. + ‘Efferor’ literally means, ‘I am carried out.’ ‘Effero’ was the + term used to signify the carrying of the body out of the city + walls, for the purposes of burial.] + + [Footnote 43: _Before the biers._--Ver. 289. The body of the + deceased person was in ancient times laid out on a bed of the + ordinary kind, with a pillow for supporting the head and back; + among the Romans, it was placed in the vestibule of the house, + with its feet towards the door, and was dressed in the best robe + which the deceased had worn when alive. Among the better classes, + the body was borne to the place of burial, or the funeral pile, on + a couch, which was called ‘feretrum,’ or ‘capulus.’ This was + sometimes made of ivory, and covered with gold and purple.] + + [Footnote 44: _Top of a mountain._--Ver. 311. This was Mount + Sipylus, in BÅ“otia, which, as we learn from Pausanias, had on its + summit a rock, which, at a distance, strongly resembled a female + in an attitude of sorrow. This resemblance is said to exist even + at the present day.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + All the ancient historians agree with Diodorus Siculus and + Apollodorus, that Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and the sister + of Pelops; but she must not be confounded with a second Niobe, who was + the daughter of Phoroneus, and the first mortal (Homer tells us) with + whom Jupiter fell in love. Homer says that she was the mother of + twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Herodotus says, that she + had but two sons and three daughters. Diodorus Siculus makes her the + mother of fourteen children, seven of each sex. Apollodorus, on the + authority of Hesiod, says, that she had ten sons and as many + daughters; but gives the names of fourteen only. The story of the + destruction of her children is most likely based upon truth, and bears + reference to a historical fact. The plague, which ravaged the city of + Thebes, destroyed all the children of Niobe; and contagious distempers + being attributed to the excessive heat of the sun, it was fabled that + Apollo had killed them with his arrows; while women, who died of the + plague, were said to owe their death to the anger of Diana. Thus, + Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of Andromache were killed by + Diana. Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie, the wife of + Cyzicus, on the death of her mother, killed by the same Goddess; so + the Scholiast on Pindar (Pythia, ode iii.) says, on the authority of + Pherecydes, that Apollo sent Diana to kill Coronis and several other + women. Eustathius distinctly asserts, that the poets attributed the + deaths of men, who died of the plague, to Apollo; and those of women, + dying a similar death, to Diana. + + This supposition is based upon rational and just grounds; since many + contagious distempers may be clearly traced to the exhalations of the + earth, acted on by the intense heat of the sun. Homer, most probably, + means this, when he says that the plague came upon the Grecian camp, + on the God, in his anger, discharging his arrows against it; or, in + other words, when the extreme heat of his rays had caused a corruption + of the atmosphere. It may be here observed, that arrows were the + symbol of Apollo, when angry, and the harp when he was propitious. + Diogenes Laertius tells us, that, during the prevalence of the plague, + it was the custom to place branches of laurel on the doors of the + houses, in the hope that the God, being reminded of Daphne, would + spare the places which thereby claimed his protection. + + Ovid says, that the sons of Niobe were killed while managing their + horses; but Pausanias tells us that they died on Mount Cithæron, while + engaged in hunting, and that her daughters died at Thebes. Homer says, + that her children remained nine days without burial, because the Gods + changed the Thebans into stones, and that the offended Divinities + themselves performed the funeral rites on the tenth day; the meaning + probably, is, that, they dying of the plague, no one ventured to bury + them, and all seemed insensible to the sorrows of Niobe, as each + consulted his own safety. Ismenus, her eldest son, not being able to + endure the pain of his malady, is said to have thrown himself into a + river of BÅ“otia, which, from that circumstance, received his name. + After the death of her husband and children, Niobe is said to have + retired to Mount Sipylus, in Lydia, where she died. Here, as Pausanias + informs us, was a rock, resembling, at a distance, a woman overwhelmed + with grief; though according to the same author, who had visited it, + the resemblance could not be traced on approaching it. On this ground, + Ovid relates, that she was borne on a whirlwind to the top of a Lydian + mountain, where she was changed into a rock. + + Pausanias tells us, that MelibÅ“a, or Chloris, and Amycle, two of her + daughters, appeased Diana, who preserved their lives; or that, in + other words, they recovered from the plague; though he inclines to + credit the version of Homer, who says that all of her children died by + the hands of Apollo and Diana. MelibÅ“a received the surname of + Chloris, from the paleness which ensued on her alarm at the sudden + death of her sisters. + + +FABLE III. [VI.313-381] + + Latona, fatigued with the burden of her two children, during a long + journey, and parched with thirst, goes to drink at a pond, near which + some countrymen are at work. These clowns, in a brutal manner, not + only hinder her from drinking, but trouble the water to make it muddy; + on which, the Goddess, to punish their brutality, transforms them into + frogs. + +But then, all, both women and men, dread the wrath of the divinity, +{thus} manifested, and with more zeal {than ever} all venerate with +{divine} worship the great godhead of the Deity who produced the twins; +and, as {commonly} happens, from a recent fact they recur to the +narration of former events. + +One of them says, “Some countrymen of old, in the fields of fertile +Lycia, {once} insulted the Goddess, {but} not with impunity. The thing, +indeed, is but little known, through the obscure station of the +individuals, still it is wonderful. I have seen upon the spot, the pool +and the lake noted for the miracle. For my father being now advanced in +years, and incapable of travel, ordered me to bring thence some choice +oxen, and on my setting out, had given me a guide of that nation: with +whom, while I was traversing the pastures, behold! an ancient altar, +black with the ashes of sacrifices, was standing in the middle of a +lake, surrounded with quivering reeds. My guide stood still, and said in +a timid whisper, ‘Be propitious to me;’ and with a like whisper, I said, +‘Be propitious.’ However, I asked him whether it was an altar of the +Naiads, or of Faunus, or of some native God; when the stranger answered +me in such words; ‘Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this +altar. She calls this her own, whom once the royal Juno banished from +the world; whom the wandering Delos, at the time when it was swimming as +a light island, hardly received at her entreaties. There Latona, leaning +against a palm, together with the tree of Pallas, brought forth twins, +in spite of their stepmother {Juno}. Hence, too, the newly delivered +{Goddess} is said to have fled from Juno, and in her bosom to have +carried the two divinities, her children. And now the Goddess, wearied +with her prolonged toil, being parched with the heat of the season, +contracted thirst in the country of Lycia, which bred the Chimæra[45] +when the intense sun was scorching the fields; the craving children, +too, had exhausted her suckling breasts. By chance she beheld a lake[46] +of fine water, in the bottom of a valley; some countrymen were there, +gathering bushy osiers, together with bulrushes, and sedge natural to +fenny spots. The Titaness approached, and bending her knee, she pressed +the ground, that she might take up the cool water to drink; the company +of rustics forbade it. The Goddess thus addressed them, as they forbade +her: ‘Why do you deny me water? The use of water is common {to all}. +Nature has made neither sun, nor air, nor the running stream, the +property of any one. To her public bounty have I come, which yet I +humbly beg of you to grant me. I was not intending to bathe my limbs +here, and my wearied joints, but to relieve my thirst. My mouth, as I +speak, lacks moisture, and my jaws are parched, and scarce is there a +passage for my voice therein; a draught of water will be nectar to me, +and I shall own, that, together with it, I have received my life {at +your hands}. In {that} water you will be giving me life. Let these, too, +move you, who hold out their little arms from my bosom’; and by chance +the children were holding out their arms. + +“What person might not these kindly words of the Goddess have been able +to influence? Still, they persist in hindering {the Goddess thus} +entreating them; and moreover add threats and abusive language, if she +does not retire to a distance. Nor is this enough. They likewise muddy +the lake itself {with} their feet and hands; and they raise the soft mud +from the very bottom of the water, by spitefully jumping to and fro. +Resentment removes her thirst. For now no longer does the daughter of +Cæus supplicate the unworthy {wretches}, nor does she any longer endure +to utter words below {the majesty of} a Goddess; and raising her hands +to heaven, she says, ‘For ever may you live in that pool.’ The wish of +the Goddess comes to pass. They delight to go beneath the water, and +sometimes to plunge the whole of their limbs in the deep pool; now to +raise their heads, and now to swim on the top of the water; oft to sit +on the bank of the pool, {and} often to leap back again into the cold +stream. And even now do they exercise their offensive tongues in strife: +and banishing {all} shame, although they are beneath the water, {still} +beneath the water,[47] do they try to keep up their abuse. Their voice, +too, is now hoarse, and their bloated necks swell out; and their very +abuse dilates their extended jaws. Their backs are united to their +heads: their necks seem as though cut off; their backbone is green; +their belly, the greatest part of their body, is white; and {as} +new-made frogs, they leap about in the muddy stream.†+ + [Footnote 45: _The Chimæra._--Ver. 339. The Chimæra, according to + the poets, was a monster having the head of a lion, the body of a + goat, and the tail of a dragon. It seems, however, that it was + nothing more than a volcanic mountain of Lycia, in Asia Minor, + whence there were occasional eruptions of flame. The top of it was + frequented by lions; the middle afforded plentiful pasture for + goats; and towards the bottom, being rocky, and full of caverns, + it was infested by vast numbers of serpents, that harbored there.] + + [Footnote 46: _Beheld a lake._--Ver. 343. Probus, in his + Commentary on the Second Book of the Georgics, says that the name + of the spring was Mela, and that of the shepherd who so churlishly + repulsed Latona, was Neocles. Antoninus Liberalis says, that the + name of the stream was Melites, and that Latona required the water + for the purpose of bathing her children. He further tells us, that + on being repulsed, she carried her children to the river Xanthus, + and returning thence, hurled stones at the peasants, and changed + them into frogs.] + + [Footnote 47: _Beneath the water._--Ver. 376. Some commentators + are so fanciful as to say, that the repetition of the words ‘sub + aqua,’ in the line ‘Quamvis sint sub aquâ, sub aquâ, maledicere + tentant,’ not inelegantly [non ineleganter] expresses the croaking + noise of the frogs. A man’s fancy must, indeed, be exuberant to + find any such resemblance; more so, indeed, than that of + Aristophanes, who makes his frogs say, by way of chorus, + ‘brekekekekex koäx koäx.’ Possibly, however, that might have been + the Attic dialect among frogs.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This story may possibly be based upon some current tradition of Latona + having been subjected to such cruel treatment from some country + clowns; or, which is more probable, it may have been originally + invented as a satire on the rude manners and uncouth conduct of the + peasantry of ancient times. The story may also have been framed, to + account, in a poetical manner, for the origin of frogs. + + +FABLE IV. [VI.382-411] + + The Satyr Marsyas, having challenged Apollo to a trial of skill on the + flute, the God overcomes him, and then flays him alive for his + presumption. The tears that are shed on the occasion of his death + produce the river that bears his name. + +When thus one, who, it is uncertain, had related the destruction of +{these} men of the Lycian race, another remembers {that of} the +Satyr;[48] whom, overcome {in playing} on the Tritonian reed, the son of +Latona visited with punishment. “Why,†said he, “art thou tearing me +from myself? Alas! I {now} repent; alas,†cried he, “the flute is not of +so much value!†As he shrieked aloud, his skin was stript[49] off from +the surface of his limbs, nor was he aught but {one entire} wound. Blood +is flowing on every side; the nerves, exposed, appear, and the quivering +veins throb without any skin. You might have numbered his palpitating +bowels, and the transparent lungs within his breast. The inhabitants of +the country, the Fauns, Deities of the woods, and his brothers the +Satyrs, and Olympus,[50] even then renowned, and the Nymphs lamented +him; and whoever {besides} on those mountains was feeding the +wool-bearing flocks, and the horned herds. + +The fruitful earth was moistened, and being moistened received the +falling tears, and drank them up in her lowest veins, which, when she +had turned into a stream, she sent forth into the vacant air. And then, +as the clearest river in Phrygia, running towards the rapid sea within +steep banks, it bears the name of Marsyas. + +From narratives such as these the people return at once to the present +events, and mourn Amphion extinct together with {all} his race. The +mother is {an object} of hatred. Yet {her brother} Pelops is said alone +to have mourned for her as well; and after he had drawn his clothes from +his shoulder towards his breast, he discovered the ivory on his left +shoulder. This shoulder, at the time of his birth, was of the same color +with the right one, and {was} formed of flesh. They say that the Gods +afterwards joined his limbs cut asunder by the hands of his father; and +the rest of them being found, that part which is midway between the +throat and the top of the arm, was wanting. Ivory was inserted there, in +the place of the part that did not appear; and so by that means Pelops +was made entire. + + [Footnote 48: _The Satyr._--Ver. 382. Herodotus tells this story + of the Satyr Marsyas, under the name of Silenus. Fulgentius + informs us, that in paintings, Marsyas was represented with the + tail of a pig.] + + [Footnote 49: _His skin was stript._--Ver. 387. Apollo fastened + him to a pine-tree, or, according to Pliny the Elder, + a plane-tree, which was to be seen even in his day. The skin was + afterwards suspended by Apollo in the city of Celenæ. Hyginus + says, that Apollo hewed Marsyas to pieces. The description here of + the flaying is, perhaps, very natural; but it is all the more + disgusting for being so. A commentator justly says, that it might + suit a Roman, whose eyes were familiar with bloodshed, much better + than the taste of the reader of modern times.] + + [Footnote 50: _Olympus._--Ver. 393. He was a Satyr, the brother + and pupil of Marsyas. Pausanias describes a picture, painted by + Polygnotus, in which Olympus was represented as sitting by + Marsyas, clad as a youth, and learning to play on the flute. + Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis (l. 576) says that Olympus + discovered some new measures for the ‘tibia,’ or flute. From + Hyginus we learn, that Apollo delivered to him the body of Marsyas + for burial.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Marsyas was the son of Hyagnis, the inventor of a peculiar kind of + flute, and of the Phrygian measure. Livy and Quintus Curtius tell us, + that the story of Apollo and Marsyas is an allegory; and that the + river Marsyas gave rise to it. They say that the river, falling from a + precipice, in the neighborhood of the town of Celenæ, in Phrygia, made + a very stunning and unpleasant noise; but that the smoothness of its + course afterwards gave occasion for the saying, that the vengeance of + Apollo had rendered it more tractable. + + It is, however, not improbable that the story may have been based on + historical facts. Having learned from his father, Hyagnis, the art of + playing on the flute, and, proud of his skill, at a time when the + musical art was yet in its infancy, Marsyas may have been rash enough + to challenge either a priest of Apollo, or some prince who bore that + name, and, for his presumption, to have received the punishment + described by Ovid. Herodotus certainly credited the story; for he says + that the skin of the unfortunate musician was to be seen, in his time, + in the town of Celenæ. Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius also + believe its truth. Suidas tells us, that Marsyas, mortified at his + defeat, threw himself into the river that runs near Celenæ, which, + from that time, bore his name. Strabo says, that Marsyas had stolen + the flute from Minerva, which proved so fatal to him, and had thereby + drawn upon himself the indignation of that Divinity. Ovid, in the + Sixth Book of the Fasti, and Pausanias, quoting from Apollodorus, tell + us, that Minerva, having observed, by seeing herself in the river + Meander, that, when she played on the flute, her cheeks were swelled + out in an unseemly manner, threw aside the flute in her disgust, and + Marsyas finding it, learned to play on it so skilfully, that he + challenged Apollo to a trial of proficiency. Hyginus, in his 165th + Fable, says that Marsyas was the son of Å’agrius, and not Hyagnis; + perhaps, however, this is a corrupt reading. + + +FABLE V. [VI.412-586] + + Tereus, king of Thrace, having married Progne, the daughter of + Pandion, king of Athens, falls in love with her sister Philomela, whom + he ravishes, and then, having cut out her tongue, he shuts her up in a + strong place in a forest, to prevent a discovery. The unfortunate + Philomela finds means to acquaint her sister with her misfortunes; + for, weaving her story on a piece of cloth, she sends it to Progne by + the hands of one of her keepers. + +The neighboring princes met together; and the cities that were near, +entreated their kings to go to console {Pelops, namely}, Argos and +Sparta, and the Pelopean Mycenæ, and Calydon,[51] not yet odious to the +stern Diana, and fierce Orchomeneus, and Corinth famous for its +brass,[52] and fertile Messene, and Patræ, and humble Cleonæ,[53] and +the Neleian Pylos, and TrÅ“zen not yet named from Pittheus;[54] and other +cities which are enclosed by the Isthmus between the two seas, and those +which, situated beyond, are seen from the Isthmus between the two seas. +Who could have believed it? You, Athens, alone omitted it. A war +prevented this act of humanity; and barbarous troops[55] brought +{thither} by sea, were alarming the Mopsopian walls. The Thracian Tereus +had routed these by his auxiliary forces, and by his conquest had +acquired an illustrious name. Him, powerful both in riches and men, and, +as it happened, deriving his descent from the mighty Gradivus, Pandion +united to himself, by the marriage of {his daughter} Progne. + +Neither Juno, the guardian of marriage rites, nor yet Hymeneus, nor the +Graces,[56] attended those nuptials. {On that occasion}, the Furies +brandished torches, snatched from the funeral pile. The Furies prepared +the nuptial couch, and the ill-boding owl hovered over the abode, and +sat on the roof of the bridal chamber. With these omens were Progne and +Tereus wedded; with these omens were they made parents. Thrace, indeed, +congratulated them, and they themselves returned thanks to the Gods, and +they commanded the day, upon which the daughter of Pandion was given to +the renowned prince, and that upon which Itys was born, to be considered +as festivals. So much does our true interest lie concealed {from us}. +Now Titan had drawn the seasons of the repeated year through five +autumns, when Progne, in gentle accents, said to her husband, “If I have +any influence {with thee}, either send me to see my sister, or let my +sister come hither. Thou shalt promise thy father-in-law that she shall +return in a short time. As good as a mighty God {wilt thou be} to me, if +thou shalt allow me to see my sister.†+ +He {thereupon} ordered ships to be launched;[57] and with sails and oars +he entered the Cecropian harbor, and landed upon the shores of the +Piræus.[58] As soon as ever an opportunity was given of {addressing} his +father-in-law, and right hand was joined to right hand, with evil omen +their discourse began. He had commenced to relate the occasion of his +coming, {and} the request of his wife, and to promise a speedy return +for {Philomela, if} sent. {When} lo! Philomela comes, richly adorned in +costly apparel; richer {by far} in her charms; such as we hear {of} the +Naiads and Dryads {as they} haunt the middle of the forests, if you were +only to give them the like ornaments and dress. Tereus was inflamed upon +seeing the virgin, no otherwise than if one were to put fire beneath the +whitening ears of corn, or were to burn leaves and {dry} grass laid up +in stacks. Her beauty, indeed, is worthy {of love}; but inbred lust, as +well, urges him on, and the people in those regions are {naturally} much +inclined to lustfulness. He burns, both by his own frailty and that of +his nation. He has a desire to corrupt the care of her attendants, and +the fidelity of her nurse, and {besides}, to tempt herself with large +presents, and to spend his whole kingdom {in so doing}; or else, to +seize her, and, when seized, to secure her by a cruel war. And there is +nothing which, being seized by an unbridled passion, he may not dare; +nor does his breast contain the internal flame. And now he ill bears +with delay; and with eager mouth returns to {urge} the request of +Progne, and under it he pleads his own wishes; passion makes him +eloquent. As oft as he presses beyond what is becoming, he pretends +that Progne has thus desired. He adds tears as well, as though she had +enjoined them too. O ye Gods above, how much of dark night do the +breasts of mortals contain! Through his very attempt at villany, Tereus +is thought to be affectionate, and from his crime does he gather praise. + +And how is it, too, that Philomela desires the same thing? and fondly +embracing the shoulders of her father with her arms, she begs, even by +her own safety (and against it too), that she may visit her sister. +Tereus views her, and, while viewing her, is embracing her beforehand in +imagination; and, as he beholds her kisses, and her arms around {her +father’s} neck, he receives them all as incentives, and fuel, and the +food of his furious passion; and, as often as she embraces her father, +he could wish to be {that} father, and, even then, he would have been +not the less impious. The father is overcome by the entreaties of them +both. She rejoices, and returns thanks to her parent, and, to her +misfortune, deems that the success of both, which will be the cause of +sorrow to them both. Now but little of his toil was remaining for +PhÅ“bus, and his steeds were beating with their feet the descending track +of Olympus; a regal banquet was set on the tables, and wine in golden +{vessels}; after this, their bodies were given up to gentle sleep. But +the Odrysian king,[59] though he was withdrawn, still burned for her; +and, recalling her form, her movements, her hands, fancies that which he +has not yet seen, to be such as he wishes; and he himself feeds his own +flames, his anxiety preventing sleep. + +It was {now} day; and Pandion, grasping the right hand of his +son-in-law, about to depart, with tears bursting forth, recommended his +companion {to his care}. “I commit her, my dear son-in-law, to thee, +because reasons, grounded on affection, have compelled me, and both {my +daughters} have desired it, and thou as well, Tereus, hast wished it; +and I entreat thee, begging by thy honor, by thy breast {thus} allied to +us, {and} by the Gods above, to protect her with the love of a father; +and do send back to me, as soon as possible, this sweet comfort of my +anxious old age, {for} all delay will be tedious to me, and do thou, +too, Philomela, if thou hast any affection for me, return as soon as +possible: ’tis enough that thy sister is so far away.†{Thus} did he +enjoin, and at the same time he gave kisses to his daughter, and his +affectionate tears fell amid his instructions. He {then} demanded the +right hands of them both, as a pledge of their fidelity, and joined them +together when given, and bade them, with mindful lips, to salute for him +his absent daughter and grandson, and with difficulty[60] uttered the +last farewell, his mouth being filled with sobs; and he shuddered at the +presages of his own mind. But as soon as Philomela was put on board of +the painted ship, and the sea was urged by the oars, and the land was +left behind, he exclaimed, “I have gained my point; the object of my +desires is borne along with me.†The barbarian exults, too, and with +difficulty defers his joy in his intention, and turns not his eyes +anywhere away from her. No otherwise than when the ravenous bird of +Jupiter, with crooked talons, has placed a hare in his lofty nest; there +is no escape for the captive; the plunderer keeps his eye on his prey. +And now the voyage is ended, and now they have gone forth from the +wearied ship, upon his own shore; when the king drags the daughter of +Pandion into a lofty dwelling, concealed in an ancient wood, and there +he shuts her up, pale and trembling, and dreading everything, and now +with tears inquiring where her sister is; and confessing his baseness, +he masters by force her a maiden, and but one, while she often vainly +calls on her father, often on her sister, and on the great Gods above +all. She trembles like a frightened lamb, which, wounded, being snatched +from the mouth of a hoary wolf, does not as yet seem to itself in +safety; and as a dove, its feathers soaked with its own blood, still +trembles, and dreads the ravening talons wherein it has been {lately} +held. {But} soon, when consciousness returned, tearing her dishevelled +hair like one mourning, and beating her arms in lamentation, stretching +out her hands, she said, “Oh, barbarous {wretch}, for thy dreadful +deeds; oh, cruel {monster}! have neither the requests of my father, with +his affectionate tears, moved thee, nor a regard for my sister, nor my +virgin state, nor the laws of marriage? Thou hast confounded all. I am +become the supplanter of my sister; thou, the husband of both of us. +This punishment was not my due. Why dost thou not take away this life, +that no villany, perfidious {wretch}, may remain {unperpetrated} by +thee? and would that thou hadst done it before thy criminal embraces! +{then} I might have had a shade void of {all} crime. Yet, if the Gods +above behold these things, if the majesty of the Gods be anything; if, +with myself, all things are not come to ruin; one time or other thou +shalt give me satisfaction. I myself, having cast shame aside, will +declare thy deeds. If opportunity is granted me, I will come among the +people; if I shall be kept imprisoned in the woods, I will fill the +woods, and will move the conscious rocks. Let Heaven hear these things, +and the Gods, if there are any in it.†+ +After the wrath of the cruel tyrant was aroused by such words, and his +fear was not less than it, urged on by either cause, he drew the sword, +with which he was girt, from the sheath, and seizing her by the hair, +her arms being bent behind her back, he compelled her to submit to +chains. Philomela was preparing her throat, and, on seeing the sword, +had conceived hopes of her death. He cut away, with his cruel weapon, +her tongue seized with pincers, while giving vent to her indignation, +and constantly calling on the name of her father, and struggling to +speak. The extreme root of the tongue {still} quivers. {The tongue} +itself lies, and faintly murmurs, quivering upon the black earth; and as +the tail of a mangled snake is wont to writhe about, {so} does it throb, +and, as it dies, seeks the feet of its owner. It is said, too, that +often after this crime (I could hardly dare believe it) he satisfied his +lust upon her mutilated body. + +He has the effrontery, after such deeds, to return to Progne, who, on +seeing her husband, inquires for her sister; but he heaves feigned +sighs, and tells a fictitious story of her death; and his tears procure +him credit. Progne tears from her shoulders her robes, shining with +broad gold, and puts on black garments, and erects an honorary +sepulchre, and offers expiation to an imaginary shade; and laments the +death of a sister not thus to be lamented. + +The God {Apollo}, the year being completed, had run through the twice +six signs {of the Zodiac}. What can Philomela do? A guard prevents her +flight; the walls of the house are hard, built of solid stone: her +speechless mouth is deprived of the means of discovering the crime. But +in grief there is extreme ingenuity, and inventive skill arises in +misfortunes. She skilfully suspends the warp in a web of Barbarian +design,[61] and interweaves purple marks with white, as a mode of +discovering the villany {of Tereus}; and delivers it, when finished, to +one {of her attendants}, and begs her, by signs, to carry it to her +mistress. As desired, she carries it to Progne, and does not know what +she is delivering in it. The wife of the savage tyrant unfolds the web, +and reads the mournful tale[62] of her sister, and (wondrous that she +can be so!) she is silent. ’Tis grief that stops her utterance, and +words sufficiently indignant fail her tongue, in want of them; nor is +there room for weeping. But she rushes onward, about to confound both +right and wrong, and is wholly {occupied} in the contrivance of revenge. + + [Footnote 51: _Calydon._--Ver. 415. This was a city of Ætolia, + which derived its name from Calydon, the son of Endymion. Diana, + being incensed against Å’neus, its king, because he omitted her + when offering the first fruits to the other Deities, sent an + immense boar to ravage its fields, which was slain by Meleager. + Ovid recounts these circumstances in the eighth book of the + Metamorphoses. Argos, Sparta, and Mycenæ, are also included in one + line, by Homer, as having been under the particular tutelage of + Juno.] + + [Footnote 52: _Famous for its brass._--Ver. 416. According to some + writers, the Corinthian brass became famous after the fall of + Corinth, when it was taken and burnt by the Consul Mummius. On + that occasion, they say, that from the immense number of statues + melted in the conflagration, a stream of metal poured through the + streets, consisting of melted gold, silver, and copper; in which, + of course, the latter would be predominant. If that was the ground + on which the Corinthian brass was so much commended, Ovid is here + guilty of an anachronism.] + + [Footnote 53: _Cleonæ._--Ver. 417. This was a little town, situate + between Argos and Corinth. It is called ‘humilis,’ not from its + situation, but from the small number of its inhabitants. Patræ was + a city of Achaia.] + + [Footnote 54: _Pittheus._--Ver. 418. He was the uncle of Theseus; + and was (after the time here mentioned) the king of TrÅ“zen, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 55: _Barbarous troops._--Ver. 423. Some suggest that it + is here meant that Attica was invaded by the Amazons at this time; + and they rely on a passage of Justin in support of the position. + The story is, however, very improbable.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Graces._--Ver. 429. The Graces, who were the + attendants of Venus, were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and + Euphrosyne.] + + [Footnote 57: _To be launched._--Ver. 445. The ships were launched + into the sea by means of rollers placed beneath them, from which + circumstance they were said ‘deduci,’ ‘to be led down.’] + + [Footnote 58: _Shores of the Piræus._--Ver. 446. The Piræus was + the arsenal and the harbor of the Athenians, and owed its + magnificence to the vast conceptions of Themistocles.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Odrysian king._--Ver. 490. Tereus is thus + called, from the Odrysæ, a people of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 60: _With difficulty._--Ver. 510. Clarke translates + ‘vix,’ ‘with much ado.’] + + [Footnote 61: _Barbarian design._--Ver. 576. Probably of a + Phrygian design.] + + [Footnote 62: _The mournful tale._--Ver. 582. This line is + translated by Clarke, ‘And reads the miserable ditty of her + sister.’] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The gravest authors among the ancients, such as Strabo and Pausanias, + speaking of this tragical story, agree that the narrative, divested of + its poetical ornaments, is strictly conformable to truth; though, of + course, the sequel bears evident marks of embellishment either by the + fancy of the Poet, or the superstition of the vulgar. + + +FABLE VI. [VI.587-676] + + Progne delivers her sister Philomela from captivity, and brings her to + the court of Tereus, where she revolves in her mind her different + projects of revenge. Her son Itys, in the meantime, comes into her + apartment, and is murdered by his mother and aunt. Progne afterwards + serves him up at a feast, which she prepares for her husband; on + which, being obliged to fly from the fury of the enraged king, she is + changed into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Tereus + himself into a lapwing. + +It is {now} the time[63] when the Sithonian[64] matrons are wont to +celebrate the triennial festival of Bacchus. Night is conscious of their +rites; by night Rhodope resounds with the tinklings of the shrill +cymbal. By night the queen goes out of her house, and is arrayed +according to the rites of the God, and carries the arms of the frantic +solemnity. Her head is covered with vine leaves; from her left side hang +down the skins of a deer;[65] upon her shoulder rests a light spear. +{Then} the terrible Progne rushing through the woods, a multitude of her +followers attending her, and agitated by the fury of her resentment, +pretends, Bacchus, that it is {inspired} by thee. + +She comes at length to the lonely dwelling, and howls aloud, and cries +“Evoë!†and breaks open the gates, and seizes her sister, and puts upon +her, {so} seized, the badges of Bacchus, and conceals her countenance +under the foliage of ivy; and dragging her along, full of amazement, +leads her within her threshold. When Philomela perceives that she has +arrived at that accursed house,[66] the wretched woman shudders, and +paleness spreads over her whole face. Progne having {now} got a +{fitting} place {for so doing}, takes away the symbols of the rites,[67] +and unveils the blushing face of her wretched sister; and holds her in +her embraces. But she, on the other hand, cannot endure to lift up her +eyes; seeming to herself the supplanter of her sister, and fixing her +looks on the ground, her hand is in the place of voice to her, as she +desires to swear and to call the Gods to witness that this disgrace has +been brought upon her by violence. Progne burns {with rage}, and +contains not her anger; and checking the grief of her sister, she says, +“We must not act in this matter with tears, but with the sword, {and +even} with anything, if {such} thou hast, that can possibly outdo the +sword. I have, sister, prepared myself for every crime! Either, when I +shall have set fire to the royal palace with torches, I will throw the +artful Tereus into the midst of the flames, or with the steel will I cut +away his tongue or his eyes, or the members that have deprived thee of +thy chastity, or by a thousand wounds will I expel his guilty soul {from +his body}. Something tremendous am I prepared for; what it is, I am +still in doubt.†+ +While Progne was uttering such expressions, Itys came to his mother. By +him she was put in mind of what she might do; and looking at him with +vengeful eyes, she said, “Ah! how like thou art to thy father!†And +saying no more, she prepared for a horrible deed, and burned with silent +rage. Yet when her son came to her, and saluted his mother and drew her +neck {towards him} with his little arms, and added kisses mingled with +childish endearments, the mother, in truth, was moved, and her anger +abated, and her eyes, in spite of her, became wet with tears {thus} +forced {from her}. But soon as she found the mother {in her} shrinking +from excess of affection, from him again did she turn towards the +features of her sister; and looking at them both by turns, she said, +“Why does the one employ endearments, {while} the other is silent with +her tongue torn from her? Why does she not call her sister, whom he +calls mother? Consider to what kind of husband thou art married, +daughter of Pandion. Thou dost grow degenerate. Tenderness in the wife +of Tereus is criminality.†No {more} delay {is there}; she drags Itys +along, just as the tigress of the banks of the Ganges {does} the +suckling offspring of the hind, through the shady forests. And when they +are come to a remote part of the lofty house, Progne strikes[68] him +with the sword, extending his hands, and as he beholds his fate, crying +now “Alas!†and now “My mother!†and clinging to her neck, where his +breast joins his side; nor does she turn away her face. Even one wound +{alone} is sufficient for his death; Philomela cuts his throat with the +sword; and they mangle his limbs, still quivering and retaining somewhat +of life. Part of them boils,[69] in the hollow cauldrons; part hisses on +spits; the inmost recesses stream with gore. His wife sets Tereus, in +his unconsciousness, before this banquet; and falsely pretending rites +after the manner of her country, at which it is allowed one man only to +be present, she removes his attendants and servants. Tereus himself, +sitting aloft on the throne of his forefathers, eats and heaps his own +entrails into his own stomach. And so great is the blindness of his +mind, {that} he says, “Send for Itys.†Progne is unable to conceal her +cruel joy; and now, desirous to be the discoverer of her having murdered +him, she says, “Thou hast within {thee}, that for which thou art +asking.†He looks around, and inquires where he is; as he inquires, and +calls him again, Philomela springs forth, just as she is, with her hair +disordered by the infernal murder, and throws the bloody head of Itys in +the face of his father; nor at any time has she more longed to be able +to speak, and to testify her joy by words such as are deserved. + +The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons the +Viperous sisters[70] from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he +desires, if he {only} can, by opening his breast to discharge thence the +horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he weeps, and +pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and then he +follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would have +thought the bodies of the Cecropian[71] Nymphs were supported by wings; +{and} they were supported by wings. The one of them makes for the woods, +the other takes her place beneath the roofs {of houses}. Nor {even} as +yet have the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers +are {still} stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his +desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a +crested {plume}; a prolonged bill projects in place of the long spear. +The name of the bird is ‘epops’ [{lapwing}]; its face appears to be +armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of Tartarus +before his day, and the late period of protracted old age. + + [Footnote 63: _Now the time._--Ver. 587. This was the festival of + Bacchus, before mentioned as being celebrated every three years, + in memory of his Indian expedition.] + + [Footnote 64: _Sithonian._--Ver. 588. Sithonia was a region of + Thrace, which lay between Mount Hæmus and the Euxine sea. The + word, however, is often used to signify the whole of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 65: _Skins of a deer._--Ver. 593. These were the + ‘nebrides,’ or skins of fawns and deer, which the Bacchanals wore + when celebrating the orgies. The lance mentioned here was, no + doubt, the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 66: _That accursed house._--Ver. 601. Clarke translates + this line, ‘As soon as Philomela perceived she had got into the + wicked rogue’s house.’] + + [Footnote 67: _Symbols of the rites._--Ver. 603. These were the + ivy, the deer-skins, and the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Progne strikes._--Ver. 641. ‘Ense ferit Progne’ is + translated by Clarke, ‘Progne strikes with the sword poor Itys.’] + + [Footnote 69: _Part of them boils._--Ver. 645-6. Clarke gives this + comical translation: ‘Then part of them bounces about in hollow + kettles; part hisses upon spits; the parlor runs down with gore.’] + + [Footnote 70: _Viperous sisters._--Ver. 662. Tereus invokes the + Furies, who are thus called from having their hair wreathed with + serpents. Clarke translates, ‘ingenti clamore,’ in line 661, ‘with + a huge cry.’] + + [Footnote 71: _Cecropian._--Ver. 667. The Cecropian or Athenian + Nymphs are Progne and Philomela, the daughters of Pandion, king of + Athens.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + By the symbolical changes of Philomela, Progne, and Tereus, those who + framed this termination of the story intended to depict the different + characters of the persons whose actions are there represented. As the + lapwing delights in filth and impurity, the ancients thereby portrayed + the unscrupulous character of Tereus; and, as the flight of that bird + is but slow, it shows that he was not able to overtake his wife and + her sister. The nightingale, concealed in the woods and thickets, + seems there to be concealing her misfortunes and sorrows; and the + swallow, which frequents the abodes of man, shows the restlessness of + Progne, who seeks in vain for her son, whom, in her frantic fit, she + has so barbarously murdered. + + Anacreon and Apollodorus, however, reverse the story, saying that + Philomela was changed into a swallow, and Progne into a nightingale. + This event is said by some writers to have happened not in Thrace, but + at Daulis, a town of Phocis, where Tereus is supposed to have gone to + settle. Pausanias tells us, that the tomb of Tereus was to be seen + near Athens, so that it is probable that he died at a distance from + Thrace, his native country. Homer alludes to the story of Philomela in + somewhat different terms; speaking of the grounds of the grief of + Penelope, he says, that ‘she made her complaints to be heard like the + inconsolable Philomela, the daughter of Pandarus, always hidden among + the leaves and branches of trees. When the Spring arrives, she makes + her voice echo through the woods, and laments her dear Itylus, whom + she killed by an unhappy mistake; varying, in her continued plaints, + the mournful melody of her notes.’ By this, Homer seems to have known + nothing of Tereus or of Progne, and to have followed a tradition, + which was to the following effect:--Pandarus had three daughters, + Ædon, Mecrope, and Cleothera. Ædon, the eldest, was married to Zethus, + the brother of Amphion, by whom she had one son, who was named Itylus. + Envying the more numerous family of Niobe, her sister-in-law, she + resolved to despatch the eldest of her nephews; and, as her son was + brought up with his cousin, and was his bedfellow, she bade him change + his place in the bed, on the night on which she intended to commit the + crime. Itylus forgot her commands, and consequently his mother killed + him by mistake for her nephew. + + +FABLE VII. [VI.677-721] + + Boreas, not obtaining the consent of Erectheus, king of Athens, for + the marriage of his daughter, Orithyïa, takes that princess in his + arms, and carries her away into Thrace. By her he has two sons, Calaïs + and Zethes, who have wings, like their father, and afterwards embark + with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. + +Erectheus[72] received the sceptre of {that} country, and the government +of the state; it is a matter of doubt whether he was more powerful +through his justice, or by his mighty arms. He had, indeed, begotten +four sons, and as many of the female sex: but the beauty of two {of +them} was equal. Of these, Cephalus,[73] the son of Æolus, was blessed +with thee, Procris, for his wife; Tereus and the Thracians were an +obstacle to Boreas; and long was {that} God without his much-loved +Orithyïa, while he was entreating, and choosing rather to use prayers +than force. But when nothing was effected by blandishments, terrible +with that rage which is his wont, and but too natural with that wind, he +said, “And {this is} deservedly {done}; for why did I relinquish my own +weapons, my violence, my strength, my anger, and my threatening spirit, +and turn to prayers, the employment of which ill becomes me? Violence is +suitable for me; by violence do I dispel the lowering clouds, by +violence do I arouse the seas, and overthrow the knotted oaks, and +harden the snow, and beat the earth with hail. I too, when I have met +with my brothers in the open air (for that is {peculiarly} my field), +struggle with efforts so great, that the intermediate sky thunders again +with our onset, and fires flash, struck forth from the hollow clouds. +I too, when I have descended into the hollow recesses of the earth, and +in my rage have placed my back against its lowest depths, disturb the +shades below, and the whole globe with earthquakes. By these means +should I have sought this alliance; and Erectheus ought not to have been +entreated {to be} my father-in-law, but made so by force.†+ +Boreas, having said these words, or some not less high-sounding than +these, shakes his wings, by the motion of which all the earth is fanned, +and the wide sea becomes ruffled; and the lover, drawing his dusty +mantle over the high tops {of mountains}, sweeps the ground, and, wrapt +in darkness, embraces with his tawny wings Orithyïa, as she trembles +with fear. As she flies, his flame, being agitated, burns more fiercely. +Nor does the ravisher check the reins of his airy course, before he +reaches the people and the walls of the Ciconians.[74] There, too, is +the Actæan damsel made the wife of the cold sovereign, and {afterwards} +a mother, bringing forth twins at a birth, who have the wings of their +father, the rest {like} their mother. Yet they say that these {wings} +were not produced together with their bodies; and while their long +beard, with its yellow hair, was away, the boys Calaïs and Zethes were +without feathers. {But} soon after, at once wings began to enclose both +their sides, after the manner of birds, and at once their cheeks {began} +to grow yellow {with down}. When, therefore, the boyish season of youth +was passed, they sought,[75] with the Minyæ, along the sea {before} +unmoved,[76] in the first ship {that existed}, the fleece that glittered +with shining hair {of gold}. + + [Footnote 72: _Erectheus._--Ver. 677. This personage really was + king of Athens before Pandion, the father of Progne and Philomela, + and not after him, as Ovid here states; at least, such is the + account given by Pausanias and Eusebius: the order of succession + being Actæus, Cecrops, Cranaüs, Amphictyon, Erecthonius, Pandion, + Erectheus, Cecrops II., Pandion II., Ægeus, Theseus.] + + [Footnote 73: _Cephalus._--Ver. 681. He was the son of Deioneus, + and the grandson of Æolus. According to some writers, he was the + son of Mercury; in and the Art of Love (Book iii. l. 725) he is + called ‘Cyllenia proles.’ Strabo says that he was the son-in-law + of Deioneus. His story is related at length in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._--Ver. 710. The Cicones were a + people of Thrace, living near Mount Ismarus, and the Bistonian + lake.] + + [Footnote 75: _They sought._--Ver. 720. This was the fleece of the + ram that carried Phryxus along the Hellespont to Colchis, which is + mentioned again in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 76: _Before unmoved._--Ver. 721. This passage may mean + that that part of the sea had not been navigated before; though + many of the poets assert that the Argo was the first ship that was + ever built. It is more probable that it was the first vessel that + was ever fitted out as a ship of war.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plato tells us that the story of the rape of Orithyïa is but an + allegory, which signifies that, by accident, she was blown by the wind + into the sea, where she was drowned. Apollodorus and Pausanias, + however, assert that this story is based on historical facts, and that + Boreas, king of Thrace, seized Orithyïa, the daughter of Erectheus, + king of Athens, and sister of Procris, as she was passing the river + Ilissus, and carried her into his dominions, where she became the + mother of twins, Calaïs and Zethes. In the Argonautic expedition, + these chiefs delivered Phineus, the king of Bithynia, from the + persecution of the Harpies, which were in the habit of snatching away + the victuals served up at his table. + + + + +BOOK THE SEVENTH. + + +FABLE I. [VII.1-158] + + Jason, after having met with various adventures, arrives with the + Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the Golden Fleece. Medea falls in + love with Jason, and by the power of her enchantments preserves him + from the dangers he has to encounter in obtaining it. He obtains the + prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in triumph to Thessaly. + +And now the Minyæ[1] were ploughing the sea in the Pagasæan ship;[2] and +Phineus prolonging a needy old age under perpetual night, had been +visited, and the youthful sons of the North wind had driven the birds +with the faces of virgins from {before} the mouth of the distressed old +man;[3] and having suffered many things under the famous Jason, had +reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy Phasis. + +And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged to +Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of +mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of Æetes[4] conceives a +violent flame; and having long struggled {against it}, after she is +unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: “In vain, Medea, dost +thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a wonder +too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is called +‘love.’ For why do the commands of my father appear too rigid for me? +and yet too rigid they are. Why am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen +{but} so lately, should perish? What is the cause of alarm so great? +Banish the flames conceived in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy +{creature}. If I could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws +me on, against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another. +I see which is the more proper {course}, and I approve of it, {while} I +follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning for a +stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? This +land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether he +shall live, or whether die, is in {the disposal of} the Gods. Yet he may +survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what {fault} +has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not the +{youthful} age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? Whom, +though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? at +least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he will +be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with his +own {kindred} crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will be given +as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I will +confess that I was born of a tigress; then, {too}, that I carry steel +and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him perish? Why not, +too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not stimulate the bulls +against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and the never-sleeping +dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet these things are not +to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. Shall I {then} betray +the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall some stranger, I know not +who, be saved; that being delivered by my means, he may spread his sails +to the winds without me, and be the husband of another; and I, Medea, be +left for punishment? If he can do this, and if he is capable of +preferring another to me, let him perish in his ingratitude. But not +such is his countenance, not such that nobleness of soul, that +gracefulness of person, that I should fear treachery, and forgetfulness +of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will +oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou +dread, {thus} secure? Haste {then},[5] and banish {all} delay. Jason +will ever be indebted to thee for his preservation; thee will he unite +to himself in the rites of marriage, and throughout the Pelasgian +cities[6] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver +{of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my +sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native +soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my +brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my +favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be +relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the +credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better +country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the +politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of Æson, whom +I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole +world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to +the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know +not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves, +and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at +another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is +said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and +clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas; +embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my +husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage, +and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider +how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst, +fly from guilt.†+ +{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and +Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the +ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady +grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved, +and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of +Æson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with +blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont +to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay +concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and +aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now +declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she +beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her +eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of Æson was more beauteous +than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and keeps her +eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for the first +time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the face of a +mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger began to +speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance with a +humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears running +down, “I see what I ought to do; and it will not be ignorance of the +truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou shalt be saved; when +saved, grant what thou hast promised.†+ +He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the Deity +which is in that grove, and by the sire[13] of his future father-in-law, +who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by dangers so +great. Being believed {by her}, he immediately received some enchanted +herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went away rejoicing +to his abode. The next morning had {now} dispersed the twinkling stars, +{when} the people repaired to the sacred field of Mavors, and ranged +themselves on the hills. In the midst of the assembly sat the king +himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a sceptre of ivory. +Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames[14] from their +adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is on fire. And +as the forges filled {with fire} are wont to roar, or when flints[15] +dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat by the sprinkling +of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth the flames enclosed +within, and their scorched throats, resound. Yet the son of Æson goes +forth to meet them. The fierce {bulls} turn their terrible features, and +their horns pointed with iron, towards his face as he advances, and with +cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty ground, and fill the place with +lowings, that send forth clouds of smoke. The Minyæ are frozen with +horror. He comes up, and feels not the flames breathed forth by them, so +great is the power of the incantations. He even strokes their hanging +dewlaps with a bold right hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges +them to draw the heavy weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share +the plain {till now} unused to it.[16] + +The Colchians are astonished; the Minyæ fill {the air} with their +shouts, and give him {fresh} courage. Then in a brazen helmet he takes +the dragon’s teeth,[17] and strews them over the ploughed up fields. The +ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and +the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the +infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there +formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until +at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the +pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more +surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the +Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at +the head of the Hæmonian youth, they lowered their countenances and +their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had +rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked +by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear}, +sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had +been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary +charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy +stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from +himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual +wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress +the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too, +barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; ’twas modesty that +opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard +for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do, +{thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest +thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them. + +It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who, +distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his +hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled +him with herbs of Lethæan juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that +cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean, +{and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that +were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of Æson, gains the gold; and +proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a +second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of +Iolcos.[19] + + [Footnote 1: _The Minyæ._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyæ were a + people of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.] + + [Footnote 2: _Pagasæan ship._--Ver. 1. Pagasæ was a seaport of + Thessaly, at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was + built.] + + [Footnote 3: _Distressed old man._--Ver. 4. Clarke translates + ‘miseri senis ore,’ ‘from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.’] + + [Footnote 4: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter + of Æetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded + Venus to inspire Medea with love for him.] + + [Footnote 5: _Haste then._--Ver. 47. Clarke translates + ‘accingere,’ more literally than elegantly, ‘buckle to.’] + + [Footnote 6: _Pelasgian cities._--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly + that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The + province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its + name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of + Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names + of ‘Apia’ and ‘Pelasgia.’ Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived + their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers + assert that they were so called from πελαÏγοὶ, ‘storks,’ from + their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the + present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.] + + [Footnote 7: _My sister._--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who + had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children + being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to + Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards + commended him to the care of Medea.] + + [Footnote 8: _And my brother._--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus, + whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.] + + [Footnote 9: _Is barbarous._--Ver. 53. It was certainly ‘barbara’ + in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in + the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.] + + [Footnote 10: _The youth of Greece._--Ver. 56. These were the + Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of + Greece.] + + [Footnote 11: _What mountains._--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean + rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.] + + [Footnote 12: _Hecate._--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have + been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the + account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who, + according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of PhÅ“bus, and the + brother of Æetes. Marrying her uncle Æetes, she is said to have + been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she + is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with + the Moon, she has the epithets ‘Triceps’ and ‘Triformis,’ often + given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full, + sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.] + + [Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the + Sun, who was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined + father-in-law of Jason.] + + [Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the + God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus + says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (φάÏμακον) to rub over himself + and his armor.] + + [Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to + determine whether ‘silices’ here means ‘flint-stones,’ or + ‘lime-stone;’ probably the latter, from the mention of water + sprinkled over them. If the meaning is ‘flint-stones,’ the passage + may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making + which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.] + + [Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to + Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.] + + [Footnote 17: _Dragon’s teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of + the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva + had sent to Æetes.] + + [Footnote 18: _Lethæan juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the + infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and + forgetfulness.] + + [Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of + Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history + of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the + fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the + expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the + fabulous ages. + + Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of + Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to + divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He + afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus + and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two + sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele, + sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship + to be privately prepared; and taking his father’s treasures, sailed + with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his + kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis, + where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He + there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes, + Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be + assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather, + Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until + found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having + mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them, + and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to + Medea. Æetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of + Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to + avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother Æson from the + throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason, + took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised + both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The + uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an + oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of Æolus, + and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one + shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron, + lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was + desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced + him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an + undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece + repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when + they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of + which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of + Argonauts. + + Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness; + while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its + builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart, + however, supposes, that the name is derived from the PhÅ“nician word + ‘arco,’ which signifies ‘long,’ and suggests, that before that time + the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first + who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many + adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the + women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the + Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his + companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they + were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus, + its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit + of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of + hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces + of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as + far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris + appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further, + promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To + explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters + of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him + in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the + victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast + swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a + famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word ‘arbati,’ whence the term + ‘Harpy’ is derived, signifying ‘a grasshopper;’ and that the North + wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying, + that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not + mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts + at the court of Phineus. + + After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes, + or Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a + stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a + custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His + daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her + assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were + exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do + so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a + false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying + them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining + the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in + supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the + PhÅ“nician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks + invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls. + Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word ‘gaza,’ + signifies either ‘a treasure,’ or ‘a fleece.’ ‘Saur,’ which means ‘a + wall,’ also means ‘a bull;’ and in the same language the same word, + ‘nachas,’ signifies both ‘brass,’ ‘iron,’ and ‘a dragon.’ Hence, + instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea, + carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within walls, with bolts, + or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship + with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated + by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother, + sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that + its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of + Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend + with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the + story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named ‘Draco,’ or + ‘Dragon,’ and that the garrison of the stronghold of Æetes was brought + from the ‘Tauric’ Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the + skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he + had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object + so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused + them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The + dragon’s teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops + which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to + alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes + but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts. + + +FABLE II. [VII.159-349] + + Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father + Æson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias, + she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by + making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in + compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death. + Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot. + +The Hæmonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving +their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames, +and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not +among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the +years of old age; when thus the son of Æson {addresses Medea}: “O wife, +to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me +everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if +{thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not +effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to +{those of} my father.†+ +And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the +affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, Æetes, left behind, +recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess +any such feelings. “What a piece of wickedness, husband,†said she, “has +escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring +to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost +thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a +favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we +will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not +by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but +assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking.†Three nights +were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and +might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked +down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the +house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having +her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed +her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep +has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the +hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy +air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up +her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she +besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells +she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she +says, “O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden +Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, +three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms +and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the +enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, +rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of +night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run +back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I +calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds, +and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise +them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells; +I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own +{native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too, +to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from +their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the +Temesæan[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot +of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my +enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the +curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke. +You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among +themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece}, +that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent +the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by +means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of +life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will +give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in +vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons.†+ +A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had +mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had +shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked +down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the +chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the +lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater +than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she +cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that +grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks} +of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and +the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of +BÅ“be.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the EubÅ“an Anthedon,[28] +not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now +the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the +fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she +returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the +plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her +arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied +by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and +erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the +left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain +and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off, +she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black +ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon +goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk; +she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the +earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his +ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of +life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and +prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be +brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by +her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him. + +She orders the son of Æson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to +go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her +mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes +round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her +torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and +lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34] +purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with +sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving +in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with +swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian valleys, +and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the +most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has +washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the +moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its +flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change +its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there +wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37] +and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds +the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine +ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the +barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal +{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she +stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest. +Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first +becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly +loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth +from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the +earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up. + +Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a +drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his +veins} with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received in +his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their +hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his +paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with +additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is +astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten +years before. + +Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a +prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his +nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of Æetes.[42] + +And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited +quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of +Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters +receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to +herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the +greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of Æson have +been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is +suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art +their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and +repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is +silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense, +as they ask, with an affected gravity. + +Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, “That there may be the +greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your +sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this +preparation.†Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable +years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples; +whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian knife, and +stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the +limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow +copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, +and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a +low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering +at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and +seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after +her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still +more strongly. PhÅ“bus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking +in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were +twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a +blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, +their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together +with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting +tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had +entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded +the bed; “Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your +swords,†says she, “and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish +his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father +is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain +hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with +your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood.†+ +Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes +especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits +wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they +turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance +blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises +his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the +couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale +arms, he says, “What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against +the life of your parent?†Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As +he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with +his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron. + + [Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess + of enchantment.] + + [Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare + was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites, + though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present + instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought, + according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called + ‘nudipedalia,’ were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the + Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.] + + [Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and + the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently + considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes. + The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a + horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter, + a human head.] + + [Footnote 23: _Temesæan._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the + Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It + was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa, + a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.] + + [Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the + characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she + now alighted.] + + [Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius + and Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting + herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and + in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the + witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.] + + [Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were + rivers of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 27: _Shores of BÅ“be._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of + lake BÅ“beis, near the town of BÅ“be, in Thessaly. It was not far + from the mouth of the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of BÅ“otia, + opposite to EubÅ“a, being situated on the Euripus, now called the + straits of Negropont.] + + [Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was + changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is + related at the end of the 13th Book.] + + [Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine + seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.] + + [Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also + called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the + daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the + cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.] + + [Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. ‘Carchesia.’ The ‘carchesium’ + was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early + times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two + handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in + the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood, + wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the + Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.] + + [Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and + Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, ‘And prays + to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not + be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of + life.’] + + [Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders + this and the two following lines: ‘And purifies the old gentleman + three times with flame, three times with water, and three times + with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and + bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.’] + + [Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of + the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, ‘Make the hell-broth thick and + slab.’] + + [Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. ‘Strigis.’ The ‘strix’ + is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird + with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of + assuming that form. From the description given of the ‘striges’ in + the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the + qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.] + + [Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The ‘chelydrus’ was a + venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The + Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here + meant.] + + [Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to + live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.] + + [Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates + the words ‘quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis + jugulum,’ ‘which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the + old gentleman with a drawn sword.’] + + [Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some + writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color + to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of + the warm bath.] + + [Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii. + l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book + of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number + of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from + Pherecydes, calls them ‘Dodonides.’] + + [Footnote 42: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most + of the MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or ‘Thetide;’ but Burmann has + replaced it by Æetide, ‘the daughter of Æetes.’ It has been justly + remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of + the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld + Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of Æson?] + + [Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. ‘Neve doli cessent’ is + translated by Clarke, ‘and that her tricks might not cease.’] + + [Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and + had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.] + + [Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or + Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of + Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river + Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin + of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in + their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of + reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood. + It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of + being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the + virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson, + which furnished him with new spirits and strength. + + The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of + Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought + upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous + herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him. + + +FABLE III. [VII.350-401] + + Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to + Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the + daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the + princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two + children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight. + +And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would +not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady +Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over +Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47] +He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the +ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being +overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she +leaves the Æolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made +out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen +bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too, +where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and +the fields which Mæra[52] alarmed by her unusual barking. + +The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore +horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence}; +PhÅ“bean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58] +corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly +hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over +the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60] +was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of +his daughter. + +After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62] +which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there +Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce +lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; +and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, +{when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said, +“Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;†and {then} leaped from a +high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he +hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not +knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake +{called} after her own name. + +Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the +daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings. +After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona, +conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife, +into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was +{one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far +hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson, +changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68] +lamenting his son in the air. + +At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian +Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early +ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But +after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and +both seas beheld the king’s house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed +in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously +revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her +Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee, +most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying +together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed +wings. + + [Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of + Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph + Phillyra, lived there.] + + [Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting + from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the + foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs, + who changed him into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the + heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he + thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into + a bird.] + + [Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in + Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.] + + [Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most + probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or + serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.] + + [Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida, + in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of + Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some + Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to + screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus + with the garb of a hunter.] + + [Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the + father of Corythus, by Å’none. He was said to have been buried at + Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Mæra._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of + Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his + master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation, + under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea + was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet + refers to the transformation of some female, named Mæra, into a + dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius + expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to + the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line + 406; and that ‘Mæra’ is a corruption for some other name of + Hecuba.] + + [Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the + Isle of Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as + an augur.] + + [Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that + the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that + of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were + changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that + these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of + Ægeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno + transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is + made in the present passage.] + + [Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the + chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having + slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.] + + [Footnote 56: _PhÅ“bean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes, + in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to + the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.] + + [Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of + the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been + founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or + Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from + Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account + they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being + magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.] + + [Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed + by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but + to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was + turned.] + + [Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the + Ægean sea, near EubÅ“a. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of + which are still in existence.] + + [Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says, + that Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in + the Isle of Cea.] + + [Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of + Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her + son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.] + + [Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian + Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of + BÅ“otia.] + + [Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia, + near Mount Curius. It was far distant from BÅ“otia and Lake Hyrie. + Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be + Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of BÅ“otia.] + + [Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the + Curetes of Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount + Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who + discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from + that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters + to her husband.] + + [Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between + Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred + to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in + exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.] + + [Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he + committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his + daughter.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in + BÅ“otia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus, + and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here + referred to.] + + [Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on + the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged + chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while + his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He + is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be ‘natum,’ + and not ‘natam.’ Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter + was changed into a bird.] + + [Footnote 69: _Pirenian Ephyre._--Ver. 391. Corinth was so called + from Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was said to have lived + there. Its inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.] + + [Footnote 70: _Titanian dragons._--Ver. 398. Her dragons are so + called, either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the + blood of the Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition, + the chariot and winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun, + one of whose names was Titan.] + + [Footnote 71: _Phineus._--Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the + person here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest ‘Phini,’ + and that some female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making + the adjective ‘justissime’ of the feminine gender.] + + [Footnote 72: _Periphas._--Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of + Attica, before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been + changed into an eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed + into an osprey.] + + [Footnote 73: _Polypemon._--Ver. 401. This was a name of the + robber Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the + daughter of his son Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence, + was thrown into the sea by her father, on which she was changed + into a kingfisher, which bore her name.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to + his son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or + Creüsa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to + that place, left her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to + Creon’s palace, where he and his daughter were consumed to ashes, + after which she killed her own children. Euripides, in his tragedy of + Medea, makes a chorus of Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians + themselves committed the murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on + the city, as a punishment for the deed. Pausanias also says, that the + tomb of Medea’s children, whom the Corinthians stoned to death, was + still to be seen in his time; and that the Corinthians offered + sacrifices there every year, to appease their ghosts, as the oracle + had commanded them. + + Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that + Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible + nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn + so furiously, that the young princess perished in the greatest misery. + Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to give her + assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to + perform. Going thence to Athens, she married Ægeus. + + The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact, + that her ship was called ‘the Dragon.’ In recounting the particulars + of her flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the + most of which are entirely unknown to us. With regard to these + fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as affording a + key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any imminent + danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. If, to + avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said to be + transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from excess of + grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, if a + damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The + resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus, + Alopis was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a + crow; and Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories + here alluded to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be + remarked, that the account of the women of Cos being changed into + cows, is thought by some to have been founded on the cruel act of the + companions of Hercules, who sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the + country. The inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been + changed into rocks, because they perished in an inundation, which laid + a part of that island under water, and particularly the town of + Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it + to be said, that she was changed into a dove. The rage of Mæra is + shown by her transformation into a bitch; and Arne was changed into a + daw, because, having sold her country, her avarice was well depicted + under the symbol of that bird, which, according to the popular + opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the mother of the Centaur Chiron, + was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she + happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is + called φιλύÏα. + + +FABLE IV. [VII.402-468] + + Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the + Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at + Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king, + however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches + away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. Ægeus then + makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of + Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several + princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of + his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there. + +Ægeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality +is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage. +And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by +his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas. +For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought +with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the +teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark +entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the +Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes +sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains +formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with +triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields +with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the +nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of +being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock, +the rustics call it aconite.[75] + +This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father Ægeus himself presented +to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the +presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived +upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck +the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised +clouds by her enchantments. + +But the father, although he rejoices at his son’s being safe, astonished +that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape +from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with gifts; +and the axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns +bound with wreaths. No day is said {ever} to have shone upon the people +of Erectheus more famous than that--the senators and the common people +keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. “Thee, +greatest Theseus,†said they, “Marathon[78] admired for {shedding} the +blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon[79] in +safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means the +country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan[80] fall; {and} +the banks of the river Cephisus[81] saw the cruel Procrustes {fall by +thee}. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the death of Cercyon.[82] +Sinnis[83] fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who was able +to bend {huge} beams, and used to pull pine trees from aloft to the +earth, destined to scatter {human} bodies far and wide. The road to +Alcathoë,[84] the Lelegeïan city, is now open in safety, Scyron[85] +being laid low {in death}: {and} the earth denies a resting-place, the +water, {too}, denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber +scattered piecemeal; these, long tossed about, length of time is +reported to have hardened into rocks. To {these} rocks the name of +Scyron adheres. If we should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy +years, thy actions would exceed thy years {in number}. For thee, bravest +{hero}, we make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of +wine.†The palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the +prayers of those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout +the whole city. + +And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some anxiety +is {ever} interposing amid joyous circumstances), Ægeus does not have +his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos prepares for war; +who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in shipping, is still +strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, with retributive +arms, avenges the death of {his son} Androgeus. Yet, before the war, he +obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea with a swift fleet, in +which he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe[86] to +himself; and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of +Astypale by conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky +lands of Cimolus,[87] and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, and the level +Seriphos;[88] Paros, too, abounding in marble, and {the island} wherein +the treacherous Sithonian[89] betrayed the citadel, on receiving the +gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She was changed into +a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the jackdaw {namely}, +black-footed, and covered with black feathers. + + [Footnote 74: _A gloomy cave._--Ver. 409. This cavern was called + Acherusia. It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near + the city of Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance + of the Infernal Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged + from Tartarus by Hercules, through this cave, which circumstance + was supposed to account for the quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane, + that grew there.] + + [Footnote 75: _Call it aconite._--Ver. 419. From the Greek ακόνη, + ‘a whetstone.’] + + [Footnote 76: _Presented to his son._--Ver. 420. Medea was anxious + to secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus, + and was therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.] + + [Footnote 77: _Tokens of his race._--Ver. 423. Ægeus, leaving + Æthra at TrÅ“zen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore + a son, to rear him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed + his own sword and shoes under a large stone, and directed her to + send his son to him when he was able to lift the stone, and to + take them from under it; and he then returned to Athens, where he + married Medea. When Theseus had grown to the proper age, his + mother led him to the stone under which his father had deposited + his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and took them out. + It was, probably, by means of this sword that Ægeus recognized his + son in the manner mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 78: _Marathon._--Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica, + adjoining a plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the + command of Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense + slaughter. The bull which Theseus slew there was presented by + Neptune to Minos. Being brought into Attica by Hercules, it laid + waste that territory until it was slain by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 79: _Cromyon._--Ver. 435. This was a village of the + Corinthian territory, which was infested by a wild boar of + enormous size, that slew both men and animals. It was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Vulcan._--Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the + father of Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the + Peloponnesus. He was so formidable with his club, that he was + called Corynetas, from κοÏύνη, the Greek for ‘a club.’] + + [Footnote 81: _Cephisus._--Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of + such extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the + extremities of his captives, according as they were shorter or + longer than his bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis, + in Attica, which was watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 82: _Cercyon._--Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge + travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the + contest, or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and + having overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially + dedicated to Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that + Goddess were held.] + + [Footnote 83: _Sinnis._--Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to + whom reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.] + + [Footnote 84: _Alcathoë._--Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoë, which + was founded by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was + rebuilt by Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. He, flying from his + father, on being accused of the murder of his brother Chrysippus, + retired to the city of Megara, where, having slain a lion which + was then laying waste that territory, he was held in the highest + veneration by the inhabitants.] + + [Footnote 85: _Scyron._--Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks + in the neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who + became his guests washing his feet. This being done upon the + rocks, Scyron used to kick the strangers into the sea while so + occupied, where a tortoise lay ready to devour the bodies. Theseus + killed him, and threw his body down the same rocks, which derived + their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from this robber.] + + [Footnote 86: _Anaphe._--Ver. 461. This, and the other islands + here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those + times were subject to the sway of Minos.] + + [Footnote 87: _Cimolus._--Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that + this island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have + had much the properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color, + and was also employed for medicinal purposes.] + + [Footnote 88: _Seriphos._--Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to + know why Seriphos should here have the epithet ‘plana,’ ‘level,’ + inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt + reading.] + + [Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story + is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the + Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be + but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the + Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future + state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the + custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns + in which they kept their mummies. + + It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been + founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a + serpent which haunted the cavern of Tænarus, in Laconia, and ravaged + the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally + considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets + thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its + portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that + Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name + in the Greek language signified ‘one that devours flesh.’ The story + that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in + Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever + after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those + herbs were found in great quantities in that region. + + Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground + for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to + bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations; + which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these + women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their + magical operations. + + +FABLE V. [VII.469-613] + + Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been + refused by others, goes to the island of Ægina, where Æacus reigns, + to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without + success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from + Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of + the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in his country, + and of the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + +But Oliaros,[90] and Didyme, and Tenos,[91] and Andros,[92] and +Gyaros,[93] and Peparethos, fruitful in the smooth olive,[94] do not aid +the Gnossian ships. Then Minos makes for Å’nopia,[95] the kingdom of +Æacus, lying to the left. The ancients called it Å’nopia, but Æacus +himself called it Ægina, from the name of his mother. The multitude +rushes forth, and desires greatly to know a man of so great celebrity. +Both Telamon,[96] and Peleus, younger than Telamon, and Phocus, the +{king’s} third son, go to meet him. Æacus himself, too, {though} slow +through the infirmity of old age, goes forth, and asks him what is the +reason of his coming? The ruler of a hundred cities, being put in mind +of his fatherly sorrow {for his son}, sighs, and gives him this answer: +“I beg thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party +in a war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction.†To him +the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not +to be done by my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied +to the people of Cecropia. Such are {the terms of} our compact.†{Minos} +goes away in sadness, and says, “This compact of thine will cost thee a +dear price;†and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to +wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely. + +Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Å’nopian walls, +when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters +the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him} +the request of his native country. The youthful sons of Æacus recognize +Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and give their right +hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The graceful hero, +even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, enters; and, +holding a branch of his country’s olive, being the elder, he has on his +right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and Butes, the sons +of Pallas.[98] After their first meeting has had words suitable +{thereto}, Cephalus relates the request of the people of Cecrops, and +begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and alliances of their +forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the whole of Achaia is +aimed at. After the eloquence {of Cephalus} has thus promoted the cause +entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his +sceptre, says-- + +“Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond +doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let +all the forces of my kingdom go {along with thee}. Strength is not +wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for {opposing} +the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous time, and one that +can excuse no refusal of mine.†“Yes, {and} be it so,†says +Cephalus:[99] “and I pray that thy power may increase along with thy +citizens. Indeed, as I came along just now, I received {much} pleasure, +when a number of youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came +forward to meet me. Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw +when I was formerly entertained in this city.†Æacus heaves a sigh, and +thus he says, with mournful voice: “A better fortune will be following a +lamentable beginning; I {only} wish I could relate this to you. I will +now tell it you without any order, that I may not be detaining you by +any long preamble.[100] They are {now} lying as bones and ashes, for +whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And how great a part were +they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my +people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country +named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the +baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the +resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now} +lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick +darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the +Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four +times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were +blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the +infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of +serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting +the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was +first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and +oxen, and among the wild beasts. The unfortunate ploughman wonders that +strong oxen fall down at their work, and lie stretched in the middle of +the furrow. {And} while the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings, +both their wool falls off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The +horse, once of high mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates +for the {purposes of} victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he +groans at the manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The +boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor +the bears to rush upon the powerful herds. + +“A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and +in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with +the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the +ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they +rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the +contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence +reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the +extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness, +and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The +tongue, {grown} rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its +throbbing veins; the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. {The +infected} cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their +hardened breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by +the ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no +physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who +administer remedies; and {their own} arts become an injury to their +owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he +attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the +fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the +end of their malady {only} in death, they indulge their humors, and +there is no concern as to what is to their advantage; for, {indeed}, +nothing is to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished, +they lie {promiscuously} close to the fountains and rivers, and deep +wells; and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their +life {is}. Many, overpowered {with the disease}, are unable to arise +thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks that +{water}. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched {creatures} +of their hated beds, {that} they leap out, or, if their strength forbids +them standing, they roll their bodies upon the ground, and every man +flies from his own dwelling; each one’s house seems fatal to him: and +since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the place that is known is +blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, as +long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on the +ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They +stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens, +breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken +them. + +“What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to +hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever +side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the +earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and +acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple, +opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his +own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did +the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or} +the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing? +in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How +often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was +making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns, +fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering +sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the +victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any +blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the +diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings +of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen +the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very +altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}. +Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the +apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The +bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according +to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of} +the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are +laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no +distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on +fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the +souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about +unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for +the fires.†+ + [Footnote 90: _Oliaros._--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades, + in the Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.] + + [Footnote 91: _Tenos._--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a + temple there, sacred to Neptune.] + + [Footnote 92: _Andros._--Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean + Sea, near EubÅ“a. It received its name from Andros, the son of + Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the + comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.] + + [Footnote 93: _Gyaros._--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among + the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal + settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said + to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by + reason of its unfruitfulness.] + + [Footnote 94: _Smooth olive._--Ver. 470. Clarke translates ‘nitidæ + olivæ’ ‘the neat olive.’ ‘Nitidus’ here means ‘smooth and + shining.’] + + [Footnote 95: _Å’nopia._--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of + the isle of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native + place of the family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from + Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom + Jupiter carried thither.] + + [Footnote 96: _Telamon._--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, + were the three sons of Æacus.] + + [Footnote 97: _Lyctian._--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of + the cities of Crete.] + + [Footnote 98: _Pallas._--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son + of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus. + This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by + Theseus.] + + [Footnote 99: _Cephalus._--Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus, + or according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter + of Cecrops.] + + [Footnote 100: _Long preamble._--Ver. 520. Clarke translates ‘neu + longâ ambage morer vos,’ ‘that I may not detain you with a + long-winded detail of it.’] + + [Footnote 101: _Country named._--Ver. 524. This was the island of + Ægina, so called from the Nymph who was carried thither by + Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 102: _Bowels are scorched._--Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly + renders the words ‘viscera torrentur primo.’ ‘first people’s + bowels are searched;’ perhaps, however, the latter word is a + misprint for ‘scorched.’] + + [Footnote 103: _Thou seest._--Ver. 587. As Æacus says this, he + must be supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.] + + [Footnote 104: _More odious._--Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed + to be particularly offensive to the Gods.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his + accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made + several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned, + and, at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet + is particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus + Siculus. + + The Feast of the Panathenæa being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his + son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was + sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby + acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the + friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of Ægeus. This + circumstance caused Ægeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more + especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him. + Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes, + he caused him to be assassinated near Å’noë, a town on the confines of + Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of + Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is + very possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view + of screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and + unjust. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that Ægeus + himself caused Androgeus to be murdered. + + On hearing the news of his son’s death, Minos resolved on revenge. He + ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several + courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him; + and this, with the history of the plague at Ægina, forms the subject + of the present narrative. + + +FABLE VI. [VII.614-660] + + Jupiter, at the prayer of his son Æacus, transforms the ants that are + in the hollow of an old oak into men; these, from the Greek name of + those insects, are called Myrmidons. + +“Stupefied by so great an outburst of misery, I said, ‘O Jupiter! if +stories do not falsely say that thou didst come into the embraces of +Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and thou art not ashamed, great Father, +to be the parent of myself; either restore my people to me, or else bury +me, as well, in the sepulchre.’ He gave a signal by lightnings, and by +propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, ‘I pray that +these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest +me, I accept as a pledge.’ By chance there was close by, an oak sacred +to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with +wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn, +in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and +keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their +numbers, I said, ‘Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as +many in number, and replenish my empty walls.’ The lofty oak trembled, +and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs +quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave +kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any +hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind. +Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my +eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches, +and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar +motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields +below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised +themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and +laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and +their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape. + +“Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained +that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace +there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men, +to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that +these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and, +opening the door, said, ‘Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes +or expectations. Do come out.’ I did go out, and I beheld and recognized +such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of +my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up +vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former +tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106] +and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast +beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they +formerly had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of +what they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and +in courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which +brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him), +shall have changed to the South.†+ + [Footnote 105: _From Dodona._--Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of + Chaonia, in Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter + and Europa. Near it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter, + which was famous for the number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves + were said to give oracular responses there, probably from the + circumstance that the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called + πελειαδαι. Some writers, however, say that the oaks had the gift + of speech, combined with that of prophesying.] + + [Footnote 106: _Myrmidons._--Ver. 654. From the Greek word μύÏμηξ, + ‘an ant;’ according to this version of the story.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of the + subjects of Æacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when + the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted, + and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is + probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the + young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance + would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of + Æacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a + barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in + caves, and who were brought thence by Æacus to people his island, + which had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their + name to the Greek word μύÏμηξ, signifying ‘an ant,’ most probably + gave occasion to the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men. + + +FABLE VII. [VII.661-793] + + Cephalus, having resisted the advances of Aurora, who has become + enamoured of him while hunting, returns in disguise to his wife, + Procris, to try if her affection for him is sincere. She, discovering + his suspicions, flies to the woods, and becomes a huntress, with the + determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on becoming reconciled + to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which Diana had once + given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a wild beast, + which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, after the + interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Å’dipus. + +In these and other narratives they passed the day. The last part of the +day was spent in feasting, and the night in sleep. The golden Sun had +{now} shed his beams, {when} the East wind was still blowing, and +detained the sails about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to +Cephalus, who was stricken in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas, +together {with him}, {come} to the king; but a sound sleep still +possessed the monarch. Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the +threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war. +Phocus conducted the citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a +handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that +the grandson of Æolus[107] was holding in his hand a javelin made of an +unknown wood, the point of which was of gold. + +Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, he said, +“I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; still, from +what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, is cut, +I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were of wild ash, +it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would be knots in +it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not looked upon a +weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this.†One of the +Athenian brothers replied, and said, “In it, thou wilt admire its +utility, {even} more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it +strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained +with blood, no one returning it.†Then, indeed, does the Nereian +youth[108] inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and whence +{it came}? who was the author of a present of so great value? What he +asks, {Cephalus} tells him; but as to what he is ashamed to tell, {and} +on what condition he received it, he is silent; and, being touched with +sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus speaks, with tears bursting +forth: “Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who could have believed it?) +makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if the Fates shall grant me +long to live. ’Twas this that proved the destruction of me and of my +dear wife. Would that I had ever been without this present! Procris was +(if perchance {the fame of} Orithyïa[109] may have more probably reached +thy ears) the sister of Orithyïa, the victim of violence. If you should +choose to compare the face and the manners of the two, she was the more +worthy to be carried off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love, +{too}, united her to me. I was pronounced happy, and {so} I was. Not +thus did it seem {good} to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be +{so}. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, when +the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, beheld +me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from the highest summit +of the ever-blooming Hymettus,[110] and carried me off against my will. +By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; though she +is comely with her rosy face, {and} though she possesses the confines of +light, and possesses {the confines} of darkness, though she is nourished +with the draughts of nectar, {still} I loved Procris; Procris was {ever} +in my thoughts, Procris was ever on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties +of marriage, our late embraces, and our recent union, and the prior +engagements of my forsaken bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said, +‘Cease thy complaints, ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind +is gifted with foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;’†+and {thus}, in anger, she sent me back to her. + +“While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess +within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly +observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be +apprehensive of her infidelity; {yet} her virtue forbade me to believe +it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom I was {just} +returning, was an example of {such} criminality: but we that are in +love, apprehend all {mishaps}. I {then} endeavored to discover that, by +reason of which I must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts[111] +upon her chaste constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and +changed my shape, {as} I seemed {then} to perceive. I entered Athens, +the city of Pallas, unknown {to any one}, and I went into my own house. +The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity, +and was in concern for the carrying off of its master. + +“Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by +means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, and +was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with +difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty +from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no +one could be more beautiful than she, {even} in her sadness; and she was +consuming with regret for her husband, torn from her. {Only} think, +Phocus, how great was the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much +become. Why should I tell how often her chaste manners repulsed {all} my +attempts? How often she said, ‘I am reserved for {but} one, wherever he +is; for that one do I reserve my joys.’ For whom, in his senses, would +not that trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? {Yet} I was +not content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give +vast sums for {but one} night, and forced her at last to waver, by +increasing the reward. {On this} I cried out, ‘Lo! I, the gallant in +disguise, to my sorrow, {and} lavish in promises, to my misery, am thy +real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, {and} I the +witness.’ She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with silent shame, she +fled from the house of treachery, together with her wicked husband; and +from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole race of men, she +used to wander[112] on the mountains, employed in the pursuits of Diana. +Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my bones, thus deserted. +I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in fault; and that I too might +have yielded to a similar fault, on presents being made; if presents so +large had been offered. Upon my confessing this, having first revenged +her offended modesty, she was restored to me, and passed the pleasant +years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as though in herself she +had given me but a small present, a dog as a gift, which when her own +Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, ‘He will excel all dogs in +running.’ She gave her, too, a javelin, which, as thou seest, I am +carrying in my hand. + +“Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other present--hear +{then}. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty of the wondrous fact. The +son of Laius[113] had solved the verses not understood by the wit of +others before him; and the mysterious propounder lay precipitated, +forgetful of her riddle. But the genial Themis,[114] forsooth, did not +leave such things unrevenged. Immediately another plague was sent forth +against Aonian Thebes; and many of the peasants fed the savage monster, +both by the destruction of their cattle, and their own as well. We, the +neighboring youth, came together, and enclosed the extensive fields with +toils. With a light bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the +topmost barriers of the toils that were set. The couples were taken off +the dogs, from which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no +otherwise than as a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with +eager demands, for my {dog} Lælaps [{Tempest}]; that was the name of {my +wife’s} present. For some time already had he been struggling to get +free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained +him. Scarce was he well let loose; and {yet} we could not now tell where +he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, {but} he himself was +snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter than he {did}, nor +pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the light arrow from the +Gortynian bow.[115] The top of a hill, {standing} in the middle, looks +down upon the plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an +unusual chase; wherein the wild beast[116] one while seemed to be +caught, at another to elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a +direct course, and straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he +pursues it, and returns in circles, that its enemy may not have his full +career against it. He keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for +him; and {though} like as if he has caught it, {still} he fails to catch +it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was {now} turning to the resources of +my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, {and} while I was +attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs {of it}, I turned away my +eyes; and again I had directed them, recalled to the same spot, when, +{most} wondrous, I beheld two marble statues in the middle of the plain; +you would think the one was flying, the other barking {in pursuit}. Some +God undoubtedly, if any God {really} did attend to them, desired them +both to remain unconquered in this contest of speed.†+ + [Footnote 107: _Æolus._--Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus, + the parent of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.] + + [Footnote 108: _Nereian youth._--Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son + of Æacus, by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.] + + [Footnote 109: _Orithyïa._--Ver. 695. She was the daughter of + Erectheus, king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as + already stated.] + + [Footnote 110: _Hymettus._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + Attica, famous for its honey and its marble.] + + [Footnote 111: _To make attempts._--Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us + that she was found by her husband in company with a young man + named Pteleon, who had made her a present of a golden wreath. + Antoninus Liberalis says, that her husband tried her fidelity by + offering her a bribe, through the medium of a slave.] + + [Footnote 112: _Used to wander._--Ver. 746. Some writers say that + she fled to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the + attachment of Aurora for her husband, made her a present of a + javelin, which no person could escape; and gave her the dog + Lælaps, which no wild beast could outrun. Such is the version + given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus Liberalis say, + that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, made her + a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting + herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him + proofs of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to + give them to him, she exacted, as a condition, what must, + apparently, have resulted in a breach of the laws of conjugal + fidelity. On his assenting to the proposal, she discovered + herself, and afterwards made him the presents which he desired.] + + [Footnote 113: _The son of Laius._--Ver. 759. Å’dipus was the son + of Laius, king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring + of Typhon and Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Å’dipus + solved the riddle which it proposed for solution, on which the + monster precipitated itself from a rock. It had the face of a + woman, the wings of a bird, and the extremities of a lion.] + + [Footnote 114: _Genial Themis._--Ver. 762. Themis had a very + ancient oracle in BÅ“otia.] + + [Footnote 115: _Gortynian bow._--Ver. 778. Crete was called + Gortynian, from Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was + famous for the skill of its inhabitants in archery.] + + [Footnote 116: _The wild beast._--Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis + and Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called ‘the + Teumesian,’ from Teumesus, a mountain of BÅ“otia, and that the + Thebans, to appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to + devour every month. Palæphatus says that it was not a wild beast, + but a man called Alopis.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of + Mercury and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of + Deïoneus, king of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The + first was carried off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria; + the second married Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens. + Though Apollodorus seems, in the first instance, to follow this + genealogy, in his third book he confounds the actions of those two + princes. Ovid and other writers have spoken only of the son of + Deïoneus, who was carried off by Aurora, and having left her, + according to them, returned to Procris. + + +FABLE VIII. [VII.794-865] + + Procris, jealous of Cephalus, in her turn, goes to the forest, which + she supposes to be the scene of his infidelity, to surprise him. + Hearing the rustling noise which she makes in the thicket, where she + lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild beast, and, hurling the + javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he kills her. + +Thus far {did he speak}; and {then} he was silent. “But,†said Phocus, +“what fault is there in that javelin?†{whereupon} he thus informed him +of the demerits of the javelin. “Let my joys, Phocus, be the first +portion of my sorrowful story. These will I first relate. O son of +Æacus, I delight to remember the happy time, during which, for the first +years {after my marriage}, I was completely blessed in my wife, {and} +she was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love +possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter +before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me, +not {even} if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the breasts {of +us both}. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains with his early +rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor into the woods, to +hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my horses, nor my +quick-scented hounds to go {with me}, nor the knotty nets to attend me; +I was safe with my javelin. But when my right hand was satiated with the +slaughter of wild beasts, I betook myself to the cool spots and the +shade, and the breeze which was breathing forth from the cool valleys. +The gentle breeze was sought by me, in the midst of the heat. For the +breeze was I awaiting; that was a refreshment after my toils: ‘Come, +breeze,’ I was wont to sing, for I remember it {full well}, ‘and, most +grateful, refresh me, and enter my breast; and, as thou art wont, be +willing to assuage the heat with which I am parched.’ Perhaps I may have +added ({for} so my destiny prompted me) many words of endearment, and I +may have been accustomed to say, ‘Thou art my great delight; thou dost +refresh and cherish me; thou makest me to love the woods and lonely +haunts, and thy breath is ever courted by my face.’ I was not aware that +some one was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and +thinking the name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that +of a Nymph, he believed some Nymph was beloved by me. + +“The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris, +and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a +credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with +sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she +was wretched, and {born} to a cruel destiny; and she complained about my +constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,[117] she dreads that which, +{indeed}, is nothing; {and} fears a name without a body; and, in her +wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. Yet she is often in +doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she may be deceived, and +denies credit to the information; and unless she beholds it herself, +will not pass sentence upon the criminality of her husband. The +following light of the morning had banished the night, when I sallied +forth, and sought the woods; and being victorious in the fields, I said, +‘Come, breeze, and relieve my pain;’ and suddenly I seemed to hear I +know not what groans in the midst of my words; yet I said, ‘Come hither, +most delightful {breeze}.’ Again, the falling leaves making a gentle +noise, I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon. +It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she +cried out, ‘Ah, wretched me!’ When the voice of my attached wife was +heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards {that} voice. I found her +dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, and drawing her +own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; I lifted up her +body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, and I bound up her +cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; and I endeavored to +stanch the blood, and besought her that she would not forsake me, {thus} +criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now expiring, forced +herself to utter these few words: + +“‘I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the +Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of +thee, by that {as well}, and by the cause of my death, my love even now +enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}] +to share with thee my marriage ties.’ She {thus} spoke; and then, at +last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But +what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies, +together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she +gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy +life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented +look.†+ +In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and, +lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied; +which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms. + + [Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may + intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus + from the similarity of the name ‘Aura’ to that of her former + rival, Aurora.] + + [Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the + prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the + mouth.] + + [Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and + Peleus, who had levied these troops.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The love which Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, bore for the chase, + causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his + sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife, + Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon, + and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert + attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife’s + infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete, + who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of + Pasiphaë, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among + others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to + Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled + to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by + Ovid. + + The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by + him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands + of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which + ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which + some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea + robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some Cretan officer of Minos, + who escorted Procris back to her country, on their vessels being + shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the story that the + dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, Tzetzes says + distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, or fox, + Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought Procris + back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some share in + causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus condemned + Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, which + received its name from him, having been given to him by Amphitryon, he + retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded him. + + + + +The Hamilton, Locke and Clark + +SERIES OF + +Interlinear Translations + +Have long been the Standard and are now the _Best Translated_ and _Most +Complete_ Series of Interlinears published. + +=12mo., well bound in Half Leather.= + +=Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address.= + +_Latin Interlinear Translations:_ + + VIRGIL--By Hart and Osborne. + CÆSAR--By Hamilton and Clark. + HORACE--By Stirling, Nuttall and Clark. + CICERO--By Hamilton and Clark. + SALLUST--By Hamilton and Clark. + OVID--By George W. Heilig. + JUVENAL--By Hamilton and Clark. + LIVY--By Hamilton and Clark. + CORNELIUS NEPOS--By Hamilton and Underwood. + +_Greek Interlinear Translations:_ + + HOMER’S ILIAD--By Thomas Clark. + XENOPHON’S ANABASIS--By Hamilton and Clark. + GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN--By George W. Heilig. + +=S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:= + +“There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, +of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student +to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will +tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars +as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with +the Interlinear Classics.†+ +=DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia,= + +Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons. + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Transcriber’s Note on the Text: + +Ovid’s _Metamorphoses_, translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-1878, +B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as part of +Bohn’s Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, uses +material from two reprints: + +George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition is described on +its title page as “reprinted from the stereotype platesâ€. These may have +been the original 1851 plates, since the entire _Classical Library_ had +been sold by Bohn to Bell & Daldy, later George Bell. + +David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by +Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is +absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the +Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors. + +The McKay edition was the “base†of the e-text. The scanned, proofread +text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell edition, and +differences were in turn checked against page images of the printed +books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or more +versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay uses +American spelling such as “honor†for “honourâ€, and compound forms such +as “northwest†for “north-westâ€; punctuation is often changed, though +some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing and +reproduction. Non-trivial differences are listed in the Errata, below. + +Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as +“Henry T. Riley, B.A.â€, while the McKay edition has “M.A.†The sequence +of dates-- original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint 1893-- +supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict facsimile. + + * * * * * + * * * * + +_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_ + +Errors are grouped thematically: + significant errors and inconsistencies; + variant spellings, including name forms; + Greek; + punctuation; + line and footnote numbering. +Abbreviations in the form “II.XIV Exp†mean “Book II, Fable XIV, +Explanation†(appended to most Fables); “Syn†means Synopsis (prefaced +to each Fable). + + +_Shared errors and irregularities (present in both McKay and Bell +editions), with original text in brackets []_ + +I.XII: the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks + _read as “spread her careless locks behind herâ€_ + _in McKay, “her her†is printed at a line break and can easily be + mistaken for an error_ +I.XII Footnote 82, Pope quotation + _McKay reads “trembling dove†and “reached herâ€; other + modernizations in spelling are shared by both editions_ +I.V: the dreadful carcasses + _anomalous spelling: both editions normally use “carcase(s)â€_ +II.I _and_ Footnote 16: Hæmus [HÅ“mus] +II.I Exp: Herse, the daughter of Cecrops (Hersa) +II.III Footnote 57: 2 Kings, xx. 11 [xx. 7] +II.XIV Exp: which Hesychius calls ... [Hesychus] +III.IV Footnote 62: ... Æneid (l. 620) [l. 260] +IV.I Footnote 3: Alcathoë, Leucippe, and Aristippe + _text unchanged; may be error for “Alcithoëâ€_ +IV.II Footnote 39: ‘Virgo victa nitore Dei.’ [uitore] +V.V Footnote 60: The zone, or girdle ... was much worn + _Bell has “was much wore“; McKay has “were much wornâ€_ +V.VI Footnote 75: adjoining to the Elean territory [Eleon] +VI.I: the sley separates the warp + _this technical term is missing from many dictionaries_ +VI.III Footnote 47: ‘brekekekekex koäx koäx.’ + _text unchanged (one syllable too many)_ +VII.IV Footnote 89: the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270 + _final paragraph of the Explanation of Fable VII.III_ +VII.V Footnote 92: The Andrian slave, who gives his name [its name] + + +_Errors or variations introduced by McKay, with original text in +brackets []. Unless otherwise noted, the Bell version was treated as +the correct form. Italics in the translation (here shown in braces {}) +are considered non-trivial because they indicate text added by the +translator, not present in the Latin original._ + +I.II Footnote 19: she was supposed to have her habitation + [habitations] +I.II Footnote 22: Ver. 64. [34] +I.III Exp: the ground became unfruitful [become] +--: as they really happened [happen] +I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum] + _intended text may have been “Dii majorumâ€_ +I.VIII Exp: ... that the sea joined its waters + [... the sea joined in its waters] +--: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition] +I.IX: {to endure} these sorrows [to {endure}] +I.X Exp: where he built a temple to Jupiter [when] +I.XII Footnotes 83, 84: Clarke [Clark] +I.XII: Thou, the same, shalt stand [shall] +I.XIII Footnote 92: mount Æta [Ætna] + _the reference is to the Greek mountain now spelled “Etaâ€_ +I.XIII Footnote 96: Pliny the Elder (Book iii. ch. 23) + ... Aous [Aeus] + _editions of Pliny vary; the cited passage may also be found as + iii.58 or iii.145_ +I.XIII: the wild beasts alone [beast] +I.XVI Exp: Argus was the son of Arestor [Argos] +I.XVII: Thou ... believest thy mother in all things [believes] +I.XVII Footnote 115: He was king of Ethiopia [Ethiopa] + +II.I: Ignorant what to do, he is stupefied + _McKay reads “stupei/fied†at page break_ + _Bell has “stupified†here, “stupefied†elsewhere_ +II.I Footnote 13: Thessaly [Thessalis] +II.I Footnote 18: This was a mountain [A mountain] +II.I Footnote 24: _Cithæron._ [CithÅ“ron] +II.I Footnote 41: Cape Matapan [Metapan] +II.I Exp: the Greek form of it [from] +II.II: a long tract through the air [track] + _Latin: longo ... tractu_ +II.VII: Larissæan[69] Coronis [Larissæn] +II.IX: the womb of his mother [the wound] +II.XI: The son of Atlas laughed [sun] +II.XIII Syn: her sister’s apartment [apartments] + _both editions consistently use “apartmentâ€_ +II.XIV: which thou seest [seeest] + _this spelling is normal in Bell, but McKay uses “seest†elsewhere_ +II.XIV Exp: Palæphatus and Tzetzes suggest [suggests] + +III.I Footnote 1: ‘Thebe,’ which signified ‘an ox.’ [signifies] +III.II: the victorious enemy of immense size [in immense size] +III.II Exp: sows the teeth [their] +III.III Footnote 24: _Phyale._ [Phyule] +III.III: Now thou mayst tell [mayest] +III.III Footnote 39: _PÅ“menis._ [Parmenis] +III.III: Leucon,[46] with snow-white hair [Luecon] +--: her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] [Harpaulus] +--: Lachne,[54] with a wire-haired body [white-haired] + _Bell text was substituted, but Latin simply has “hirsutaâ€_ +--: and Hylactor,[57] [Hylector] +III.III, Footnote 56: Ver. 224. [254] +III.V: become a woman from a man [became] + _participle: “having becomeâ€_ +III.VI: with the nearer flame did she burn + _word “did†illegible_ +III.VII: grief is taking away [has taken] + _reading “has taken†would require a metrically impossible Latin + “adÄ“mit†for “adÄmitâ€_ +III.VIII, Footnote 89: placed in the number of the Constellations + [the number of Constellations] +III.VIII: ‘Lo! we are here,’ says Opheltes, my chief mate [Ophletes] +--: this Alcimedon approved of [Alcemedon] +--: now confessing that he has offended [had offended] +III.VIII Exp: ... tore him in pieces. Pausanias, however ... + [to pieces, Pausanius] +--: The story ... is supposed by Bochart [Bochârt] + +IV.I Footnote 1: ... Pausanias says that the BÅ“otians + [Pausanius] +IV.I Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._ [Phyoneus] +IV.I: the grass wet with rime [went] +--: they determine, in the silent night [determined] +--: The arrangement suits them [arrangements] +--: the most unhappy cause and companion [anhappy] +IV.I Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._ + _footnote marker missing_ +IV.II Syn: the intrigue between Mars and Venus [betwen] +IV.II: nor {yet} Clytie [not] +IV.II Footnote 37: Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus [Danae, Persus] +IV.II: with her twirling spindle [with twirling spindle] +IV.V Footnote 48: (laborabat) ... ‘auxiliares.’ + [(laborat) ... ‘auxiliaries.’] +IV.VII: And what madness can do [what madness man can do] + _“madness†is the grammatical subject: “quidque furor valeatâ€_ +IV.VII Footnote 57: These were the Furies [furies] +IV.VII Footnote 63: Tisiphone importuna [importune] +IV.VII Exp: by whom he had Helle and Phryxus [Phrysus] +IV.VIII Exp: Bochart says [Bochard] + _last letter of “Bochart†illegible in Bell_ +IV.X: Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her [So soon as] + _Bell wording adopted for consistency_ +--: When he has lighted {on the ground} + _“on the ground†not italicized_ +IV.X Footnote 84: præpetes [præptes] +IV.X: on the silent plain [on the salient plain] + _“salient†is clearly wrong, but “silent plain†is also an odd + translation of “vacuo ... arvoâ€_ +IV.X Exp: more common than it had been before [more common that] + +V.I: both by his merits and his words [its merits] +V.I Footnote 7: _Syene._ ... (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79) + _text reads “Book i. Ep. i. 79â€; in the Bell printing the letter + “l†is damaged and could be misread as “iâ€_ +V.I: thou, both her uncle and her betrothed [though, both] +V.I Footnote 8: a swingeing bowl [swinging] +V.I: the middle of the neck {of Pettalus} [Pattalus] +V.II Footnote 32: Ver. 302. [303] +V.III Footnote 43: pressed down by LilybÅ“um [Lilybæum] +V.IV: both her mother and her companions,[48] [and companions] +V.IV Footnote 50: _The Palici._ [Palaci] +V.IV Footnote 51: Dionysus [Dionysius] + _the names “Bacchius†and “Bacchus†in the same footnote are each + correct as printed_ +V.IV Footnote 57: Cinnus [Cinus] +V.IV Footnote 61: tunc denique raptam Scisset [raptum] + _Bell also has “tum†for “tuncâ€; both words are valid_ +V.IV Exp: the Isis of the Egyptians [the Isis of Egyptians] +--: the following circumstance: [circumstances:] +V.V Syn: Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search [the fruitless] +--: The Sirens have wings [rings] +V.V: it is {a mark of} affection [a {mark of}] +V.V: Footnote 67: The Greek name of a lizard being ἀσκάλαβος + [a lizard ἀσκάλαβος] +V.VI: Erymanthus and Elis [Eyramanthus] +--: Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Arethusa! + _text reads “Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Ar-/thusa!†at line break_ +V.VI Exp: the oracle of Delphi [at Delphi] +V.VII: entrusted {to him} [to {him}] +V.VII Exp: which signified either ‘a winged dragon,’ or ‘a ship fastened + with iron nails or bolts.’ [signifies ... nails and bolts] +--: explainer of the mysteries of Eleusis [Eleusi] + +VI.I Footnote 3: the purple [purples] +VI.I Exp: unless we should prefer [he] +--: St. Augustine [Augustin] +--: calling their attention to agricultural pursuits [agricultual] +--: had himself taken the figure + _text has “the // the†at page break_ +--: numerous in the interior of Africa [is the] +VI.II: what {I wish} may fall upon herself [what I {wish}] +--: their wonted exercise {of riding} [of {riding}] +VI.III: her suckling breasts [sucking] +VI.IV: after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his + breast [shoulders] + _The Latin reads “... umeroque suas a pectore [or: ad pectora] + postquam / deduxit [or: diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse sinistroâ€. It + is possible to construct a Latin variation that would translate as + “from his shouldersâ€, but editorial or typographic error is a much + likelier explanation._ +VI.IV Exp: Livy and Quintus Curtius [Quintius] +--: Marsyas may have been rash enough [Maryas] +VI.V: beyond what is becoming [his] +VI.VI: forced {from her} [{from} her] +--: from excess of affection [from the excess] +VI.VII Footnote 73: and in the Art of Love [and the Art ...] + +VII.I: {is wont} to increase [is {wont}] +VII.II: a counterfeited quarrel [counterfeit] +--: the guards together with their king [with the king] + _Latin “rege suoâ€_ +--: they turn away their eyes [they, turning away their eyes] + _Latin “oculosque reflectuntâ€_ +VII.III Footnote 62: ... This was not Thessalian Tempe + _“w†in “was†invisible_ +VII.III Footnote 69: who was said to have lived there + [who was to have] +VII.III Exp: the young princess perished in the greatest misery + _text has “in / in†at line break_ +--: the account of the women of Cos being changed [accounts] +VII.IV Footnote 75: dragged from Tartarus by Hercules [Herculea] +VII.IV Footnote 86: Anaphe [Anophe] +VII.V Syn: the island of Ægina [islands] +VII.V: the grandson of Asopus says, “Thou askest in vain [asketh] +--: the souls of sons, and of husbands [the souls of the sons] +VII.VI Exp: gave occasion to the report [of the report] +VII.VII Syn: discovering his suspicions [suspicion] +VII.VII: {standing} in the middle [{standiny}] +VII.VIII Exp: as Apollodorus tells us [tell] + + +_Corrections made by McKay, with Bell/Bohn text shown in brackets_ + +III.VI Exp: phenomenon (_two occurrences_) + _Bell spells “phÅ“nomenon†(error for “phænomenonâ€)_ +IV.IV Exp: beloved by Smilax [Simlax] +IV.V heading: + _Bell misprints “Fable IVâ€_ +IV.VII Exp: Learchus and Melicerta [Melacerta] +V.I Footnote 17: _Now deceived._ [How deceived] + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VI.II Exp: Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie [Clyte] +VI.VI Exp: the ancients thereby portrayed [pourtrayed] +VI.VII Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VII.II Footnote 40: _And his hair._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ + + +_Variations_ + +The readings listed here are “wrong†in the sense that they are +different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they are +acceptable translations of the Latin. The Bell text is shown in +brackets. + +III.II: The Earth, too, scraped with the scales [his scales] +--: nor engage thyself in civil war [a civil war] +--: the youths ... beat with throbbing breast [breasts] +III.III: to bathe her virgin limbs in clear water [the clear water] +III.VIII: in vain try to restrain him [strive] +--: I made observations with my eyes [observation] +IV.I: the Sun, with its rays [his rays] +IV.VII: foam formed in the hollowed deep [hallowed] + _The Latin has at least three variant readings: “in medio ... + profundoâ€, “immenso ... profundo†and “dÄ«o profundoâ€. Riley’s + translation must have been based on the “dio†reading._ +IV.X: the name both of her country and herself + [... of the country and of herself] +V.IV: grasp {in your hand} [{in your hands}] + _the Latin has only the verb “prendere†(grasp)_ +V.VI: thy darts enclosed in a quiver [the quiver] +VI.III: oft to sit on the bank of the pool [often] +VI.V: delay will be tedious to me, and [to me. And] +VI.VI: she prepared for a horrible deed [horrid] +VII.II: to go far thence [afar] + + +_Unusual or Inconsistent Spellings and Name Forms_ + +Dieresis is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as “Phaetonâ€, +“Ocyrrhöe†and “Danäe†are common, and have been silently corrected. +Since the ligatures “æ†and “œ†are used consistently, dieresis can be +assumed even when not explicitly indicated. + +_Unless otherwise noted, comments apply to both texts._ + +III.VIII Footnote 92: the buccanier Morgan +IV.VIII Exp: they beheld stedfastly +V.II, VI.V: villany + +Cæus, Calisto, LilybÅ“us, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne + _these forms are used consistently; the original forms are CÅ“us + (Κοιος), Callisto (Καλλιστω), Lilybæus (Λιλυβαιος), Phiale (Φιαλη), + Phrixus (ΦÏιξος), Procne (Î Ïοκνη). Note that in the main text, the + name “Callisto†is never used, probably on metrical grounds._ +Damasicthon, Erectheus _and similar_ + _spellings in “-cth-†used consistently in place of “-chth-†(-χθ-). +Achæa/Achaia; Ethiopia/Æthiopia; Phocea/Phocæa; Proserpine/Proserpina + _both forms occur, with McKay text following Bell in all cases_ + + +_Greek_ + +_Most errors in Greek words can be attributed to a typesetter who did +not know Greek. Errors and omissions in diacritical marks have been +silently corrected; only the more significant errors are listed._ + +I.VII Footnote 47: á¼Î½ τῇ á¼”Ïα ναίειν [á¼µÏα ναιειν (McKay)] +II.XII Footnote 84: δέξαι [δεζαί (McKay)] +II.XIV Exp: Ἑλλωτὶς + _both texts read Ἐλλωτὶς with smooth breathing_ +III.III Footnote 50: θοὸς + _both texts read θοὺς_ +III.IV Exp: Πανβασίλεια [Πανβασιγεια (McKay)] +III.VI Footnote 68: ΛείÏιον [Λείοιον (McKay)] +III.VIII Footnote 86: ἀκοίτης + _McKay reads á¼Îºá½¹Î¹Ï„ης with rough breathing; both have misplaced accent_ +III.VIII Footnote 87: ὠλέναι + _both texts read ωλήναι; McKay has initial á½½ for á½ _ +IV.I Footnote 5: Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, Ιώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– σαβοῖ + _text given as printed; exact form (with consistent capitalization) + is probably Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, á½® Ἴακχε, Ἰώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– σαβαῖ_ +IV.I Footnote 6: λύειν [κύειν (McKay)] +V.II Footnote 31: χαῖÏε, χαῖÏε [χαῖÏε, χσἴÏε (McKay)] +VII.VI Footnote 105: πελειαδαι + _text unchanged, but intended form is probably πελειάδες_ +VII.VI Exp: μύÏμηξ [μύÏμης (McKay)] + + +_Punctuation_ + +_The McKay (Philadelphia) edition sometimes uses double quotes where the +Bell (London) edition used single quotes. These are not individually +noted; neither is variation between colons and semicolons, and random +use of commas. Invisible punctuation at line-end has been supplied from +Bell._ + +_Shared errors and irregularities in punctuation_ + +IV.VII Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._ + _both print “grand-daughter†with anomalous hyphen_ +VI.III: ‘Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this altar.... + _This embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor; + each double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied + by a single quote._ + +I.XII Footnote 80: quod amor non est / medicabilis herbis.’ +IV.I: our words to our loving ears.’ +IV.IV: I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty.†+IV.X: {if} preserved by my valor.†+IV.X: those snakes which she {thus} produced.†+V.II: oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.’ +V.II: Let the Nymphs decide the contest.†+ _close quote missing in all_ + +_Punctuation errors introduced in McKay edition_ + +[Verso of title page] Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + _period invisible_ +[General Introduction] about, ninety miles from Rome + _here and elsewhere, commas are as in the original_ +I.VI Exp: for it repenteth me that I have made them.’†[made them’] + _Bell omits quotes for Biblical citation_ +III.III: Thoüs,[50] [Thoüs,[50],] +IV.II: and he, no longer delaying [and, he,] +--: ‘I am he .... thou art pleasing to me.’ [‘I am .... to me.â€] +IV.VII: with newly formed wings? [wings!] +V.VI: Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?’ + _missing close quote_ +V.VI Exp: a mere fable; [fable!] +VI.II: she says, “What madness is this + _missing open quote_ +--: exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But why victorious? + [enemy, But why v’ctorious?] +VI.III: hold out their little arms from my bosom’ + _missing close quote_ +VII.IV Exp: Egyptian notions on the future state of man. [of man,] +VII.V Syn: the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + _invisible hyphen_ +VII.V: says Cephalus:[99] “and I pray + _missing open quote_ +--: not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires.†+ _missing close quote_ +VII.VI: shall have changed to the South.†+ _missing close quote_ + + +_Footnote Numbers_ + +_Errors in McKay edition_ + +Bk. I, ll. 516-531 (Fable I.XII) + Footnotes on this page were printed as 66-69 instead of 76-79 + (e-text note numbers 78-81); other pages were not affected. +Bk. IV, note 17*. + The footnote tag was numbered as a second 17; the note itself was + numbered the first of two 18. + +_Adjustments_ + +In the original text-- both editions-- footnote numbers began from 1 in +each Book, and started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books +had duplications in the sequence, usually in the form “17*â€. In this +e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book, +without duplication; Books I and VII continue past 100. + + Interpolations: + Bk. I: 51*, 67* + Bk. II: 4*, 71* + Bk. III: 72*, 88* + Bk. IV: 17*, 37*, 77* + Bk. V: 46*, 76* + Bk. VI: (no change from original sequence) + Bk. VII: 4*, 73*, 2* (second series) + + +_Line Numbers (printed as page headers)_ + +Line numbers in the McKay edition were generally correct, although +different from those in Bell due to changes in pagination. Some book +numbers in the McKay edition were misprinted: + + [II. 550-564] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 605-632] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 632-651] _printed as Bk. XIV_ + [II. 652-675] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 676-693] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [IV. 233-237] _printed as Bk. I_ + [V. 95-123] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 123-151] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 350-373] _printed as Bk. IV_ + + + + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID *** + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions will +be renamed. + +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the +United States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm +concept and trademark. 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border-bottom: thin dotted red;} +ins.corr {text-decoration: none; border-bottom: thin red;} +ins.corr.both {border-bottom: thin solid red;} +ins.corr.bell {border-bottom: thin dotted red;} +ins.corr.mckay {border-bottom: thin dashed red;} + +/* page number */ + +.pagenum, .linenum {position: absolute; font-weight: normal; +font-style: normal; text-indent: 0em; color: #333; +background-color: inherit; width: 9%;} +.pagenum {font-size: 88%;} +p.explanation span.pagenum {font-size: 92%;} + +.linenum {padding-top: 1.2em; font-size: 75%;} +p.explanation span.linenum {font-size: 80%;} + +.pagenum.mckay, .linenum.mckay {right: .5em; text-align: right;} +.pagenum.bell, .linenum.bell {left: .5em;} +.linenum.mckay:before {content: "[";} +.linenum.bell:after {content: "]";} + +/* Transcriber's Note */ + +div.mynote {margin: 1em 5%; background-color: #DDE; color: #000; +padding: .5em 1em 1em;} +div.mynote.plain {margin: 1em; background-color: #F0F0FF; color: #000; +border: 3px ridge #99C;} + +p.mynote {margin: 1em 5%; background-color: #DDE; color: #000; +padding: 1em; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;} +div.mynote p, div.mynote h5, div.mynote td {font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%;} + +div.mynote.plain h5 {font-weight: bold;} +div.mynote p + h5 {margin-top: 1em;} + +div.mynote a, div.contents a {text-decoration: none;} + +div.contents p {font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 90%; +margin-left: 1.5em; text-indent: -1.5em; line-height: 1.33em;} + +div.fig { display:block; + margin:0 auto; + text-align:center; + margin-top: 1em; + margin-bottom: 1em;} + +a:link {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:visited {color:blue; text-decoration:none} +a:hover {color:red} + +</style> +</head> + +<body> + +<div style='text-align:center; font-size:1.2em; font-weight:bold'>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Publius Ovidius Naso</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and +most other parts of the world at no cost and with almost no restrictions +whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms +of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online +at <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a>. If you +are not located in the United States, you will have to check the laws of the +country where you are located before using this eBook. +</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid<br /> +Vol. I, Books I-VII</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Author: Publius Ovidius Naso</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-top:1em; margin-bottom:1em; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Translator: Henry Thomas Riley</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Release Date: June 8, 2007 [eBook #21765]<br /> +[Most recently updated: June 28, 2021]</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Language: English</div> +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'>Character set encoding: UTF-8</div> +<div style='display:block; margin-left:2em; text-indent:-2em'>Produced by: Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team</div> +<div style='margin-top:2em; margin-bottom:4em'>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID ***</div> + +<div class="mynote"> +<p> +All Greek words have mouse-hover transliterations: <span +class="greek" title="Dêous korê">Δηοῦς κόÏη</span>.</p> + +<p>The text is based on two reprints of the 1851 Riley translation: Bell +(1893, London) and McKay (1899, Philadelphia). Page and line numbers in +the left margin refer to Bell; numbers in the right margin are from +McKay. Details about <a href="#texts">the texts</a> are given at the +end of this file, along with notes on <a href="#errors">errors</a> and +<a href="#footnotes">footnote numbering</a>.</p> +</div> + +<h1>The Metamorphoses of Ovid</h1> + +<h5>Books I-VII</h5> + +<h4>Translated by Henry T. Riley</h4> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/title1893.png" width="240" height="403" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<div class="fig" style="width:100%;"> +<img src="images/title1899.png" width="224" height="273" alt="[Illustration]" /> +</div> + +<h6>The<br /> +METAMORPHOSES<br /> +of<br /> +OVID.<br /> +Literally Translated into English Prose, with Copious Notes and +Explanations,<br /> +BY HENRY T. RILEY, B.A.<br /> +of Clare Hall, Cambridge.<br /> + <br /> +London:<br /> +George Bell & Sons, York St., Covent Garden, and New York.<br /> +1893.</h6> + +<h6>The<br /> +METAMORPHOSES OF OVID<br /> +<span class="smallcaps">Vol. I—Books I-VII</span><br /> +Literally Translated with Notes and Explanations<br /> +by<br /> +HENRY T. RILEY, M.A.<br /> +<span class="smallcaps">With an Introduction by</span><br /> +EDWARD BROOKS, JR.</h6> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h6>London:<br /> +Reprinted from the Stereotype Plates by Wm. Clowes & Sons, Ltd., +Stamford Street and Charing Cross.</h6> + +<h6><span class="smallcaps">Copyright, 1899, By David McKay<br /> +press of</span><br /> +Sherman & Co<ins class="correction" +title="period invisible">.,</ins> Philadelphia</h6> + +<hr class="mid" /> + +<p class="center"><b>Contents</b></p> + +<p>Introductory Material<br /> +from Bell edition:</p> +<p><a href="#bell_intro">Introduction</a></p> +<p><a href="#bell_synopsis">“Synoptical Viewâ€</a>:<br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_I">Book I</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_II">Book II</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_III">Book III</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_IV">Book IV</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_V">Book V</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_VI">Book VI</a><br /> +<a href="#bell_synopsis_VII">Book VII</a></p> + +<p>Introductory Material<br /> +from McKay edition:</p> + +<p><a href="#mckay_intro">Introduction<br /> +by Edward Brooks, Jr.</a></p> + +<p><a href="#mckay_ads">Advertising</a> (last page of volume)</p> + +<p>The <i>Metamorphoses</i> of Ovid<br /> +</p> + +<p><a href="#bookI-III">Books I-III</a><br /> +<a href="#bookI">Book I</a><br /> +<a href="#bookII">Book II</a><br /> +<a href="#bookIII">Book III</a></p> +<p><a href="#bookIV-VII">Books IV-VII</a><br /> +<a href="#bookIV">Book IV</a><br /> +<a href="#bookV">Book V</a><br /> +<a href="#bookVI">Book VI</a><br /> +<a href="#bookVII">Book VII</a></p> + +<div class="intro"> + +<div class="mynote"> +<h5>Introductory material from 1893 Bell edition, omitting synopses of +Books VIII-XV:</h5> +</div> + +<span class="pagenum bell">iii</span> + +<h4 class="extended"><a name="bell_intro" id="bell_intro"> +INTRODUCTION.</a></h4> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Metamorphoses of Ovid are a +compendium of the Mythological narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so +ingeniously framed, as to embrace a large amount of information upon +almost every subject connected with the learning, traditions, manners, +and customs of antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of +investigation to the learned of the civilized world. To present to the +public a faithful translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only +for its varied information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the +greatest Poets of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume.</p> + +<p>To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of +necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting to +the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in +Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and +Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable +light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen +Mythology.</p> + +<p>In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been +generally adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a +few instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes; +at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been +carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to +punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in +adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each +passage the intended meaning of the writer.</p> + +<p>The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the +English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn’s excellent Catalogue of the +Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole +of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five +translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the +Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the +<span class="pagenum bell">iv</span> +middle of the last century, which professes to be “as near the original +as the different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;†and to be +“printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen.†+A few moments’ perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it +has not the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, +while, by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has +gained nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by “critical, +historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best +Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes, +entirely new;†but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations +will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the +early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities +of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so +recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up +of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more +literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which +was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh +edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to +fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being “as literal as +possible,†still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the +fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early +part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at +explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the +requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too +much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words, +“have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of +regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school,†he has, in +many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of +the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes; +but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a +few of them are adduced: the word “nitidus†is always rendered “neat,†+whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a +temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders “horridus,†“in a rude +pickle;†“virgo†is generally translated “the young lady;†“vir†is “a +gentleman;†“senex†and “senior†are indifferently “the old blade,†“the +old fellow,†+<span class="pagenum bell">v</span> +or “the old gentleman;†while “summa arx†is “the very tip-top.†+“Misera†is “poor soul;†“exsilio†means “to bounce forth;†“pellex†is +“a miss;†“lumina†are “the peepers;†“turbatum fugere†is “to scower +off in a mighty bustle;†“confundor†is “to be jumbled;†and “squalidus†+is “in a sorry pickle.†“Importuna†is “a plaguy baggage;†“adulterium†+is rendered “her pranks;†“ambages†becomes either “a long rabble of +words,†“a long-winded detail,†or “a tale of a tub;†“miserabile +carmen†is “a dismal ditty;†“increpare hos†is “to rattle these +blades;†“penetralia†means “the parlour;†while “accingere,†more +literally than elegantly, is translated “buckle to.†“Situs†is “nasty +stuff;†“oscula jungere†is “to tip him a kiss;†“pingue ingenium†is a +circumlocution for “a blockhead;†“anilia instrumenta†are “his old +woman’s accoutrements;†and “repetito munere Bacchi†is conveyed to the +sense of the reader as, “they return again to their bottle, and take the +other glass.†These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure +the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses.</p> + +<p>In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] +B[ulloker,] entitled “Ovid’s Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, +and, according to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar +and the verse will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be +used according to the directions in the preface to the painfull +schoolmaster, and more fully in the book called, ‘Ludus Literarius, or +the Grammar school, chap. 8.’†Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, +it contains a translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the +first Book, executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity +is now the only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear +translation of the first Book “on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke,†+was published in 1839, which had been already preceded by “a selection +from the Metamorphoses of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a +literal and interlineal translation,†published by James Hamilton, the +author of the Hamiltonian system. This work contains selections only +from the first six books, and consequently embraces but a very small +portion of the entire work.</p> + +<p>For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and +allusions, explanations have been added, which +<span class="pagenum bell">vi</span> +are principally derived from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, +Pausanias, Dio Cassius, Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, +Nonnus, and others of the historians, philosophers, and mythologists of +antiquity. A great number of these illustrations are collected in +the elaborate edition of Ovid, published by the Abbé Banier, one of the +most learned scholars of the last century; who has, therein, and in his +“Explanations of the Fables of Antiquity,†with indefatigable labour and +research, culled from the works of ancient authors, all such information +as he considered likely to throw any light upon the Mythology and +history of Greece and Rome.</p> + +<p>This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a +statement of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most +likely to enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various +subjects presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three +instances, space has been found too limited to allow of more than an +occasional reference to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the +object of the explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the +absence of critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot +points of Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very +positive result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Müller, Buttmann, and +many other scholars of profound learning.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">vii</span> + +<h4 class="section"><a name="bell_synopsis" id="bell_synopsis"> +A SYNOPTICAL VIEW</a></h4> + +<h6>OF THE</h6> + +<h5>PRINCIPAL TRANSFORMATIONS MENTIONED IN</h5> + +<h4>THE METAMORPHOSES.</h4> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_I" id="bell_synopsis_I"> +BOOK I.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Chaos</span> is divided by the Deity into +four Elements: to these their respective inhabitants are assigned, and +man is created from earth and water. The four Ages follow, and in the +last of these the Giants aspire to the sovereignty of the heavens; being +slain by Jupiter, a new race of men springs up from their blood. These +becoming noted for their impiety, Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon +into a wolf, but destroys the whole race of men and animals by a Deluge, +with the exception of Deucalion and Pyrrha, who, when the waters have +abated, renew the human race, by throwing stones behind them. Other +animated beings are produced by heat and moisture: and, among them, the +serpent Python. PhÅ“bus slays him, and institutes the Pythian games as a +memorial of the event, in which the conquerors are crowned with beech; +for as yet the laurel does not exist, into which Daphne is changed soon +after, while flying from PhÅ“bus. On this taking place, the other rivers +repair to her father Peneus, either to congratulate or to console him; +but Inachus is not there, as he is grieving for his daughter Io, whom +Jupiter, having first ravished her, has changed into a cow. She is +entrusted by Juno to the care of Argus; Mercury having first related to +him the transformation of the Nymph Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on +which his eyes are placed by Juno in the tail of the peacock. Io, having +recovered human shape, becomes the mother of Epaphus.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_II" id="bell_synopsis_II"> +BOOK II.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Epaphus</span>, having accused Phaëton of +falsely asserting that PhÅ“bus is his father, Phaëton requests PhÅ“bus, as +a proof of his affection towards his child, to allow him the guidance of +the +<span class="pagenum bell">viii</span> +chariot of the Sun for one day. This being granted, the whole earth is +set on fire by him, and the Æthiopians are turned black by the heat. +Jupiter strikes Phaëton with a thunderbolt, and while his sisters and +his kinsman Cyenus are lamenting him, the former are changed into trees, +and Cyenus into a swan. On visiting the earth, that he may repair the +damage caused by the conflagration, Jupiter sees Calisto, and, assuming +the form of Diana, he debauches her. Juno, being enraged, changes +Calisto into a bear; and her own son Arcas being about to pierce her +with an arrow, Jupiter places them both among the Constellations. Juno +having complained of this to Oceanus, is borne back to the heavens by +her peacocks, who have so lately changed their colour; a thing which has +also happened to the raven, which has been lately changed from white to +black, he having refused to listen to the warnings of the crow (who +relates the story of its own transformation, and of that of Nyctimene +into an owl), and having persisted in informing PhÅ“bus of the intrigues +of Coronis. Her son Æsculapius being cut out of the womb of Coronis and +carried to the cave of Chiron the Centaur, Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of +Chiron, is changed into a mare, while she is prophesying. Her father in +vain invokes the assistance of Apollo, for he, in the guise of a +shepherd, is tending his oxen in the country of Elis. He neglecting his +herd, Mercury takes the opportunity of stealing it; after which he +changes Battus into a touchstone, for betraying him. Flying thence, +Mercury beholds Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, and debauches her. Her +sister Aglauros, being envious of her, is changed into a rock. Mercury +returns to heaven, on which Jupiter orders him to drive the herds of +Agenor towards the shore; and then, assuming the form of a bull, he +carries Europa over the sea to the isle of Crete.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_III" id="bell_synopsis_III"> +BOOK III.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Agenor</span> commands his son Cadmus to +seek his sister Europa. While he is doing this, he slays a dragon in +BÅ“otia; and having sowed its teeth in the earth, men are produced, with +whose assistance he builds the walls of Thebes. His first cause of grief +is the fate of his grandson Actæon, who, being changed into a stag, is +torn to pieces by his own hounds. This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, +who hates not only Semele, the daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of +Jupiter, but all the house of Agenor as well. Assuming the form of +Beroë, she contrives the destruction of Semele by the lightnings of +Jupiter; while Bacchus, being saved alive from his mother’s womb, is +brought up on the earth. Jupiter has a discussion with Juno on the +relative pleasures of the sexes, and they agree to +<span class="pagenum bell">ix</span> +refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both sexes. He gives his +decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno deprives him of sight; and, +by way of recompense, Jupiter bestows on him the gift of prophesy. His +first prediction is fulfilled in the case of Narcissus, who, despising +the advances of all females (in whose number is Echo, who has been +transformed into a sound), at last pines away with love for himself, and +is changed into a flower which bears his name. Pentheus, however, +derides the prophet; who predicts his fate, and his predictions are soon +verified; for, on the celebration of the orgies, Bacchus having assumed +a disguise, is brought before him; and having related to Pentheus the +story of the transformation of the Etrurian sailors into dolphins, he is +thrown into prison. On this, Pentheus is torn in pieces by the +Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid to the rites of +Bacchus.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_IV" id="bell_synopsis_IV"> +BOOK IV.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Still</span> Alcithoë and her sisters, +neglecting the rites, attend to their spinning, during the festivities, +and pass the time in telling stories; and, among others, that of Pyramus +and Thisbe, by whose blood the mulberry is turned from white to black, +and that of the discovery of the intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the +information of the Sun. They also tell how the Sun assumed the form of +Eurynome, that he might enjoy her daughter <ins class="correction" +title="text reads ‘Leucothöe’">Leucothoë</ins>; how Clytie, becoming +jealous of her sister, was transformed into a sun-flower; and how +Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had become united into one body. After this, +through the agency of Bacchus, the sisters are transformed into bats, +and their webs are changed into vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, in +her hatred and indignation, sends one of the Furies to her, who causes +her to be struck with insanity, on which she leaps into the sea, with +her son Melicerta in her arms; but by the intercession of Venus, they +become sea Deities, and their Sidonian attendants, who are bewailing +them as dead, are changed into rocks. Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh +calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies to Illyria, together with his +wife, where they are both transformed into serpents. Of those who +despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the grandfather of Perseus, +who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon Medusa, serpents are produced +by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a mountain, and having liberated +Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into coral, and afterwards marries +her.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_V" id="bell_synopsis_V"> +BOOK V.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">A tumult</span> arising during the +celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims Andromeda, who has been +betrothed to him; and +<span class="pagenum bell">x</span> +together with PrÅ“tus, he and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, +who has aided Perseus, now leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the +fountain of Hippocrene. The Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the +Pierides, who were transformed into magpies after they had repeated +various songs on the subjects of the transformation of the Deities into +various forms of animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of +Ceres, the change of Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of +Ascalaphus into an owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa +into a spring, of Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of +agriculture by Triptolemus.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_VI" id="bell_synopsis_VI"> +BOOK VI.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Influenced</span> by the example of the +Muses, Pallas determines on the destruction of Arachne. She enters with +her into a contest for the superiority in the art of weaving. Each +represents various transformations on her web, and then Arachne is +changed into a spider. Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from +preferring her own lot to that of Latona; on account of which, all her +children are slain by Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. +On learning this, while one person relates the transformation by Latona +of the Lycian rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was +flayed by Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of +ivory. To console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come +from the adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are +attacked by hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries +Progne, the daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, +takes back with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife’s sister; and +having committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is +transformed into a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a +nightingale, and Progne becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these +wondrous events dies of grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, +Orithyia, is ravished by Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and +Zethes, who are of the number of the Argonauts on the following +occasion.</p> + +<h5><a name="bell_synopsis_VII" id="bell_synopsis_VII"> +BOOK VII.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Jason</span>, by the aid of Medea, having +conquered the bulls that breathe forth flames, having sowed the teeth of +a serpent, from which armed men are produced, and having lulled the +dragon to sleep, recovers the Golden Fleece. Medea, accompanying Jason +to Greece, restores Æson to youth by the aid of drugs; and promising the +same to Pelias, having first, as a specimen, changed a ram into a lamb, +by stratagem she kills him. Passing through many places made remarkable +by various transformations, and +<span class="pagenum bell">xi</span> +having slain her children, she marries Ægeus, when Theseus returns home, +and narrowly escapes being poisoned by her magic potions. Minos +interrupts the joy of Ægeus on the return of his son, and wages war +against him; having collected troops from all parts, even from Paros, +where Arne has been changed into a jackdaw. Minos endeavours to gain the +alliance of Æacus, who, however, refuses it, and sends the Myrmidons, +(who have been changed into ants from men after a severe pestilence), +under the command of Cephalus to assist Ægeus. Cephalus relates to +Phocus, the son of Æacus, how, being carried off by Aurora and assuming +another shape, he had induced his wife Procris to prove faithless; and +how he had received from her a dog and a javelin, the former of which, +together with a fox, was changed into stone; while the latter, by +inadvertence, caused the death of his wife.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="intro"> + +<div class="mynote"> +<h5>Introduction by Stephen Brooks, Jr., from 1899 McKay edition:</h5> +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">v</span> +<h4><a name="mckay_intro" id="mckay_intro"> +INTRODUCTION.</a></h4> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">P. Ovidius Naso</span>—commonly known +as Ovid—was born at Sulmo, about<ins class="correction" title="comma in original">, +</ins>ninety miles from Rome, in the year +43 B.C. His father belonged to an old equestrian family, and at an +early age brought his son to Rome, where he was educated under the most +distinguished masters. Very little is known of the poetÃs life, except +that which is gathered from his own writings. After finishing his +education at home he visited Athens, in company with the poet Macer, for +the purpose of completing his studies, and before returning visited the +magnificent cities of Asia Minor and spent nearly a year in Sicily.</p> + +<p>Although as a young man Ovid showed a natural taste and inclination +for poetical composition, he was by no means encouraged to indulge in +this pursuit. His father thought that the profession of law was much +more apt to lead to distinction and political eminence than the vocation +of a poet. He therefore dissuaded his son from writing poetry and urged +him to devote himself to the legal profession. Compliance with his +father’s wishes led him to spend much time in the forum, and for a while +poetry was abandoned. Upon attaining his majority, +<span class="pagenum mckay">vi</span> +he held several minor offices of state; but neither his health nor his +inclinations would permit him to perform the duties of public life. +Poetry was his love, and in spite of the strong objections of his +father, he resolved to abandon the law courts and devote himself to a +more congenial occupation. He sought the society of the most +distinguished poets of the day, and his admiration for them amounted +almost to reverence. He numbered among his intimate friends the poets +Macer, Propertius, Ponticus and Bassus, while Æmilius Macer, Virgil’s +contemporary, used to read his compositions to him, and even the +fastidious Horace, it is said, occasionally delighted the young man’s +ear with the charm of his verse.</p> + +<p>Ovid was married three times. His first wife he married when little +more than a boy, and the union does not seem to have been a happy one, +though it was probably due to no fault of the wife. His second wife +seems also to have been of blameless character, but his love for her was +of short duration. His third wife was a lady of the great Fabian house +and a friend of the Empress Livia. She appears to have been a woman in +every way worthy of the great and lasting love which the poet lavished +upon her to the day of his death.</p> + +<p>Up to the age of fifty Ovid had lived a life of prosperity and +happiness. Though not a wealthy man, his means were such as to permit +him to indulge in the luxuries of refined life, and his attainments as +<span class="pagenum mckay">vii</span> +a poet had surrounded him with a circle of most desirable friends and +admirers. He had even obtained the favor and patronage of the royal +family. About the year 8 A.D. he, however, incurred the great +displeasure of Augustus, and was ordered by him to withdraw from Rome +and dwell in the colony of Tomi, on the shore of the Euxine sea. Leaving +behind him a wife to whom he was devotedly attached he obeyed the edict +of his emperor and entered upon an exile from which he was destined +never to return. He died in banishment at Tomi in the year 18 A.D.</p> + +<p>The exact reason for Ovid’s banishment has never been clear, though +there have been many conjectures as to the cause. About two years +previous to his exile Ovid had published a composition which had greatly +displeased Augustus, on account of its immoral tendency. Almost +coincident with this publication was the discovery of the scandal +relating to Julia, daughter of the emperor. It is probable that the +proximity of these two events tended to intensify the imperial +displeasure, and when some time later there was made public the intrigue +of the emperor’s granddaughter, the indignation of Augustus gave itself +vent in the banishment of Ovid.</p> + +<p>The writings of Ovid consist of the <i>Amores</i> in three books; the +<i>Heroic Epistles</i>, twenty-one in number; the <i>Ars Amatoria</i>; +the <i>Remedia Amoris</i>; the <i>Metamorphoses</i>, in fifteen books; +the <i>Fasti</i>, in +<span class="pagenum mckay">viii</span> +six books; the <i>Tristia</i>, in five books; the <i>Epistles</i>, in +four books, and a few minor poems. In the following pages will be found +a translation of the <i>Metamorphoses</i>.</p> + +</div> + +<hr class="spacer mid" /> + +<div class="advert"> + +<div class="mynote"> +<h5>Final page of 1899 McKay edition:</h5> +</div> + +<h3><a name="mckay_ads" id="mckay_ads"> +The Hamilton, Locke <img src="images/and.png" width="30" height="25" alt="and" /> Clark</a></h3> + +<h5>SERIES OF</h5> + +<h3>Interlinear Translations</h3> + +<p>Have long been the Standard and are now the <i>Best Translated</i> +and <i>Most Complete</i> Series of Interlinears published.</p> + +<h5><b>12mo., well bound in Half Leather.</b></h5> + +<h5><b>Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any +address.</b></h5> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<table class="ads" summary="advertising list"> +<tr> +<td> +<h5><i>Latin Interlinear Translations:</i></h5> + +<p><b>VIRGIL</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hart and Osborne</span>.</p> +<p><b>CÆSAR</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>HORACE</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Stirling, Nuttall and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>CICERO</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>SALLUST</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>OVID</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">George W. Heilig</span>.</p> +<p><b>JUVENAL</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>LIVY</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>CORNELIUS NEPOS</b>—<br /> +By <span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Underwood</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<table class="ads" summary="advertising list"> +<tr> +<td> +<h5><i>Greek Interlinear Translations:</i></h5> + +<p><b>HOMER’S ILIAD</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Thomas Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>XENOPHON’S ANABASIS</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">Hamilton and Clark</span>.</p> +<p><b>GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN</b>—By +<span class="smallcaps">George W. Heilig</span>.</p> +</td> +</tr> +</table> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h6><b>S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:</b></h6> + +<p class="smaller"> +“There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, +of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student +to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will +tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars +as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with +the Interlinear Classics.â€</p> + +<h4 class="boldf sans">DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia,</h4> + +<h6><b>Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons.</b></h6> + +</div> + +<h2><a name="bookI-III" id="bookI-III"></a>THE METAMORPHOSES Books I-III.</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="contents"> + +<p><i>Fable descriptions are taken from the translator’s +Synopses.</i></p> + +<p><a href="#bell_intro">Introduction</a></p> +<p><a href="#bookI">Book I</a><br /> +<a href="#bookI_argument">The Argument</a><br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableI">Fable I</a>: God reduces Chaos into order.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableII">Fable II</a>: God gives form and regularity +to the universe.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableIII">Fable III</a>: The Golden Age.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: The Silver Age. The Brazen Age. +The Iron Age.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableV">Fable V</a>: The Giants.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: Jupiter determines to destroy +the world.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Lycaon changes into a +wolf.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableVIII">Fable VIII</a>: Jupiter resolves to +extirpate mankind by a universal deluge.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableIX">Fable IX</a>: Neptune appeases the angry +waves. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved from the +deluge.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableX">Fable X</a>: Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people +the earth.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXI">Fable XI</a>: Apollo institutes the Pythian +games.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXII">Fable XII</a>: Apollo and Daphne.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXIII">Fable XIII</a>: Jupiter and Io.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXIV">Fable XIV</a>: Jupiter changes Io into a +cow; the watchful Argus.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXV">Fable XV</a>: Pan and Syrinx.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXVI">Fable XVI</a>: Juno places Argus’s eyes in +the peacock’s tail.<br /> +<a href="#bookI_fableXVII">Fable XVII</a>: Io stops in Egypt, under +the name of Isis.</p> + +<p><a href="#bookII">Book II</a><br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableI">Fable I</a>: Phaëton guides Apollo’s +chariot.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableII">Fable II</a>: Phaëton falls into the river +Eridanus.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableIII">Fable III</a>: The sisters of Phaëton.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Cycnus is transformed into a +swan.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableV">Fable V</a>: Jupiter and Calisto.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableVI">Fables VI and VII</a>: Calisto is +transformed into a Bear. Calisto and Arcas become the Great and the +Little Bear. The raven is changed from white to black.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableVIII">Fable VIII</a>: Ericthonius enclosed in a +basket.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableIX">Fable IX</a>: Nyctimene transformed into an +owl.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableX">Fable X</a>: Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of +Chiron, transformed into a mare.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableXI">Fable XI</a>: Mercury steals the oxen of +Apollo.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableXII">Fable XII</a>: Mercury and Herse.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableXIII">Fable XIII</a>: Aglauros and Envy.<br /> +<a href="#bookII_fableXIV">Fable XIV</a>: Jupiter and Europa.</p> + +<p><a href="#bookIII">Book III</a><br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableI">Fable I</a>: Cadmus founds BÅ“otia.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableII">Fable II</a>: Cadmus and the dragon’s +teeth. Cadmus founds Thebes.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableIII">Fable III</a>: Actæon transformed into a +stag.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Jupiter and Semele.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableV">Fable V</a>: Birth of Bacchus. Tiresias +decides a dispute between Jupiter and Juno.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: Echo and Narcissus.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Narcissus changed into a +flower.<br /> +<a href="#bookIII_fableVIII">Fable VIII</a>: Pentheus is torn to +pieces by the Bacchantes.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="maintext"> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">9</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">1</span> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookI" id="bookI"></a> +BOOK THE FIRST.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_argument" id="bookI_argument"> +THE ARGUMENT.</a></h5> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">My</span> design leads me to speak of forms +changed into new bodies.<a class="tag" name="tag1_1" id="tag1_1" +href="#note1_1">1</a> Ye Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) +favor my attempts,<a class="tag" name="tag1_2" id="tag1_2" href="#note1_2">2</a> and bring down the lengthened narrative from the very +beginning of the world, <i>even</i> to my own times.<a class="tag" +name="tag1_3" id="tag1_3" href="#note1_3">3</a></p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableI" id="bookI_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">God</span> reduces Chaos into order. He +separates the four elements, and disposes the several bodies, of which +the universe is formed, into their proper situations.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">At</span> first, the sea, the earth, and +the heaven, which covers all things, were the only face of nature +throughout +<span class="pagenum mckay">10</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 6-26</span> +the whole universe, +<span class="pagenum bell">2</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 6-26</span> +which men have named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass,<a class="tag" name="tag1_4" id="tag1_4" href="#note1_4">4</a> and nothing +<i>more</i> than an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not +harmonizing, heaped together in the same spot. No Sun<a class="tag" +name="tag1_5" id="tag1_5" href="#note1_5">5</a> as yet gave light +to the world; nor did the Moon,<a class="tag" name="tag1_6" id="tag1_6" href="#note1_6">6</a> by increasing, recover her horns anew. +The Earth did not <i>as yet</i> hang in the surrounding air, balanced by +its own weight, nor had Amphitrite<a class="tag" name="tag1_7" id="tag1_7" href="#note1_7">7</a> stretched out her arms along the +lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also +was the sea and the air; <i>and</i> thus was the earth without firmness, +the sea unnavigable, the air void of light; in no one <i>of them</i> did +its <i>present</i> form exist. And one was <i>ever</i> obstructing the +other; because in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the +moist with the dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with +<i>those</i> devoid of weight.</p> + +<p>To this discord God and bounteous Nature<a class="tag" name="tag1_8" id="tag1_8" href="#note1_8">8</a> put an end; for he +separated the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and +distinguished the clear +<span class="pagenum mckay">11</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 26-31</span> +heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after he had unravelled these +<i>elements</i>, and released them from <i>that</i> confused heap, he +combined them, <i>thus</i> disjoined, in harmonious unison, <i>each</i> +in <i>its proper</i> place. The +<span class="pagenum bell">3</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 26-31</span> +element of the vaulted heaven,<a class="tag" name="tag1_9" id="tag1_9" href="#note1_9">9</a> fiery and without weight, shone forth, +and selected a place for itself in the highest region; next after it, +<i>both</i> in lightness and in place, was the air; the Earth was more +weighty than these, and drew <i>with it</i> the more ponderous atoms, +and was pressed together by its own gravity. The encircling waters sank +to the lowermost place,<a class="tag" name="tag1_10" id="tag1_10" +href="#note1_10">10</a> and surrounded the solid globe.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The ancient philosophers, unable to comprehend how something could be +produced out of nothing, supposed a matter pre-existent to the Earth in +its present shape, which afterwards received form and order from some +powerful cause. According to them, God was not the Creator, but the +Architect of the universe, in ranging and disposing the elements in +situations most suitable to their respective qualities. This is the +Chaos so often sung of by the poets, and which Hesiod was the first to +mention.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is clear that this system was but a confused and disfigured tradition +of the creation of the world, as mentioned by Moses; and thus, beneath +these fictions, there lies some faint glimmering of truth. The first two +chapters of the book of Genesis will be found to throw considerable +light on the foundation of this Mythological system of the world’s +formation.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Hesiod, the most ancient of the heathen writers who have enlarged upon +this subject, seems to have derived much of his information +<span class="pagenum mckay">12</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 32-40</span> +from the works of Sanchoniatho, who is supposed to have borrowed his +ideas concerning Chaos from that passage in the second verse of the +first Chapter of Genesis, which mentions the darkness that was spread +over the whole universe—‘and darkness was upon the face of the +deep’—for he expresses himself almost in those words. Sanchoniatho +lived before the Trojan war, and professed to have received his +information respecting the original construction of the world from a +priest of ‘Jehovah,’ named Jerombaal. He wrote in the PhÅ“nician +language; but we have only a translation of his works, +<span class="pagenum bell">4</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 32-43</span> +by Philo Judæus, which is by many supposed to be spurious. It is, +however, very probable, that from him the Greeks borrowed their notions +regarding Chaos, which they mingled with fables of their own +invention.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableII" id="bookI_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">After</span> the separation of matter, God +gives form and regularity to the universe; and all other living +creatures being produced, Prometheus moulds earth tempered with water, +into a human form, which is animated by Minerva.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">When</span> thus he, whoever of the Gods he +was,<a class="tag" name="tag1_11" id="tag1_11" href="#note1_11">11</a> had divided the mass <i>so</i> separated, and reduced +it, so divided, into <i>distinct</i> members; in the first place, that +it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up into the form of +a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured around it, and to +grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround the shores of the +Earth, encompassed <i>by it</i>; he added also springs, and numerous +pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed downwards, +with slanting banks. These, different in <i>different</i> places, are +some of them swallowed up<a class="tag" name="tag1_12" id="tag1_12" href="#note1_12">12</a> by <i>the Earth</i> itself; some of +them reach the ocean, +<span class="pagenum mckay">13</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 40-49</span> +and, received in the expanse of waters that take a freer range, beat +against shores instead of banks.</p> + +<p>He commanded the plains,<a class="tag" name="tag1_13" id="tag1_13" href="#note1_13">13</a> too, to be extended, the valleys +<span class="pagenum bell">5</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 43-49</span> +to sink down, the woods to be clothed with green leaves, the craggy +mountains to arise; and, as on the right-hand side,<a class="tag" name="tag1_14" id="tag1_14" href="#note1_14">14</a> two Zones intersect +the heavens, and as many on the left; <i>and as</i> there is a fifth +hotter than these, so did the care of the Deity distinguish this +enclosed mass <i>of the Earth</i> by the same number, and as many +climates are marked out upon the Earth. Of these, that which is the +middle one<a class="tag" name="tag1_15" id="tag1_15" href="#note1_15">15</a> is not habitable +<span class="pagenum mckay">14</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 49-60</span> +on account +<span class="pagenum bell">6</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 49-61</span> +of the heat; deep snow covers two<a class="tag" name="tag1_16" id="tag1_16" href="#note1_16">16</a> <i>of them</i>. Between either these +he placed as many more,<a class="tag" name="tag1_17" id="tag1_17" +href="#note1_17">17</a> and gave them a temperate climate, heat being +mingled with cold.</p> + +<p>Over these hangs the air, which is heavier than fire, in the same +degree that the weight of water is lighter than the weight of the earth. +Here he ordered vapors, here too, the clouds to take their station; the +thunder, too, to terrify the minds of mortals, and with the lightnings, +the winds that bring on cold. The Contriver of the World did not allow +these indiscriminately to take possession of the sky. Even now, +(although they each of them govern their own blasts in a distinct tract) +they are with great difficulty prevented from rending the world asunder, +so great is the discord of the brothers.<a class="tag" name="tag1_18" id="tag1_18" href="#note1_18">18</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">15</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 61-73</span> +Eurus took his way<a class="tag" name="tag1_19" id="tag1_19" href="#note1_19">19</a> towards <i>the rising of</i> Aurora and the realms +of Nabath<a class="tag" name="tag1_20" id="tag1_20" href="#note1_20">20</a> and +<span class="pagenum bell">7</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 61-76</span> +Persia, and the mountain ridges exposed to the rays of the morning. The +Evening star, and the shores which are warm with the setting sun, are +bordering upon Zephyrus.<a class="tag" name="tag1_21" id="tag1_21" +href="#note1_21">21</a> The terrible Boreas invaded Scythia,<a class="tag" name="tag1_22" id="tag1_22" href="#note1_22">22</a> and the +regions of the North. The opposite quarter is wet with continual clouds, +and the drizzling South Wind.<a class="tag" name="tag1_23" id="tag1_23" href="#note1_23">23</a> Over these he placed the firmament, +clear and devoid of gravity, and not containing anything of the dregs of +earth.</p> + +<p>Scarcely had he separated all these by fixed limits, when the stars, +which had long lain hid, concealed beneath +<span class="pagenum mckay">16</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 73-88</span> +that mass <i>of Chaos</i>, began to glow through the range of the +heavens. And that no region might be destitute of its own +<i>peculiar</i> animated beings, the stars and the forms of the Gods<a +class="tag" name="tag1_24" id="tag1_24" href="#note1_24">24</a> +possess the tract of heaven; the waters fell to be inhabited by the +smooth fishes;<a class="tag" name="tag1_25" id="tag1_25" href="#note1_25">25</a> the Earth received the wild beasts, <i>and</i> the +yielding air the birds.</p> + +<p><i>But</i> an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to +<span class="pagenum bell">8</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 76-88</span> +receive higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest,<a class="tag" name="tag1_26" id="tag1_26" href="#note1_26">26</a> was +still wanting. <i>Then</i> Man was formed. Whether it was that the +Artificer of all things, the original of the world in its improved +state, framed him from divine elements;<a class="tag" name="tag1_27" id="tag1_27" href="#note1_27">27</a> +or whether, the Earth, being +newly made, and but lately divided from the lofty æther, still retained +some atoms of its kindred heaven, which, tempered with the waters of the +stream, the son of Iapetus fashioned after the image of the Gods, who +rule over all things. And, whereas other animals bend their looks +downwards upon the Earth, to Man he gave a countenance to look on high +and to behold the heavens, and to raise his face erect to the stars. +Thus, that which had been lately rude earth, and without any +<span class="pagenum mckay">17</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 89-97</span> +regular shape, being changed, assumed the form of Man, <i>till then</i> +unknown.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +According to Ovid, as in the book of Genesis, man is the last work of +the Creator. The information derived from Holy Writ is here presented to +us, in a disfigured form. Prometheus, who tempers the earth, and +Minerva, who animates his workmanship, is God, who formed man, and +‘breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.’</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Some writers have labored to prove that this Prometheus, of the heathen +Mythology, was a Scriptural character. Bochart believes him to have been +the same with Magog, mentioned in the book of Genesis. Prometheus was +the son of Iapetus, and Magog was the son of Japhet, who, according to +that learned writer, was identical with Iapetus. He says, that as Magog +went to settle in Scythia, so did Prometheus; as Magog either invented, +or improved, the art of founding metals, and forging iron, so, according +to the heathen poets, did Prometheus. Diodorus Siculus asserts that +Prometheus was the first to teach mankind how to produce fire from the +flint and steel.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The fable of Prometheus being devoured by an eagle, according to some, +is founded on the name of Magog, which signifies ‘a man devoured by +<span class="pagenum bell">9</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 89-105</span> +sorrow.’ Le Clerc, in his notes on Hesiod, says, that Epimetheus, +the brother of Prometheus, was the same with the Gog of Scripture, the +brother of Magog. Some writers, again, have exerted their ingenuity to +prove that Prometheus is identical with the patriarch Noah.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableIII" id="bookI_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> formation of man is followed by a +succession of the four ages of the world. The first is the Golden Age, +during which Innocence and Justice alone govern the world.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Golden Age was first founded, +which, without any avenger, of its own accord, without laws, practised +both faith and rectitude. Punishment, and the fear <i>of it</i>, did not +exist, and threatening decrees were not read upon the brazen +<i>tables</i>,<a class="tag" name="tag1_28" id="tag1_28" href="#note1_28">28</a> fixed up <i>to view</i>, nor <i>yet</i> did the +suppliant multitude dread the countenance of its judge; but <i>all</i> +were in safety without any avenger. The pine-tree, cut from its +<i>native</i> mountains, had not +<span class="pagenum mckay">18</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 98-105</span> +yet descended to the flowing waves, that it might visit a foreign +region; and mortals were acquainted with no shores beyond their own. Not +as yet did deep ditches surround the towns; no trumpets of straightened, +or clarions of crooked brass,<a class="tag" name="tag1_29" id="tag1_29" href="#note1_29">29</a> no helmets, no swords <i>then</i> +existed. Without occasion for soldiers, the minds <i>of men</i>, free +from care, enjoyed an easy tranquillity.</p> + +<p>The Earth itself, too, in freedom, untouched by the harrow, and +wounded by no ploughshares, of its own accord produced everything; and +men, contented with the food created under no compulsion, gathered the +fruit of the arbute-tree, and the strawberries of the mountain, and +cornels, and blackberries +<span class="pagenum bell">10</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 105-124</span> +adhering to the prickly bramble-bushes, and acorns which had fallen from +the wide-spreading tree of Jove. <i>Then</i> it was an eternal spring; +and the gentle Zephyrs, with their soothing breezes, cherished the +flowers produced without any seed. Soon, too, the Earth unploughed +yielded crops of grain, and the land, without being renewed, was +whitened with the heavy ears of corn. Then, rivers of milk, then, rivers +of nectar were flowing, and the yellow honey was distilled from the +green holm oak.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The heathen poets had learned, most probably from tradition, that our +first parents lived for some time in peaceful innocence; that, without +tillage, the garden of Eden furnished them with fruit and food in +abundance; and that the animals were submissive to their commands: that +after the fall the ground <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘become’">became</ins> unfruitful, and yielded nothing without labor; +and that nature no longer spontaneously acknowledged man for its master. +The more happy days of our first parents they seem to have styled the +Golden Age, each writer being desirous to make his own country the scene +of those times of innocence. The Latin writers, for instance, have +placed in Italy, and under the reign of Saturn and Janus, events, which, +as they really <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘happen’">happened</ins>, the Scriptures relate in the histories of Adam +and of Noah.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">19</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 105-134</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableIV" id="bookI_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">In</span> the Silver Age, men begin not to be +so just, nor, consequently, so happy, as in the Golden Age. In the +Brazen Age, which succeeds, they become yet less virtuous; but their +wickedness does not rise to its highest pitch until the Iron Age, when +it makes its appearance in all its deformity.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Afterwards</span> (Saturn being driven into +the shady realms of Tartarus), the world was under the sway of Jupiter; +<i>then</i> the Silver Age succeeded, inferior to <i>that of</i> gold, +but more precious than <i>that of</i> yellow brass. Jupiter shortened +the duration of the former spring, and divided the year into four +periods by means of winters, and summers, and unsteady autumns, and +short springs. Then, for the first time, did the parched air glow with +sultry heat, and the ice, bound up by the winds, was pendant. Then, for +the first time, did men enter houses; <i>those</i> houses were caverns, +and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with bark. Then, for the +first time, were the seeds of Ceres buried in long furrows, and the oxen +groaned, pressed by the yoke <i>of the ploughshare</i>.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">11</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 124-148</span> + +<p>The Age of Brass succeeded, as the third <i>in order,</i> after +these; fiercer in disposition, and more prone to horrible warfare, but +yet free from impiety. The last <i>Age</i> was of hard iron. Immediately +every species of crime burst forth, in this age of degenerated +tendencies;<a class="tag" name="tag1_30" id="tag1_30" href="#note1_30">30</a> modesty, truth, and honor took flight; in their place +succeeded fraud, deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering +for acquisition. The sailor now spread his sails to the winds, and with +these, as yet, he was but little acquainted; and <i>the trees</i>, which +had long stood on the lofty mountains, now, <i>as</i> ships bounded<a +class="tag" name="tag1_31" id="tag1_31" href="#note1_31">31</a> +through the unknown waves. The ground, +<span class="pagenum mckay">20</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 134-150</span> +too, hitherto common as the light of the sun and the breezes, the +cautious measurer marked out with his lengthened boundary.</p> + +<p>And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due +sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the Earth; and +riches were dug up, the incentives to vice, which the Earth had hidden, +and had removed to the Stygian shades.<a class="tag" name="tag1_32" id="tag1_32" href="#note1_32">32</a> Then destructive iron came +forth, and gold, more destructive than iron; then War came forth, that +fights through the means of both,<a class="tag" name="tag1_33" id="tag1_33" href="#note1_33">33</a> and that brandishes in his +blood-stained hands the clattering arms. Men live by rapine; the guest +is not safe from his entertainer, nor the father-in-law from the +son-in-law; good feeling, too, between brothers is a rarity. The husband +is eager for the death of the wife, she <i>for that</i> of her husband. +Horrible stepmothers <i>then</i> mingle the ghastly wolfsbane; the son +prematurely makes inquiry<a class="tag" name="tag1_34" id="tag1_34" href="#note1_34">34</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">12</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 148-156</span> +into the years of his father. Piety lies vanquished, and the virgin +Astræa<a class="tag" name="tag1_35" id="tag1_35" href="#note1_35">35</a> is the last of the heavenly <i>Deities</i> to abandon +the Earth, <i>now</i> drenched in slaughter.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Poet here informs us, that during the Golden Age, a perpetual +spring reigned on the earth, and that the division of the year into +seasons was not known until the Silver Age. This allusion to Eden is +very generally to be found in the works of the +<span class="pagenum mckay">21</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 150-156</span> +heathen poets. The Silver Age is succeeded by the Brazen, and that is +followed by the Iron Age, which still continues. The meaning is, that +man gradually degenerated from his primeval innocence, and arrived at +that state of wickedness and impiety, of which the history of all ages, +ancient and modern, presents us with so many lamentable examples.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The limited nature of their views, and the fact that their exuberant +fancy was the source from which they derived many of their alleged +events, naturally betrayed the ancient writers into great +inconsistencies. For in the Golden Age of Saturn, we find wars waged, +and crimes committed. Saturn expelled his father, and seized his throne; +Jupiter, his son, treated Saturn as he had done his father Uranus; and +Jupiter, in his turn, had to wage war against the Giants, in their +attempt to dispossess him of the heavens.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableV" id="bookI_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Giants having attempted to render +themselves masters of heaven, Jupiter buries them under the mountains +which they have heaped together to facilitate their assault; and the +Earth, animating their blood, forms out of it a cruel and fierce +generation of men.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> that the lofty <i>realms of</i> +æther might not be more safe than the Earth, they say that the Giants +aspired to the sovereignty of Heaven, and piled the mountains, heaped +together, even to the lofty stars. Then the omnipotent Father, hurling +his lightnings, broke through Olympus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_36" id="tag1_36" href="#note1_36">36</a> and struck Ossa away from +Pelion, that lay beneath it. While the dreadful +<span class="pagenum bell">13</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 156-170</span> +carcasses lay overwhelmed beneath their own structure, they say that the +Earth was wet, drenched with the plenteous blood of her sons, and that +she gave life to the warm gore; and that, lest no memorial of this +ruthless race should be surviving, she shaped them into the form of men. +But that generation, too, was a despiser of the Gods above, and most +greedy of ruthless slaughter, and full of violence: you might see that +they derived their origin from blood.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">22</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 156-172</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The war of the giants, which is here mentioned, is not to be confounded +with that between Jupiter and the Titans, who were inhabitants of +heaven. The fall of the angels, as conveyed by tradition, probably gave +rise to the story of the Titans; while, perhaps, the building of the +tower of Babel may have laid the foundation of that of the attempt by +the giants to reach heaven. Perhaps, too, the descendants of Cain, who +are probably the persons mentioned in Scripture as the children ‘of men’ +and ‘giants,’ were the race depicted under the form of the Giants, and +the generation that sprung from their blood. See Genesis, ch. vi. +ver. 2, 4.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableVI" id="bookI_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, having seen the crimes of this +impious race of men, calls a council of the Gods, and determines to +destroy the world.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">When</span> the Father <i>of the Gods</i>, +the son of Saturn, beheld this from his loftiest height, he groaned +aloud; and recalling to memory the polluted banquet on the table of +Lycaon, not yet publicly known, from the crime being but lately +committed, he conceives in his mind vast wrath, and such as is worthy of +Jove, and calls together a council; no delay detains them, thus +summoned.</p> + +<p>There is a way on high,<a class="tag" name="tag1_37" id="tag1_37" href="#note1_37">37</a> easily seen in a clear sky, and +which, remarkable for its very whiteness, receives the name of the Milky +<i>Way</i>. Along this is the way for the Gods above to +<span class="pagenum bell">14</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 170-193</span> +the abode of the great Thunderer and his royal palace. On the right and +on the left side the courts of the ennobled Deities<a class="tag" name="tag1_38" id="tag1_38" href="#note1_38">38</a> are thronged, with +<span class="pagenum mckay">23</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 172-193</span> +open gates. The <i>Gods of</i> lower rank<a class="tag" name="tag1_39" id="tag1_39" href="#note1_39">39</a> inhabit various +places; in front <i>of the Way</i>, the powerful and illustrious +inhabitants of Heaven have established their residence. This is the +place which, if boldness may be allowed to my expression, I should +not hesitate to style the palatial residence of Heaven. When, therefore, +the Gods above had taken their seats in the marble hall of assembly; he +himself, elevated on his seat, and leaning on his sceptre of ivory, +three or four times shook the awful locks<a class="tag" name="tag1_40" id="tag1_40" href="#note1_40">40</a> of his head, with +which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to tremble. Then, +after such manner as this, did he open his indignant lips:—</p> + +<p>“Not <i>even</i> at that time was I more concerned for the empire of +the universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavoring to +lay his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a +dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock, and sprang from a +single origin. Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever +Nereus<a class="tag" name="tag1_41" id="tag1_41" href="#note1_41">41</a> roars on all sides of the earth; <i>this</i> I swear +by the Rivers of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the +earth. All methods have been already tried; but a wound that admits of +no cure, must be cut away with the knife, that the sound parts may not +be corrupted. I have <i>as subjects</i>, Demigods, and I have the +rustic Deities, the Nymphs,<a class="tag" name="tag1_42" id="tag1_42" href="#note1_42">42</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">24</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 193-215</span> +and the Fauns, and the Satyrs, and the Sylvans, the inhabitants of +<span class="pagenum bell">15</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 193-215</span> +the mountains; these, though as yet, we have not thought them worthy of +the honor of Heaven, let us, at least, permit to inhabit the earth which +we have granted them. And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they +will be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has +formed a plot against <i>even</i> me, who own and hold sway over the +thunder and yourselves?â€</p> + +<p>All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for +vengeance on one who dared such <i>crimes</i>. Thus, when an impious +band<a class="tag" name="tag1_43" id="tag1_43" href="#note1_43">43</a> <i>madly</i> raged to extinguish the Roman name in +the blood of Cæsar, the human race was astonished with sudden terror at +ruin so universal, and the whole earth shook with horror. Nor was the +affectionate regard, Augustus, of thy subjects less grateful to thee, +than that was to Jupiter. Who, after he had, by means of his voice and +his hand, suppressed their murmurs, all of them kept silence. Soon as +the clamor had ceased, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter +again broke silence in these words:</p> + +<p>“He, indeed, (dismiss your cares) has suffered <i>dire</i> +punishment; but what was the offence and what the retribution, +I will inform you. The report of the iniquity of the age had +reached my ears; wishing to find this not to be the truth, +I descended from the top of Olympus, and, a God in a human +shape, I surveyed the earth. ’Twere an endless task to enumerate +how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered; the report +itself was below the truth.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">25</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 216-226</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is to be presumed, that Ovid here follows the prevailing tradition of +his time; and it is surprising how closely that tradition adheres to the +words +<span class="pagenum bell">16</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 216-228</span> +of Scripture, relative to the determination of the Almighty to punish +the earth by a deluge, as disclosed in the sixth chapter of Genesis. The +Poet tells us, that the King of heaven calls the Gods to a grand +council, to deliberate upon the punishment of mankind, in retribution +for their wickedness. The words of Scripture are, “And God saw that the +wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of +the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the +Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. +And the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man, whom I have created from the +face of the earth; both man and beast, and the creeping thing, and the +fowls of the air: for it repenteth me that I have made them<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads 'them’' only">.’â€</ins>—Genesis, +ch. vi. ver. 5, 6, 7.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Tradition seems to have faithfully carried down the fact, that, amid +this universal corruption, there was still at least one just man, and +here it attributes to Deucalion the merit that belonged to Noah.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableVII" id="bookI_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Lycaon</span>, king of Arcadia, in order to +discover if it is Jupiter himself who has come to lodge in his palace, +orders the body of an hostage, who had been sent to him, to be dressed +and served up at a feast. The God, as a punishment, changes him into a +wolf.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">I had</span> <i>now</i> passed Mænalus, to +be dreaded for its dens of beasts of prey, and the pine-groves of cold +Lycæus, together with Cyllene.<a class="tag" name="tag1_44" id="tag1_44" href="#note1_44">44</a> After this, I entered the +realms and the inhospitable abode of the Arcadian tyrant, just as the +late twilight was bringing on the night. I gave a signal that a God +had come, and the people commenced to pay their adorations. In the first +place, Lycaon derided their pious supplications. Afterwards, he said, +I will make trial, by a plain proof, whether this is a God, or +whether he is a mortal; nor shall the truth remain a matter of doubt. He +then makes preparations to destroy me, when sunk in sleep, by an +unexpected death; this mode of testing the truth pleases him. And not +content with that, with the +<span class="pagenum mckay">26</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 226-243</span> +sword he cuts the throat of an hostage that had been sent from the +nation of the Molossians,<a class="tag" name="tag1_45" id="tag1_45" href="#note1_45">45</a> and +<span class="pagenum bell">17</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 228-243</span> +then softens part of the quivering limbs, in boiling water, and part he +roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had placed these on the +table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house upon the +household Gods,<a class="tag" name="tag1_46" id="tag1_46" href="#note1_46">46</a> worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself takes to +flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he howls aloud, +and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from himself, and +through its <i>usual</i> desire for slaughter, it is directed against +the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are changed +into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and he still retains +vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same, the same +violence <i>appears</i> in his features; his eyes are bright as before; +<i>he is still</i> the same image of ferocity.</p> + +<p>“Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish; +wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys<a class="tag" name="tag1_47" id="tag1_47" href="#note1_47">47</a> reigns. You would +suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel +that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my +determination.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +If Ovid is not here committing an anachronism, and making Jupiter, +before the deluge, relate the story of a historical personage, +<span class="pagenum mckay">27</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 244-255</span> +who existed long after it, the origin of the story of Lycaon must be +sought in the antediluvian narrative. It is just possible that the +guilty Cain may have been the original of Lycaon. The names are not very +dissimilar: they are each mentioned as the first murderer; and the fact, +that Cain murdered Abel at the moment when he was offering sacrifice to +the Almighty, may have given rise to the tradition that Lycaon had set +human flesh before the king of heaven. The Scripture, too, tells us, +that Cain was personally called to account by the Almighty for his deed +of blood.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The punishment here inflicted on Lycaon was not very dissimilar to that +<span class="pagenum bell">18</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 244-257</span> +with which Cain was visited. Cain was sentenced to be a fugitive and a +wanderer on the face of the earth; and such is essentially the character +of the wolf, shunned by both men and animals. Of course, there are many +points to which it is not possible to extend the parallel. Some of the +ancient writers tell us, that there were two Lycaons, the first of whom +was the son of Phoroneus, who reigned in Arcadia about the time of the +patriarch Jacob; and the second, who succeeded him, polluted the +festivals of the Gods by the sacrifice of the human race; for, having +erected an altar to Jupiter, at the city of Lycosura, he slew human +victims on it, whence arose the story related by the Poet. This solution +is given by Pausanias, in his Arcadica. We are also told by that +historian, and by Suidas, that Lycaon was, notwithstanding, +a virtuous prince, the benefactor of his people, and the promoter +of improvement.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableVIII" id="bookI_fableVIII"> +FABLE VIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, not thinking the punishment of +Lycaon sufficient to strike terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, +on account of the universal corruption, to extirpate them by a universal +deluge.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Some</span>, by their words approve the +speech of Jupiter, and give spur to him, <i>indignantly</i> exclaiming; +others, by <i>silent</i> assent fulfil their parts. Yet the +<i>entire</i> destruction of the human race is a cause of grief to them +all, and they inquire what is to be the form of the earth in future, +when destitute of mankind? who is to place frankincense<a class="tag" +name="tag1_48" id="tag1_48" href="#note1_48">48</a> on the altars? +and whether it is his design to give up the nations for a prey to the +wild beasts? The ruler of the Gods forbids them making these enquiries, +to be alarmed (for that the rest should +<span class="pagenum mckay">28</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 255-271</span> +be his care); and he promises, <i>that</i> from a wondrous source <i>he +will raise</i> a generation unlike the preceding race.</p> + +<p>And now he was about to scatter his thunder over all lands; but he +was afraid lest, perchance, the sacred æther might catch fire, from so +many flames, and the extended sky might become inflamed. He remembers, +too, that it was in the <i>decrees of</i> Fate, that a time should +come,<a class="tag" name="tag1_49" id="tag1_49" href="#note1_49">49</a> at which the sea, the earth, +<span class="pagenum bell">19</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 257-283</span> +and the palace of heaven, seized <i>by the flames</i>, should be burned, +and the laboriously-wrought fabric of the universe should be in danger +of perishing. The weapons forged by the hands of the Cyclops are laid +aside; a different <i>mode of</i> punishment pleases him: to +destroy mankind beneath the waves, and to let loose the rains from the +whole tract of Heaven. At once he shuts the North Wind in the caverns of +Æolus, and <i>all</i> those blasts which dispel the clouds drawn over +<i>the Earth</i>; and <i>then</i> he sends forth the South Wind. With +soaking wings the South Wind flies abroad, having his terrible face +covered with pitchy darkness; his beard <i>is</i> loaded with showers, +the water streams down from his hoary locks, clouds gather upon his +forehead, his wings and the folds of his robe<a class="tag" name="tag1_50" id="tag1_50" href="#note1_50">50</a> drip with wet; and, +as with his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds, a crash +arises, and thence showers are poured in torrents from the sky. Iris,<a +class="tag" name="tag1_51" id="tag1_51" href="#note1_51">51</a> +the messenger of Juno, clothed in various colors, collects +<span class="pagenum mckay">29</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 271-301</span> +the waters, and bears a supply <i>upwards</i> to the clouds.</p> + +<p>The standing corn is beaten down, and the expectations of the +husbandman, <i>now</i> lamented by him, are ruined, and the labors of a +long year prematurely perish. Nor is the wrath of Jove satisfied with +his own heaven; but <i>Neptune</i>, his azure brother, aids him with his +auxiliary waves. He calls together the rivers, which, soon as they had +entered the abode of their ruler, he says, “I must not now employ a +lengthened exhortation; pour forth <i>all</i> your might, so the +occasion requires. Open your abodes, and, <i>each</i> obstacle removed, +give full rein to your streams.†<i>Thus</i> he commanded; they return, +and open the mouths of their fountains,<a class="tag" name="tag1_52" id="tag1_52" href="#note1_52">52</a> and roll on into the ocean with +unobstructed course. He himself struck +<span class="pagenum bell">20</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 283-312</span> +the Earth with his trident, <i>on which</i> it shook, and with a tremor +laid open the sources of its waters. The rivers, breaking out, rush +through the open plains, and bear away, together with the standing corn, +the groves, flocks, men, houses, and temples, together with their sacred +<i>utensils</i>. If any house remained, and, not thrown down, was able +to resist ruin so vast, yet the waves, <i>rising</i> aloft, covered the +roof of that <i>house</i>, and the towers tottered, overwhelmed beneath +the stream. And now sea and land had no mark of distinction; everything +now was ocean; and to that ocean shores were wanting. One man takes +possession of a hill, another sits in a curved boat, and plies the oars +there where he had lately ploughed; another sails over the standing +corn, or the roof of his country-house under water; another catches a +fish on the top of an elm-tree. An anchor (if chance so directs) is +fastened in a green meadow, or the curving keels come in contact with +the vineyards, <i>now</i> below them; and where of late the slender +goats had cropped the grass, there unsightly sea-calves are now reposing +their bodies.</p> + +<p>The Nereids wonder at the groves, the cities, and the +<span class="pagenum mckay">30</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 301-312</span> +houses under water; dolphins get into the woods, and run against the +lofty branches, and beat against the tossed oaks. The wolf swims<a class="tag" name="tag1_53" id="tag1_53" href="#note1_53">53</a> among +the sheep; the wave carries along the tawny lions; the wave carries +along the tigers. Neither does the powers of his lightning-shock avail +the wild boar, nor his swift legs the stag, <i>now</i> borne away. The +wandering bird, too, having long sought for land, where it may be +allowed to light, its wings failing, falls down into the sea. The +boundless range of the sea had overwhelmed the hills, and the stranger +waves beat against the heights of the mountains. The greatest part is +carried off by the water: those whom the water spares, long fastings +overcome, through scantiness of food.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated +happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last +<span class="pagenum bell">21</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 313-321</span> +Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have +overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative the +tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have +preserved. He says, <ins class="corr mckay" title="‘that’ missing in McKay">that</ins> the sea <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘joined in its’">joined its</ins> waters to those falling from heaven. +The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), ‘All the fountains of the +great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.’ In +speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left uncovered, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘that’">the</ins> tradition here +followed by Ovid probably referred to Mount Ararat, where Noah’s ark +rested. Noah and his family are represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. +Both Noah and Deucalion were saved for their virtuous conduct; when Noah +went out of the ark, he offered solemn sacrifices to God; and Pausanias +tells us that Deucalion, when saved, raised an altar to Jupiter the +Liberator. The Poet tells us, that Deucalion’s deluge was to be the +last: God promised the same thing to Noah. Josephus, in his Antiquities, +Book i., tells us, that the history of the universal deluge was written +by Nicolas of Damascus, Berosus, Mnaseas, and other ancient writers, +from whom the Greeks and Romans received it.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">31</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 313-328</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableIX" id="bookI_fableIX"> +FABLE IX.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Neptune</span> appeases the angry waves; and +he commands Triton to sound his shell, that the sea may retire within +its shores, and the rivers within their banks. Deucalion and Pyrrha are +the only persons saved from the deluge.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Phocis</span> separates the Aonian<a class="tag" name="tag1_54" id="tag1_54" href="#note1_54">54</a> from +the Actæan region; a fruitful land while it was a land; but at that +time <i>it had become</i> a part of the sea, and a wide plain of sudden +waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards the stars, with two tops, +by name Parnassus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_55" id="tag1_55" href="#note1_55">55</a> and advances beyond the clouds with its summit. +When here Deucalion (for the sea had covered all other places), borne in +a little ship, with the partner of his couch, <i>first</i> rested; they +adored the Corycian Nymphs,<a class="tag" name="tag1_56" id="tag1_56" href="#note1_56">56</a> and the Deities of the mountain, and +the prophetic Themis,<a class="tag" name="tag1_57" id="tag1_57" +href="#note1_57">57</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">22</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 321-337</span> +who at that time used to give out oracular responses. No man was there +more upright than he, nor a greater lover of justice, nor was any woman +more regardful of the Deities than she.</p> + +<p>Soon as Jupiter <i>beholds</i> the world overflowed by liquid waters, +and sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and +sees that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both +guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; +and the showers being removed by the North +<span class="pagenum mckay">32</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 329-342</span> +Wind, he both lays open the earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the +earth. The rage, too, of the sea does not continue; and his three-forked +trident <i>now</i> laid aside, the ruler of the deep assuages the +waters, and calls upon the azure Triton standing above the deep, and +having his shoulders covered with the native purple shells;<a class="tag" name="tag1_58" id="tag1_58" href="#note1_58">58</a> and he +bids him blow<a class="tag" name="tag1_59" id="tag1_59" href="#note1_59">59</a> his resounding trumpet, and, the signal being given, +to call back the waves and the streams. The hollow-wreathed trumpet<a +class="tag" name="tag1_60" id="tag1_60" href="#note1_60">60</a> +is taken up by him, which grows to a <i>great</i> width from its lowest +twist; the trumpet, which, soon +<span class="pagenum bell">23</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 337-365</span> +as it receives the air in the middle of the sea, fills with its notes +the shores lying under either sun. Then, too, as soon as it touched the +lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being blown, sounded +the bidden retreat;<a class="tag" name="tag1_61" id="tag1_61" href="#note1_61">61</a> it was heard by all the waters both of earth and +sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was heard. +<span class="pagenum mckay">33</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 343-366</span> +Now the sea<a class="tag" name="tag1_62" id="tag1_62" href="#note1_62">62</a> <i>again</i> has a shore; their channels receive the +full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The +ground rises, places increase <i>in extent</i> as the waters decrease; +and after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain +the mud left upon their branches.</p> + +<p>The world was restored; which when Deucalion beheld to be empty, and +how the desolate Earth kept a profound silence, he thus addressed +Pyrrha, with tears bursting forth:—“O sister, O wife, +O thou, the only woman surviving, whom a common origin,<a class="tag" name="tag1_63" id="tag1_63" href="#note1_63">63</a> and a +kindred descent, and afterwards the marriage tie has united to me, and +<i>whom</i> now dangers themselves unite to me; we two are the whole +people of the earth, whatever <i>both</i> the East and the West behold; +of all the rest, the sea has taken possession. And even now there is no +certain assurance of our lives; even yet do the clouds terrify my mind. +What would now have been thy feelings, if without me thou hadst been +rescued from destruction, O thou deserving of compassion? In what +manner couldst thou have been able alone to support <i>this</i> terror? +With whom for a consoler, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘to {endure}’"><i>to endure</i></ins> these sorrows? For I, believe me, +my wife, if the sea had only carried thee off, should have followed +thee, and the sea should have carried me off as well. Oh that I could +replace the people <i>that are lost</i> by the arts of my father,<a +class="tag" name="tag1_64" id="tag1_64" href="#note1_64">64</a> +and infuse the soul into the moulded earth! Now +<span class="pagenum bell">24</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 365-382</span> +the mortal race exists in us two <i>alone</i>. Thus it has seemed good +to the Gods, and we remain as <i>mere</i> samples of mankind.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three +<span class="pagenum mckay">34</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 367-382</span> +brothers, kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each +retaining his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world +divided between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of +Neptune. Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the +seas; and Ovid here represents him as being so employed.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableX" id="bookI_fableX"> +FABLE X.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Deucalion</span> and Pyrrha re-people the +earth by casting stones behind them, in the manner prescribed by the +Goddess Themis, whose oracle they had consulted.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">He</span> <i>thus</i> spoke, and they wept. +They resolved to pray to the Deities of Heaven, and to seek relief +through the sacred oracles. There is no delay; together they repair to +the waters of Cephisus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_65" id="tag1_65" +href="#note1_65">65</a> though not yet clear, yet now cutting their +wonted channel. Then, when they have sprinkled the waters poured on +their clothes<a class="tag" name="tag1_66" id="tag1_66" href="#note1_66">66</a> and their heads, they turn their steps to the temple +of the sacred Goddess, the roof of which was defiled with foul moss, and +whose altars were standing without fires. Soon as they reached the steps +of the temple, each of them fell prostrate on the ground, and, +trembling, gave kisses to the cold pavement. And thus they said:</p> + +<p>“If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, +if the wrath of the Gods is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by +what art the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy +assistance, O most gentle <i>Goddess</i> to our ruined fortunes.†+The Goddess was moved, and gave this response: “Depart from my temple, +and cover your heads,<a class="tag" name="tag1_67" id="tag1_67" +href="#note1_67">67</a> and loosen +<span class="pagenum bell">25</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 382-411</span> +the garments +<span class="pagenum mckay">35</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 382-410</span> +girt <i>around you</i>, and throw behind your backs the bones of your +great mother.†For a long time they are amazed; and Pyrrha is the first +by her words to break the silence, and <i>then</i> refuses to obey the +commands of the Goddess; and begs her, with trembling lips, to grant her +pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of her mother by casting her +bones. In the meantime they reconsider the words of the response given, +<i>but</i> involved in dark obscurity, and they ponder them among +themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes the daughter of +Epimetheus with <i>these</i> gentle words, and says, “Either is my +discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no +sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones +in the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to +throw behind our backs.†Although she, descended from Titan,<a class="tag" name="tag1_68" id="tag1_68" href="#note1_68">68</a> is moved +by this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in +doubt; so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm +will it do to try?</p> + +<p>They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, +and cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who +could have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness <i>of the +thing?</i>) began to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and +by degrees to become soft; and when softened, to assume a <i>new</i> +form. Presently after, when they were grown larger, a milder +nature, too, was conferred on them, so that some shape of man might be +seen <i>in them</i>, yet though but imperfect; and as if from the marble +commenced <i>to be wrought</i>, not sufficiently distinct, and very like +to rough statues. Yet that part of them which was humid with any +moisture, and earthy, was turned into <i>portions adapted for</i> the +use of the body. That which is solid, and cannot be bent, is changed +into bones; that which was just now a vein, still +<span class="pagenum mckay">36</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 410-418</span> +remains under the same name.<a class="tag" name="tag1_69" id="tag1_69" href="#note1_69">69</a> And in a little time, by +<span class="pagenum bell">26</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 411-423</span> +the interposition of the Gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of +the man, took the shape of a man, and the female <i>race</i> was renewed +by the throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able +to endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are +sprung.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river +Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so great +a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed. Deucalion and +some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they remained until +the waters abated. The children of those who were preserved are the +stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable, probably, has for its +foundation the double meaning of the word ‘Eben,’ or ‘Aben,’ which +signifies either ‘a stone,’ or ‘a child.’ The Scholiast on Pindar tells +us, too, that the word <span class="greek" title="laos">λάος</span>, +which means people, formerly also signified ‘a stone.’</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have +added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from +stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to +Athens, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘when’">where</ins> he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted +sacrifices in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens +when Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under +the reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife +Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he +received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXI" id="bookI_fableXI"> +FABLE XI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Earth, being warmed by the heat of +the sun, produces many monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which +Apollo kills with his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he +institutes the Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Earth of her own accord brought +forth other animals of different forms; after that the former moisture +was thoroughly heated by the rays of the sun, and the mud and the wet +fens fermented with the heat; +<span class="pagenum mckay">37</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 418-446</span> +and the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in +the womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, assumed some +<i>regular</i> shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile<a class="tag" +name="tag1_70" id="tag1_70" href="#note1_70">70</a> has forsaken +the oozy +<span class="pagenum bell">27</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 423-445</span> +fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the +fresh mud has been heated with the æthereal sun, the laborers, on +turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some +just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see +<i>still</i> imperfect, and <i>as yet</i> destitute <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘of {some}’"><i>of some</i></ins> of their +limbs; and often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part +is coarse earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due +mixture, they conceive; and all things arise from these two.</p> + +<p>And although fire is the antagonist of heat, <i>yet</i> a moist vapor +creates all things, and this discordant concord is suited for +generation; when, therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late +deluge, was thoroughly heated by the æthereal sunshine and a penetrating +warmth, it produced species <i>of creatures</i> innumerable; and partly +restored the former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, +indeed, might have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, +thou enormous Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a <i>source +of</i> terror to this new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain +didst thou occupy.</p> + +<p>The God that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, +but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed +with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, <i>as</i> +the venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time +might not efface the fame of the deed, he instituted sacred games,<a +class="tag" name="tag1_71" id="tag1_71" href="#note1_71">71</a> +with contests +<span class="pagenum bell">28</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 443-454</span> +famed <i>in +<span class="pagenum mckay">38</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 447-451</span> +story</i>, called “Pythia,†from the name of the serpent <i>so</i> +conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered in boxing, in +running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a crown of beechen +leaves.<a class="tag" name="tag1_72" id="tag1_72" href="#note1_72">72</a> As yet the laurel existed not, and PhÅ“bus used to +bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with <i>garlands from</i> any +tree.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical +principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated +the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles, +which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately +disappeared.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it is +probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the +neighborhood of Parnassus, and molested those who passed that way for +the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the +name of Apollo, or being a priest of that God, by his destruction +liberated that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the +institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi. +Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and +instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The +event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened +much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was +not +<span class="pagenum mckay">39</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 452-474</span> +known at Delphi. The Goddess Themis then delivered oracles there, which, +previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXII" id="bookI_fableXII"> +FABLE XII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Apollo</span>, falling in love with Daphne, +the daughter of the river Peneus, she flies from him. He pursues her; on +which, the Nymph, imploring the aid of her father, is changed into a +laurel.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Daphne</span>, the daughter of Peneus, was +the first love of PhÅ“bus; whom, not blind chance, but the vengeful anger +of Cupid assigned to him.</p> + +<p>The Delian <i>God</i>,<a class="tag" name="tag1_73" id="tag1_73" href="#note1_73">73</a> proud of having lately subdued the +serpent, +<span class="pagenum bell">29</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 454-481</span> +had seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, “What +hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that +<i>better</i> befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring +wounds to the wild beasts, <i>wounds</i> to the enemy, who lately slew +with arrows innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres +<i>of land</i> with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to +excite I know not what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to +praises <i>properly</i> my own.â€</p> + +<p>To him the son of Venus replies, “Let thy bow shoot all things, +PhÅ“bus; my bow <i>shall shoot</i> thee; and as much as all animals fall +short of thee, so much is thy glory less than mine.†He <i>thus</i> +said; and cleaving the air with his beating wings, with activity he +stood upon the shady heights of Parnassus, and drew two weapons out of +his arrow-bearing quiver, of different workmanship; the one repels, the +other excites desire. That which causes <i>love</i> is of gold, and is +brilliant, with a sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and +contains lead beneath the reed. This one the God fixed in the Nymph, the +daughter of Peneus, but with the other he wounded the <i>very</i> marrow +of Apollo, through his bones pierced <i>by the arrow</i>. Immediately +the one is in love; the other flies from the <i>very</i> name of a +lover, rejoicing +<span class="pagenum mckay">40</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 475-488</span> +in the recesses of the woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken +<i>in hunting</i>, and becomes a rival of the virgin PhÅ“be. +A fillet tied together<a class="tag" name="tag1_74" id="tag1_74" href="#note1_74">74</a> her hair, put up without any order. +Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not able to endure, and +quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the solitary parts of the +woods, and she cares not what Hymen,<a class="tag" name="tag1_75" id="tag1_75" href="#note1_75">75</a> what love, <i>or</i> what marriage +means. Many a time did her father say, “My daughter, thou owest me a +son-in-law;†+<span class="pagenum bell">30</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 481-505</span> +many a time did her father say, “My daughter, thou owest me +grandchildren.†She, utterly abhorring the nuptial torch,<a class="tag" name="tag1_76" id="tag1_76" href="#note1_76">76</a> as +though a crime, has her beauteous face covered with the blush of +modesty; and clinging to her father’s neck, with caressing arms, she +says, “Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy perpetual virginity; her +father, in times, bygone, granted this to Diana.â€</p> + +<p>He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids +<span class="pagenum mckay">41</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 488-515</span> +thee to be what thou wishest, and the charms of thy person are an +impediment to thy desires. PhÅ“bus falls in love, and he covets an +alliance with Daphne, <i>now</i> seen by him, and what he covets he +hopes for, and his own oracles deceive him; and as the light stubble is +burned, when the ears of corn are taken off, and as hedges are set on +fire by the torches, which perchance a traveller has either held too +near them, or has left <i>there</i>, now about the break of day, thus +did the God burst into a flame; thus did he burn throughout his breast, +and cherish a fruitless passion with his hopes. He beholds her hair +hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, “And what would <i>it +be</i> if it were arranged?†He sees her eyes, like stars, sparkling +with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have +<i>merely</i> seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her +arms and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden +from view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light +wind she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her +back:</p> + +<p>“O Nymph, daughter of Peneus, stay, I entreat thee! I am not an +enemy following thee. In this way the lamb <i>flies</i> from +<span class="pagenum bell">31</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 505-524</span> +the wolf; thus the deer <i>flies</i> from the lion; thus the dove flies +from the eagle with trembling wing; <i>in this way</i> each <i>creature +flies from</i> its enemy: love is the cause of my following thee. Ah! +wretched me! shouldst thou fall on thy face, or should the brambles tear +thy legs, that deserve not to be injured, and should I prove the cause +of pain to thee. The places are rugged, through which thou art +<i>thus</i> hastening; run more leisurely, I entreat thee, and +restrain thy flight; I myself will follow more leisurely. And yet, +inquire whom thou dost please; I am not an inhabitant of the +mountains, I am not a shepherd; I am not here, in rude +guise,<a class="tag" name="tag1_77" id="tag1_77" href="#note1_77">77</a> watching the herds or the flocks. Thou knowest not, +rash girl, thou knowest not from whom thou art flying, and therefore it +is that thou dost fly. +<span class="pagenum mckay">42</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 516-531</span> +The Delphian land, Claros and Tenedos,<a class="tag" name="tag1_78" id="tag1_78" href="#note1_78">78</a> +<a class="tag" name="tag1_A" id="tag1_A" href="#note1_A">A</a> and the Pataræan palace pays +service to me. Jupiter is my sire; by me, what shall be, what has been, +and what is, is disclosed; through me, songs harmonize with the strings. +My own <i>arrow</i>, indeed, is unerring; yet one there is still more +unerring than my own, which has made this wound in my heart, +<i>before</i> unscathed. The healing art is my discovery, and throughout +the world I am honored as the bearer of help, and the properties of +simples are<a class="tag" name="tag1_79" id="tag1_79" href="#note1_79">79</a> subjected to me. Ah, wretched me!<a class="tag" +name="tag1_80" id="tag1_80" href="#note1_80">80</a> that love is +not to be cured by any herbs; and that those arts which afford relief to +all, are of no avail for their master.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">32</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 525-537</span> + +<p>The daughter of Peneus flies from him, about to say still more, with +timid step, and together with him she leaves his unfinished address. +Then, too, she appeared lovely; the winds exposed her form to view, and +the gusts meeting her fluttered about her garments, as they came in +contact, and the light breeze spread behind her<a class="tag" name="tag1_B" id="tag1_B" href="#note1_B">B</a> her careless locks; and +<i>thus</i>, by her flight, was her beauty increased. But the youthful +God<a class="tag" name="tag1_81" id="tag1_81" href="#note1_81">81</a> has not patience any longer to waste his +blandishments; and as +<span class="pagenum mckay">43</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 532-545</span> +love urges him on, he follows her steps with hastening pace. As when the +greyhound<a class="tag" name="tag1_82" id="tag1_82" href="#note1_82">82</a> has seen the hare in the open field, and the one by +<i>the speed of</i> his legs pursues his prey, the other <i>seeks</i> +her safety; the one is like as if just about to fasten <i>on the +other</i>, and now, even now, hopes to catch her, and with nose +outstretched plies upon the footsteps <i>of the hare</i>. The other is +<span class="pagenum bell">33</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 537-562</span> +in doubt whether she is caught <i>already</i>, and is delivered from his +very bite, and leaves behind the mouth <i>just</i> touching her. +<i>And</i> so is the God, and <i>so</i> is the virgin;<a class="tag" +name="tag1_83" id="tag1_83" href="#note1_83">83</a> he swift with +hopes, she with fear.</p> + +<p>Yet he that follows, aided by the wings of love, is the swifter, and +denies her <i>any</i> rest; and is <i>now</i> just at her back as she +flies, and is breathing upon her hair scattered upon her neck. Her +strength being <i>now</i> spent, she grows pale, and being quite faint, +with the fatigue of so swift a flight, looking upon the waters of +Peneus, she says, “Give me, my father, thy aid, if you rivers +<span class="pagenum mckay">44</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 545-566</span> +have divine power. Oh Earth, either yawn <i>to swallow me</i>, or by +changing it, destroy that form, by which I have pleased too much, and +which causes me to be injured.â€</p> + +<p>Hardly had she ended her prayer, <i>when</i> a heavy torpor seizes +her limbs; <i>and</i> her soft breasts are covered with a thin bark. Her +hair grows into green leaves, her arms into branches; her feet, the +moment before so swift, adhere by sluggish roots; a <i>leafy</i> +canopy overspreads her features; her elegance alone<a class="tag" name="tag1_84" id="tag1_84" href="#note1_84">84</a> remains in her. +This, too, PhÅ“bus admires, and placing his right hand upon the stock, he +perceives that the breast still throbs beneath the new bark; and +<i>then</i>, embracing the branches as though limbs in his arms, he +gives kisses to the wood, <i>and</i> yet the wood shrinks from his +kisses. To her the God said: “But since thou canst not be my wife, at +least thou shalt be my tree; my hair, my lyre,<a class="tag" name="tag1_85" id="tag1_85" href="#note1_85">85</a> my quiver shall +always have thee, oh laurel! Thou shalt be presented to the Latian +chieftains, when the joyous voice of the soldiers shall sing the song of +triumph,<a class="tag" name="tag1_86" id="tag1_86" href="#note1_86">86</a> and the long procession shall resort to the Capitol. +Thou, the same, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘shall’">shalt</ins> stand as a most +<span class="pagenum bell">34</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 563-568</span> +faithful guardian at the gate-posts of Augustus before his doors,<a +class="tag" name="tag1_87" id="tag1_87" href="#note1_87">87</a> +and shalt protect the oak placed in the centre; and as my head is +<i>ever</i> youthful with unshorn locks, do thou, too, always wear the +lasting honors of thy foliage.â€</p> + +<p>Pæan had ended <i>his speech</i>; the laurel nodded assent +<span class="pagenum mckay">45</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 566-569</span> +with its new-made boughs, and seemed to shake its top just like a +head.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +To explain this Fable, it must be laid down as a principle that there +were originally many Jupiters, and Apollos, and Mercuries, whose +intrigues being, in lapse of time, attributed to but one individual, +that fact accounts for the great number of children which claimed those +respective Gods for their fathers.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Some prince probably, for whom his love of learning had acquired the +name of Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, pursued her to the brink of +the river Peneus, into which, being accidentally precipitated, she +perished in her lover’s sight. Some laurels growing near the spot, +perhaps gave rise to the story of her transformation; or possibly the +etymology of the word ‘Daphne,’ which in Greek signifies a laurel, was +the foundation of the Fable. Pausanias, however, in his Arcadia, gives +another version of this story. He says that Leucippus, son of Å’nomaus, +king of Pisa, falling in love with Daphne, disguised himself in female +apparel, and devoted himself to her service. He soon procured her +friendship and confidence; but Apollo, who was his rival, having +discovered his fraud, one day redoubled the heat of the sun. Daphne and +her companions going to bathe, obliged Leucippus to follow their +example, on which, having discovered his stratagem, they killed him with +the arrows which they carried for the purposes of hunting.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Diodorus Siculus tells us that Daphne was the same with Manto, the +daughter of Tiresias, who was banished to Delphi, where she delivered +oracles, of the language of which Homer availed himself in the +composition of his poems. The inhabitants of Antioch asserted that the +adventure here narrated happened in the suburbs of their city, which +thence derived its name of Daphne.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXIII" id="bookI_fableXIII"> +FABLE XIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, pursuing Io, the daughter of +Inachus, covers the earth with darkness, and ravishes the Nymph.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">There</span> is a grove of Hæmonia,<a class="tag" name="tag1_88" id="tag1_88" href="#note1_88">88</a> which +a wood, placed on a +<span class="pagenum bell">35</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 568-583</span> +craggy rock, encloses on every side. They call it Tempe;<a class="tag" +name="tag1_89" id="tag1_89" href="#note1_89">89</a> through this +the river Peneus, flowing from +<span class="pagenum mckay">46</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 570-587</span> +the bottom of <i>mount</i> Pindus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_90" id="tag1_90" href="#note1_90">90</a> rolls along with its foaming waves, +and in its mighty fall, gathers clouds that scatter <i>a vapor like</i> +thin smoke,<a class="tag" name="tag1_91" id="tag1_91" href="#note1_91">91</a> and with its spray besprinkles the tops of the woods, +and wearies places, far from near to it, with its noise. This is the +home, this the abode, these are the retreats of the great river; +residing here in a cavern formed by rocks, he gives law to the waters, +and to the Nymphs that inhabit those waters. The rivers of that country +first repair thither, not knowing whether they should congratulate, or +whether console the parent; the poplar-bearing Spercheus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_92" id="tag1_92" href="#note1_92">92</a> and the +restless Enipeus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_93" id="tag1_93" href="#note1_93">93</a> the aged Apidanus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_94" id="tag1_94" href="#note1_94">94</a> +the gentle Amphrysus,<a class="tag" name="tag1_95" id="tag1_95" href="#note1_95">95</a> and +Æas,<a class="tag" name="tag1_96" id="tag1_96" href="#note1_96">96</a> and, soon after, the other rivers, which, as their +current leads them, carry down into the sea their waves, wearied by +wanderings. Inachus<a class="tag" name="tag1_97" id="tag1_97" href="#note1_97">97</a> alone is absent, and, hidden in his +<span class="pagenum bell">36</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 583-600</span> +deepest cavern, increases his waters with his tears, and in extreme +wretchedness bewails his daughter Io as lost; he knows not whether she +<i>now</i> enjoys life, or whether she is among the shades below; but +her, whom he does not find anywhere, he believes to be nowhere, and in +his mind he dreads the worst.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">47</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 588-600</span> +<p>Jupiter had seen Io as she was returning from her father’s stream, +and had said, “O maid, worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know +not whom happy in thy marriage, repair to the shades of this lofty grove +(and he pointed at the shade of the grove) while it is warm, and +<i>while</i> the Sun is at his height, in the midst of his course. But +if thou art afraid to enter the lonely abodes of the wild <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘beast’">beasts</ins> alone, thou +shalt enter the recesses of the groves, safe under the protection of a +God, and <i>that</i> a God of no common sort; but <i>with me</i>, who +hold the sceptre of heaven in my powerful hand; <i>me</i>, who hurl the +wandering lightnings—Do not fly from me;†for <i>now</i> she was +flying. And now she had left behind the pastures of Lerna,<a class="tag" name="tag1_98" id="tag1_98" href="#note1_98">98</a> and the +Lircæan plains planted with trees, when the God covered the earth far +and wide with darkness overspreading, and arrested her flight, and +forced her modesty.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Greeks frequently embellished their mythology with narratives of +PhÅ“nician or Egyptian origin. The story of Io probably came from Egypt. +Isis was one of the chief divinities of that country, and her worship +naturally passed, with their colonies, into foreign countries. Greece +received it when Inachus went to settle there, and in lapse of time +Isis, under the name of Io, was supposed to have been his daughter, and +the fable was invented which is here narrated by Ovid.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Greek authors, Apollodorus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and Pausanias, +say that Io was the daughter of Inachus, the first king of Argos; that +Jupiter carried her away to Crete; and that by her he had a son named +Epaphus, who went to reign in Egypt, whither his mother accompanied +<span class="pagenum bell">37</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 601-619</span> +him. They also tell us that she married Apis, or Osiris, who, after his +death, was numbered among the Deities of Egypt by the name of Serapis. +From them we also learn that Juno, being actuated by jealousy, on the +discovery of the intrigue, put Io under the care of her uncle Argus, +a man of great vigilance, but that Jupiter having slain him, placed +his mistress on +<span class="pagenum mckay">48</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 601-619</span> +board of a vessel which had the figure of a cow at its head; from which +circumstance arose the story of the transformation of Io. The Greek +writers also state, that the Bosphorus, a part of the Ægean sea, +derived its name from the passage of Io in the shape of a cow.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXIV" id="bookI_fableXIV"> +FABLE XIV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, having changed Io into a cow, +to conceal her from the jealousy of Juno, is obliged to give her to that +Goddess, who commits her to the charge of the watchful Argus. Jupiter +sends Mercury with an injunction to cast Argus into a deep sleep, and to +take away his life.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">In</span> the meantime Juno looked down +upon the midst of the fields, and wondering that the fleeting clouds had +made the appearance of night under bright day, she perceived that they +were not <i>the vapors</i> from a river, nor were they raised from the +moist earth, and <i>then</i> she looked around <i>to see</i> where her +husband was, as being one who by this time was full well acquainted with +the intrigues of a husband <i>who had been</i> so often detected.<a +class="tag" name="tag1_99" id="tag1_99" href="#note1_99">99</a> +After she had found him not in heaven, she said, “I am either +deceived, or I am injured;†and having descended from the height of +heaven, she alighted upon the earth, and commanded the mists to retire. +He had foreseen the approach of his wife, and had changed the features +of the daughter of Inachus into a sleek heifer.<a class="tag" name="tag1_100" id="tag1_100" href="#note1_100">100</a> As a cow, too, +<i>she</i> is beautiful. The daughter of Saturn, though unwillingly, +extols the appearance of the cow; and likewise inquires, whose it is, +and whence, or of what herd it is, as though ignorant of the truth. +Jupiter falsely asserts that it was produced out of the earth, that the +owner may cease to be inquired after. The daughter of Saturn begs her of +him as a gift. What can <i>he</i> do? It is a cruel thing to deliver up +his <i>own</i> mistress, <i>and</i> not to give her up is a cause of +suspicion. It is shame which persuades him on the one hand, love +<span class="pagenum mckay">49</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 619-647</span> +dissuades him on the other. His shame would have been +<span class="pagenum bell">38</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 619-651</span> +subdued by his love; but if so trifling a gift as a cow should be +refused to the sharer of his descent and his couch, she might +<i>well</i> seem not to be a cow.</p> + +<p>The rival now being given up <i>to her</i>, the Goddess did not +immediately lay aside all apprehension; and she was <i>still</i> afraid +of Jupiter, and was fearful of her being stolen, until she gave her to +Argus, the son of Aristor, to be kept <i>by him</i>. Argus had his head +encircled with a hundred eyes. Two of them used to take rest in their +turns, the rest watched, and used to keep on duty.<a class="tag" name="tag1_101" id="tag1_101" href="#note1_101">101</a> In whatever +manner he stood, he looked towards Io; although turned away, he +<i>still</i> used to have Io before his eyes. In the daytime he suffers +her to feed; but when the sun is below the deep earth, he shuts her up, +and ties a cord round her neck undeserving <i>of such treatment</i>. She +feeds upon the leaves of the arbute tree, and bitter herbs, and instead +of a bed the unfortunate <i>animal</i> lies upon the earth, that does +not always have grass <i>on it</i>, and drinks of muddy streams. And +when, too, she was desirous, as a suppliant, to stretch out her arms to +Argus, she had no arms to stretch out to Argus; and she uttered lowings +from her mouth, <i>when</i> endeavoring to complain. And at <i>this</i> +sound she was terrified, and was affrighted at her own voice.</p> + +<p>She came, too, to the banks, where she was often wont to sport, the +banks of <i>her father</i>, Inachus; and soon as she beheld her new +horns in the water, she was terrified, and, astonished, she recoiled +from herself. The Naiads knew her not, and Inachus himself knew her not, +who she was; but she follows her father, and follows her sisters, and +suffers herself to be touched, and presents herself to them, as they +admire <i>her</i>. The aged Inachus held her some grass he had plucked; +she licks his hand, and gives kisses to the palms of her father. Nor +does she restrain her tears; and if only words would follow, she would +implore his aid, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">50</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 648-671</span> +would declare her name and misfortunes. Instead of words, letters, which +her foot traced in the dust, completed the sad discovery of the +transformation of her body. “Ah, wretched me!†exclaims her father +Inachus; and clinging to the horns and the neck +<span class="pagenum bell">39</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 651-674</span> +of the snow-white cow, as she wept, he repeats, “Ah, wretched me! and +art thou my daughter, that hast been sought for by me throughout all +lands? While undiscovered, thou wast a lighter grief <i>to me</i>, than +<i>now, when</i> thou art found. Thou art silent, and no words dost thou +return in answer to mine; thou only heavest sighs from the depth of thy +breast, and what alone thou art able to do, thou answerest in lowings to +my words. But I, in ignorance <i>of this</i>, was preparing the bridal +chamber, and the <i>nuptial</i> torches for thee; and my chief hope was +that of a son-in-law, my next was that of grandchildren. But now must +thou have a mate from the herd, now, <i>too</i>, an offspring of the +herd. Nor is it possible for me to end grief so great by death; but it +is a detriment to be a God; and the gate of death being shut against me, +extends my grief to eternal ages.â€</p> + +<p>While thus he lamented, the starry Argus removed her away, and +carried the daughter, <i>thus</i> taken from her father, to distant +pastures. He himself, at a distance, occupies the lofty top of a +mountain, whence, as he sits, he may look about on all sides.</p> + +<p>Nor can the ruler of the Gods above, any longer endure so great +miseries of the granddaughter of Phoroneus;<a class="tag" name="tag1_102" id="tag1_102" href="#note1_102">102</a> and he calls his +son <i>Mercury</i>, whom the bright Pleiad, <i>Maia</i>,<a class="tag" +name="tag1_103" id="tag1_103" href="#note1_103">103</a> brought +forth, and orders him to put Argus to death. There is <i>but</i> little +delay to take wings upon his feet, and his soporiferous wand<a class="tag" name="tag1_104" id="tag1_104" href="#note1_104">104</a> in +his hand, +<span class="pagenum mckay">51</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 672-688</span> +and a cap for his hair.<a class="tag" name="tag1_105" id="tag1_105" href="#note1_105">105</a> After he had put these things in +order, the son of Jupiter leaps down from his father’s high abode upon +the earth, and there he takes off +<span class="pagenum bell">40</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 674-694</span> +his cap, and lays aside his wings; his wand alone was retained. With +this, as a shepherd, he drives some she-goats through the pathless +country, taken up as he passed along, and plays upon oaten straws joined +together.</p> + +<p>The keeper appointed by Juno, charmed by the sound of this new +contrivance, says, “Whoever thou art, thou mayst be seated with me upon +this stone; for, indeed, in no <i>other</i> place is the herbage more +abundant for thy flock; and thou seest, too, that the shade is +convenient for the shepherds.†The son of Atlas sat down, and with much +talking he occupied the passing day with his discourse, and by playing +upon his joined reeds he tried to overpower his watchful eyes. Yet +<i>the other</i> strives hard to overcome soft sleep; and although sleep +was received by a part of his eyes, yet with a part he still keeps +watch. He inquires also (for the pipe had been <i>but</i> lately +invented) by what method it had been found out.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the Metamorphosis of Io has been already enlarged upon in +the Explanation of the preceding Fable. It may, however, not be +irrelevant to observe, that myths, or mythological stories or fables, +are frequently based upon some true history, corrupted by tradition in +lapse of time. The poets, too, giving loose to their fancy in their love +of the marvellous, have still further disfigured the original story; so +that it is in most instances extremely difficult to trace back the facts +to their primitive simplicity, by a satisfactory explanation of each +circumstance attending them, either upon a philosophical, or an +historical principle of solution.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">52</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 689-706</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXV" id="bookI_fableXV"> +FABLE XV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Pan</span>, falling in love with the Nymph +Syrinx, she flies from him; on which he pursues her. Syrinx, arrested in +her flight by the waves of the river Ladon, invokes the aid of her +sisters, the Naiads, who change her into reeds. Pan unites them into an +instrument with seven pipes, which bears the name of the Nymph.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Then</span> the God says, “In the cold +mountains of Arcadia, among the Hamadryads of Nonacris,<a class="tag" +name="tag1_106" id="tag1_106" href="#note1_106">106</a> there was +one Naiad very famous; the Nymphs called her Syrinx. And not once +<i>alone</i> had she escaped the Satyrs as they pursued, and whatever +Gods either the shady grove or the fruitful fields have <i>in them</i>. +In her pursuits and her virginity itself she used +<span class="pagenum bell">41</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 694-712</span> +to devote herself to the Ortygian Goddess;<a class="tag" name="tag1_107" id="tag1_107" href="#note1_107">107</a> and being clothed +after the fashion of Diana, she might have deceived one, and might have +been supposed to be the daughter of Latona, if she had not had a bow of +cornel wood, the other, <i>a bow</i> of gold; and even then did she +<i>sometimes</i> deceive <i>people</i>. Pan spies her as she is +returning from the hill of Lycæus, and having his head crowned with +sharp pine leaves, he utters such words as these;†it remained <i>for +Mercury</i> to repeat the words, and how that the Nymph, slighting his +suit, fled through pathless spots, until she came to the gentle stream +of sandy Ladon;<a class="tag" name="tag1_108" id="tag1_108" href="#note1_108">108</a> and that here, the waters stopping her course, she +prayed to her watery sisters, that they would change her; and <i>how</i> +that Pan, when he was thinking that Syrinx was now caught by him, had +seized hold of some reeds of the +<span class="pagenum mckay">53</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 706-721</span> +marsh, instead of the body of the Nymph; and <i>how</i>, while he was +sighing there, the winds moving amid the reeds had made a murmuring +noise, and like one complaining; and <i>how</i> that, charmed by this +new discovery and the sweetness of the sound, he had said, “This mode of +converse with thee shall ever remain with me;†and that accordingly, +unequal reeds being stuck together among themselves by a cement of wax, +had <i>since</i> retained the name of the damsel.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +This appears to have been an Egyptian fable, imported into the works of +the Grecian poets. Pan was probably a Divinity of the Egyptians, who +worshipped nature under that name, as we are told by Herodotus and +Diodorus Siculus. As, however, according to Nonnus, there were not less +than twelve Pans, it is possible that the adventure here related may +have been supposed to have happened to one of them who was a native of +Greece. He was most probably the inventor of the Syrinx, or Pandæan +pipe, and, perhaps, formed his first instrument from the produce of the +banks of the River Ladon, from which circumstance Syrinx may have been +styled the daughter of that river.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">42</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 712-723</span> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXVI" id="bookI_fableXVI"> +FABLE XVI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Mercury</span>, having lulled Argus to sleep, +cuts off his head, and Juno places his eyes in the peacock’s tail.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Cyllenian God<a class="tag" +name="tag1_109" id="tag1_109" href="#note1_109">109</a> being +about to say such things, perceived that all his eyes were sunk in +sleep, and that his sight was wrapped<a class="tag" name="tag1_110" id="tag1_110" href="#note1_110">110</a> in slumber. At once he puts +an end to his song, and strengthens his slumbers, stroking his languid +eyes with his magic wand. There is no delay; he wounds him, as he nods, +with his crooked sword, where the head is joined to the neck; and casts +him, all blood-stained, from the rock, and stains the craggy cliff with +his gore.</p> + +<p>Argus, thou liest low, and the light which thou hadst in so many eyes +is <i>now</i> extinguished; and one night +<span class="pagenum mckay">54</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 722-733</span> +takes possession of a <i>whole</i> hundred eyes. The daughter of Saturn +takes them, and places them on the feathers of her own bird, and she +fills its tail with starry gems.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The ancient writers, Asclepiades and Pherecydes, tell us, that <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Argos’">Argus</ins> was the +son of Arestor. He is supposed by some to have been the fourth king of +Argos after Inachus, and to have been a person of great wisdom and +penetration, on account of which he was said to have a hundred eyes. Io +most probably was committed to his charge, and he watched over her with +the greatest care.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is impossible to divine the reason why his eyes were said to have +been set by Juno in the tail of the peacock; though, perhaps, the +circumstance has no other foundation than the resemblance of the human +eye to the spots in the tail of that bird, which was consecrated to +Juno. Besides, if Juno is to be considered the symbol of Air, or Æther, +through which light is transmitted to us, it is not surprising that the +ancients bestowed so many eyes upon the bird which was consecrated to +her.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">43</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 723-747</span> + +<h5><a name="bookI_fableXVII" id="bookI_fableXVII"> +FABLE XVII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Io</span>, terrified and maddened with +dreadful visions, runs over many regions, and stops in Egypt, when Juno, +at length, being pacified, restores her to her former shape, and permits +her to be worshipped there, under the name of Isis.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Immediately</span>, she was inflamed with +rage, and deferred not the time of <i>expressing</i> her wrath; and she +presented a dreadful Fury before the eyes and thoughts of the Argive +mistress,<a class="tag" name="tag1_111" id="tag1_111" href="#note1_111">111</a> and buried in her bosom invisible stings, and drove +her, in her fright, a wanderer through the whole earth. Thou, +O Nile, didst remain, as the utmost boundary of her long +wanderings. Soon as she arrived there, she fell upon her knees, placed +on the edge of the bank, and raising herself up, with her neck thrown +back, and casting to Heaven those looks which then alone she could, by +her groans, and her tears, and her mournful lowing, she seemed to be +complaining of Jupiter, and to be begging an end of her sorrows.</p> + +<p>He, embracing the neck of his wife with his arms, +<span class="pagenum mckay">55</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">I. 734-759</span> +entreats her, at length, to put an end to her punishment; and he says, +“Lay aside thy fears for the future; she shall never <i>more</i> be the +occasion of any trouble to thee;†and <i>then</i> he bids the Stygian +waters to hear this <i>oath</i>. As soon as the Goddess is pacified, +<i>Io</i> receives her former shape, and she becomes what she was +before; the hairs flee from off of her body, her horns decrease, and the +orb of her eye becomes less; the opening of her jaw is contracted; her +shoulders and her hands return, and her hoof, vanishing, is disposed of +into five nails; nothing of the cow remains to her, but the whiteness of +her appearance; and the Nymph, contented with the service of two feet, +is raised erect <i>on them</i>; and <i>yet</i> she is afraid to speak, +lest she should low like a cow, and timorously tries again the words +<i>so long</i> interrupted. Now, as a Goddess, she is worshipped by the +linen-wearing throng<a class="tag" name="tag1_112" id="tag1_112" +href="#note1_112">112</a> <i>of Egypt</i>.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">44</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 748-774</span> + +<p>To her, at length, Epaphus<a class="tag" name="tag1_113" id="tag1_113" href="#note1_113">113</a> is believed to have been born +from the seed of great Jove, and throughout the cities he possesses +temples joined to <i>those of</i> his parent. Phaëton, sprung from the +Sun, was equal to him in spirit and in years; whom formerly, as he +uttered great boasts, and yielded not <i>at all</i> to him, and proud of +his father, PhÅ“bus, the grandson of Inachus could not endure; and said, +“Thou, <i>like</i> a madman, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘believes’">believest</ins> thy mother in all things, and art +puffed up with the conceit of an imaginary father.â€</p> + +<p>Phaëton blushed, and in shame repressed his resentment; and he +reported to his mother, Clymene,<a class="tag" name="tag1_114" id="tag1_114" href="#note1_114">114</a> the reproaches of Epaphus; and +said, “Mother, to grieve thee still more, I, the free, the bold +<i>youth</i>, was silent; I am ashamed both that these reproaches +can be uttered against us, and that they cannot be refuted; but do +<span class="pagenum mckay">56</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘I. 760’ only">I. 760-779</ins></span> +thou, if only I am born of a divine race, give me some proof of so great +a descent, and claim me for heaven.†<i>Thus</i> he spoke, and threw his +arms around the neck of his mother; and besought her, by his own head +and by that of Merops,<a class="tag" name="tag1_115" id="tag1_115" +href="#note1_115">115</a> and by the nuptial torches of his sisters, +that she would give him some token of his real father.</p> + +<p>It is a matter of doubt whether Clymene was more moved by the +entreaties of Phaëton, or by resentment at the charge made against her; +and she raised both her arms to heaven, and, looking up to the light of +the Sun, she said, “Son, I swear to thee, by this beam, bright with +shining rays, which both hears and sees us, that thou, that thou, <i>I +say</i>, wast begotten by this Sun, which thou beholdest; by this +<i>Sun</i>, which governs the world. If I utter an untruth, let him deny +himself to be seen by me, and let this light prove the last for my eyes. +Nor will it be any prolonged trouble for thee to visit thy father’s +dwelling; the abode where he arises is contiguous to our regions.<a +class="tag" name="tag1_116" id="tag1_116" href="#note1_116">116</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">45</span> +<span class="linenum bell">I. 775-779</span> +If only thy inclination disposes thee, go forth, and thou shalt inquire +of himself.â€</p> + +<p>Phaëton immediately springs forth, overjoyed, upon these words of his +mother, and reaches the skies in imagination; and he passes by his own +Æthiopians, and the Indians situate beneath the rays of the Sun,<a class="tag" name="tag1_117" id="tag1_117" href="#note1_117">117</a> +and briskly wends his way to the rising of his sire.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +To the elucidation of this narrative, already given, we will only add, +that some of the mythologists inform us, that when Mercury had lulled +Argus to sleep, a youth named Hierax awoke him; on which Mercury +killed Argus with a stone, and turned Hierax into a spar-hawk.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> + +<p> +<a name="note1_1" id="note1_1" href="#tag1_1">1.</a> +<i>Forms changed into new bodies.</i>]—Ver. 1. Some commentators +cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being used for ‘corpora +mutata in novas formas,’ ‘bodies changed into new forms;’ and they fancy +that there is a certain beauty in the circumstance that the proposition +of a subject which treats of the changes and variations of bodies should +be framed with a transposition of words. This supposition is perhaps +based rather on the exuberance of a fanciful imagination than on solid +grounds, as if it is an instance of Hypallage, it is most probably quite +accidental; while the passage may be explained without any reference to +Hypallage, as the word ‘forma’ is sometimes used to signify the thing +itself; thus the words ‘formæ deorum’ and ‘ferarum’ are used to signify +‘the Gods,’ or ‘the wild beasts’ themselves.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_2" id="note1_2" href="#tag1_2">2.</a> +<i>Favor my attempts.</i>]—Ver. 3. This use of the word +‘adspirate’ is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they fill +the ship’s sails, were properly said ‘adspirare.’ It has been remarked, +with some justice, that this invocation is not sufficiently long or +elaborate for a work of so grave and dignified a nature as the +Metamorphoses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_3" id="note1_3" href="#tag1_3">3.</a> +<i>To my own times.</i>]—Ver. 4. That is, to the days of Augustus +Cæsar.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_4" id="note1_4" href="#tag1_4">4.</a> +<i>A rude and undigested mass.</i>]—Ver. 7. This is very similar +to the words of the Scriptures, ‘And the earth was without form and +void,’ Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_5" id="note1_5" href="#tag1_5">5.</a> +<i>No Sun.</i>]—Ver. 10. Titan. The Sun is so called, on account +of his supposed father, Hyperion, who was one of the Titans. Hyperion is +thought to have been the first who, by assiduous observation, discovered +the course of the Sun, Moon, and other luminaries. By them he regulated +the time for the seasons, and imparted this knowledge to others. Being +thus, as it were, the father of astronomy, he has been feigned by the +poets to have been the father of the Sun and the Moon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_6" id="note1_6" href="#tag1_6">6.</a> +<i>The Moon.</i>]—Ver. 11. PhÅ“be. The Moon is so called from the +Greek <span class="greek" title="phoibos">φοῖβος</span>, ‘shining,’ +and as being the sister of PhÅ“bus, Apollo, or the Sun.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_7" id="note1_7" href="#tag1_7">7.</a> +<i>Amphitrite.</i>]—Ver. 14. She was the daughter of Oceanus and +Doris, and the wife of Neptune, God of the Sea. Being the Goddess of the +Ocean, her name is here used to signify the ocean itself.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_8" id="note1_8" href="#tag1_8">8.</a> +<i>Nature.</i>]—Ver. 21. ‘Natura’ is a word often used by the Poet +without any determinate signification, and to its operations are +ascribed all those phenomena which it is found difficult or impossible +to explain upon known and established principles. In the present +instance it may be considered to mean the invisible agency of the Deity +in reducing Chaos into a form of order and consistency. ‘Et’ is +therefore here, as grammarians term it, an expositive particle; as if +the Poet had said, ‘Deus sive natura,’ ‘God, or in other words, +nature.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_9" id="note1_9" href="#tag1_9">9.</a> +<i>The element of the vaulted heaven.</i>]—Ver. 26. This is a +periphrasis, signifying the regions of the firmament or upper air, in +which the sun and stars move; which was supposed to be of the purest +fire and the source of all flame. The heavens are called ‘convex,’ from +being supposed to assume the same shape as the terrestrial globe which +they surround.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_10" id="note1_10" href="#tag1_10">10.</a> +<i>The lowermost place.</i>]—Ver. 31. ‘Ultima’ must not be here +understood in the presence of ‘infima,’ or as signifying ‘last,’ or +‘lowest,’ in a strict philosophical sense, for that would contradict the +account of the formation of the world given by Hesiod, and which is here +closely followed by Ovid; indeed, it would contradict his own +words,—‘Circumfluus humor coercuit solidum orbem.’ The meaning +seems to be, that the waters possess the lowest place only in respect to +the earth whereon we tread, and not relatively to the terrestrial globe, +the supposed centre of the system, inasmuch as the external surface of +the earth in some places rises considerably, and leaves the water to +subside in channels.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_11" id="note1_11" href="#tag1_11">11.</a> +<i>Whoever of the Gods he was.</i>]—Ver. 32. By this expression +the Poet perhaps may intend to intimate that the God who created the +world was some more mighty Divinity than those who were commonly +accounted Deities.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_12" id="note1_12" href="#tag1_12">12.</a> +<i>Are some of them swallowed up.</i>]—Ver. 40. He here refers to +those rivers which, at some distance from their sources, disappear and +continue their course under ground. Such was the stream of Arethusa, the +Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in Argolis, the Alpheus in Peloponnesus, the +Arcas in Spain, and the Rhone in France. Most of these, however, after +descending into the earth, appear again and discharge their waters into +the sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_13" id="note1_13" href="#tag1_13">13.</a> +<i>He commanded the plains.</i>]—Ver. 43. The use here of the word +‘jussit,’ signifying ‘ordered,’ or ‘commanded,’ is considered as being +remarkably sublime and appropriate, and serving well to express the ease +wherewith an infinitely powerful Being accomplishes the most difficult +works. There is the same beauty here that was long since remarked by +Longinus, one of the most celebrated critics among the ancients, in the +words used by Moses, ‘And God said, Let there be light, and there was +light,’ Genesis, ch. i. ver. 3.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_14" id="note1_14" href="#tag1_14">14.</a> +<i>On the right-hand side.</i>]—Ver. 45. The “right hand†here +refers to the northern part of the globe, and the “left hand†to the +southern. He here speaks of the zones. Astronomers have divided the +heavens into five parallel circles. First, the equinoctial, which lies +in the middle, between the poles of the earth, and obtains its name from +the equality of days and nights on the earth while the sun is in its +plane. On each side are the two tropics, at the distance of 23 deg. 30 +min., and described by the sun when in his greatest declination north +and south, or at the summer and winter solstices. That on the north side +of the equinoctial is called the tropic of Cancer, because the sun +describes it when in that sign of the ecliptic; and that on the south +side is, for a similar reason, called the tropic of Capricorn. Again, at +the distance of 23½ degrees from the poles are two other parallels +called the polar circles, either because they are near to the poles, or +because, if we suppose the whole frame of the heavens to turn round on +the plane of the equinoctial, these circles are marked out by the poles +of the ecliptic. By means of these parallels, astronomers have divided +the heavens into four zones or tracks. The whole space between the two +tropics is the middle or torrid zone, which the equinoctial divides into +two equal parts. On each side of this are the temperate zones, which +extend from the tropics to the two polar circles. And lastly, the +portions enclosed by the polar circles make up the frigid zones. As the +planes of these circles produced till they reached the earth, would also +impress similar parallels upon it, and divide it in the same manner as +they divide the heavens, astronomers have conceived five zones upon the +earth, corresponding to those in the heavens, and bounded by the same +circles.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_15" id="note1_15" href="#tag1_15">15.</a> +<i>That which is the middle one.</i>]—Ver. 49. The ecliptic in +which the sun moves, cuts the equator in two opposite points, at an +angle of 23½ degrees; and runs obliquely from one tropic to another, and +returns again in a corresponding direction. Hence, the sun, which in the +space of a year, performs the revolution of this circle, must in that +time be twice vertical to every place in the torrid zone, except +directly under the tropics, and his greatest distance from their zenith +at noon, cannot exceed 47 degrees. Thus his rays being often +perpendicular, or nearly so, and never very oblique, must strike more +forcibly, and cause more intense heat in that spot. Being little +acquainted with the extent and situation of the earth, the ancients +believed it uninhabitable. Modern discovery has shown that this is not +the case as to a considerable part of the torrid zone, though with some +parts of it our acquaintance is still very limited.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_16" id="note1_16" href="#tag1_16">16.</a> +<i>Deep snow covers two.</i>]—Ver. 50. The two polar or frigid +zones. For as the sun never approaches these nearer than the tropic on +that side, and is, during one part of the year, removed by the +additional extent of the whole torrid zone, his rays must be very +oblique and faint, so as to leave these tracts exposed to almost +perpetual cold.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_17" id="note1_17" href="#tag1_17">17.</a> +<i>He placed as many more.</i>]—Ver. 51. The temperate zones, +lying between the torrid and the frigid, partake of the character of +each in a modified degree, and are of a middle temperature between hot +and cold. Here, too, the distinction of the seasons is manifest. For in +either temperate zone, when the sun is in that tropic, which borders +upon it, being nearly vertical, the heat must be considerable, and +produce summer; but when he is removed to the other tropic by a distance +of 47 degrees, his rays will strike but faintly, and winter will be the +consequence. The intermediate spaces, while he is moving from one tropic +to the other, make spring and autumn.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_18" id="note1_18" href="#tag1_18">18.</a> +<i>The brothers.</i>]—Ver. 60. That is, the winds, who, according +to the Theogony of Hesiod, were the sons of Astreus, the giant, and +Aurora.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_19" id="note1_19" href="#tag1_19">19.</a> +<i>Eurus took his way.</i>]—Ver. 61. The Poet, after remarking +that the air is the proper region of the winds, proceeds to take notice +that God, to prevent them from making havoc of the creation, subjected +them to particular laws, and assigned to each the quarter whence to +direct his blasts. Eurus is the east wind, being so called from its +name, because it blows from the east. As Aurora, or the morning, was +always ushered in by the sun, who rises eastward, she was supposed to +have her <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘habitations’">habitation</ins> in the eastern quarter of the world; and +often, in the language of ancient poetry, her name signifies the +east.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_20" id="note1_20" href="#tag1_20">20.</a> +<i>The realms of Nabath.</i>]—Ver. 61. From Josephus we learn that +Nabath, the son of Ishmael, with his eleven brothers, took possession of +all the country from the river Euphrates to the Red Sea, and called it +Nabathæa. Pliny the Elder and Strabo speak of the Nabatæi as situated +between Babylon and Arabia Felix, and call their capital Petra. Tacitus, +in his Annals (Book ii. ch. 57), speaks of them as having a king. +Perhaps the term ‘Nabathæa regna’ implies here, generally, the whole of +Arabia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_21" id="note1_21" href="#tag1_21">21.</a> +<i>Are bordering upon Zephyrus.</i>]—Ver. 63. The region where the +sun sets, that is to say, the western part of the world, was assigned by +the ancients to the Zephyrs, or west winds, so called by a Greek +derivation because they cherish and enliven nature.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_22" id="note1_22" href="#tag1_22">22.</a> +<i>Boreas invaded Scythia.</i>]—Ver. <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘34’">64</ins>. Under the name of Scythia, the +ancients generally comprehended all the countries situate in the extreme +northern regions. ‘Septem trio,’ meaning the northern region of the +world, is so called from the ‘Triones,’ a constellation of seven stars, +near the North Pole, known also as the Ursa Major, or Greater Bear, and +among the country people of our time by the name of Charles’s Wain. +Boreas, one of the names of ‘Aquilo,’ or the ‘north wind,’ is derived +from a Greek word, signifying ‘an eddy.’ This name was probably given to +it from its causing whirlwinds occasionally by its violence.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_23" id="note1_23" href="#tag1_23">23.</a> +<i>The drizzling South Wind.</i>]—Ver. 66. The South Wind is +especially called rainy, because, blowing from the Mediterranean sea on +the coast of France and Italy, it generally brings with it clouds and +rain.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_24" id="note1_24" href="#tag1_24">24.</a> +<i>The forms of the Gods.</i>]—Ver. 73. There is some doubt what +the Poet here means by the ‘forms of the Gods.’ Some think that the +stars are meant, as if it were to be understood that they are forms of +the Gods. But it is most probably only a poetical expression for the +Gods themselves, and he here assigns the heavens as the habitation of +the Gods and the stars; these last, according to the notion of the +Platonic philosophers being either intelligent beings, or guided and +actuated by such.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_25" id="note1_25" href="#tag1_25">25.</a> +<i>Inhabited by the smooth fishes.</i>]—Ver. 74. ‘Cesserunt +nitidis habitandæ piscibus;’ Clarke translates ‘fell to the neat fishes +to inhabit.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_26" id="note1_26" href="#tag1_26">26.</a> +<i>Could rule over the rest.</i>]—Ver. 77. This strongly brings to +mind the words of the Creator, described in the first chapter of +Genesis, ver. 28. ‘And God said unto them—<i>have dominion</i> +over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every +living thing that moveth upon the earth.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_27" id="note1_27" href="#tag1_27">27.</a> +<i>Framed him from divine elements.</i>]—Ver. 78. We have here +strong grounds for contending that the ancient philosophers, and after +them the poets, in their account of the creation of the world followed a +tradition that had been copied from the Books of Moses. The formation of +man, in Ovid, as well as in the Book of Genesis, is the last work of the +Creator, and was, for the same purpose, that man might have dominion +over the other animated works of the creation.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_28" id="note1_28" href="#tag1_28">28.</a> +<i>Read upon the brazen tables.</i>]—Ver. 91. It was the custom +among the Romans to engrave their laws on tables of brass, and fix them +in the Capitol, or some other conspicuous place, that they might be open +to the view of all.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_29" id="note1_29" href="#tag1_29">29.</a> +<i>Clarions of crooked brass.</i>]—Ver. 98. ‘Cornu’ seems to have +been a general name for the horn or trumpet; whereas the “tuba†was a +straight trumpet, while the ‘lituus’ was bent into a spiral shape. Lydus +says that the ‘lituus’ was the sacerdotal trumpet, and that it was +employed by Romulus when he proclaimed the title of his newly-founded +city. Acro says that it was peculiar to the cavalry, while the ‘tuba’ +belonged to the infantry. The notes of the ‘lituus’ are usually +described as harsh and shrill.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_30" id="note1_30" href="#tag1_30">30.</a> +<i>Age of degenerated tendencies.</i>]—Ver. 128. ‘Vena’ signifies +among other things, a vein or track of metal as it lies in the +mine. Literally, ‘venæ pejoris’ signifies ‘of inferior metal.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_31" id="note1_31" href="#tag1_31">31.</a> +<i>Now as ships bounded.</i>]—Ver. 134. ‘Insultavere carinæ.’ This +line is translated by Clarke, ‘The keel-pieces bounced over unknown +waves.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_32" id="note1_32" href="#tag1_32">32.</a> +<i>To the Stygian shades.</i>]—Ver. 139. That is, in deep caverns, +and towards the centre of the earth; for Styx was feigned to be a river +of the Infernal Regions, situate in the depths of the earth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_33" id="note1_33" href="#tag1_33">33.</a> +<i>Through the means of both.</i>]—Ver. 142. Gold forms, perhaps, +more properly the sinews of war than iron. The history of Philip of +Macedon gives a proof of this, as he conquered Greece more by bribes +than the sword, and used to say, that he deemed no fortress impregnable, +where there was a gate large enough to admit a camel laden with +gold.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_34" id="note1_34" href="#tag1_34">34.</a> +<i>Prematurely makes inquiry.</i>]—Ver. 148. Namely, by inquiring +of the magicians and astrologers, that by their skill in casting +nativities, they might inform them the time when their parents were +likely to die, and to leave them their property.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_35" id="note1_35" href="#tag1_35">35.</a> +<i>Astræa.</i>]—Ver. 150. She was the daughter of Astræus and +Aurora, or of Jupiter and Themis, and was the Goddess of Justice. On +leaving the earth, she was supposed to have taken her place among the +stars as the Constellation of the Virgin.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_36" id="note1_36" href="#tag1_36">36.</a> +<i>Olympus.</i>]—Ver. 154. Olympus was a mountain between Thessaly +and Macedonia. Pelion was a mountain of Thessaly, towards the Pelasgic +gulf; and Ossa was a mountain between Olympus and Pelion. These the +Giants are said to have heaped one on another, in order to scale +heaven.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_37" id="note1_37" href="#tag1_37">37.</a> +<i>There is a way on high.</i>]—Ver. 168. The Poet here gives a +description of the court of heaven; and supposing the galaxy, or Milky +Way, to be the great road to the palace of Jupiter, places the +habitations of the Gods on each side of it, and adjoining the palace +itself. The mythologists also invented a story, that the Milky Way was a +track left in the heavens by the milk of Juno flowing from the mouth of +Hercules, when suckled by her. Aristotle, however, suspected what has +been since confirmed by the investigations of modern science, that it +was formed by the light of innumerable stars.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_38" id="note1_38" href="#tag1_38">38.</a> +<i>The ennobled Deities.</i>]—Ver. 172. These were the superior +Deities, who formed the privy councillors of Jupiter, and were called +‘<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Di imajorum’, possibly intending ‘Dii majorum’">Di majorum</ins> gentium,’ or, ‘Di consentes.’ +Reckoning Jupiter as one, they were twelve in number, and are enumerated +by Ennius in two limping hexameter lines:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>‘Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars,</p> +<p>Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.’</p> +</div> + +<p> +<a name="note1_39" id="note1_39" href="#tag1_39">39.</a> +<i>The Gods of lower rank.</i>]—Ver. 173. These were the ‘Dii +minorum gentium,’ or inferior Deities.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_40" id="note1_40" href="#tag1_40">40.</a> +<i>Shook the awful locks.</i>]—Ver. 179. This awful nod of +Jupiter, the sanction by which he confirms his decrees, is an idea taken +from Homer; by whom it is so vividly depicted at the end of the first +book of the Iliad, that Phidias, in his statue of that God, admired for +the awful majesty of its looks, is said to have derived his conception +of the features from that description. Virgil has the same idea in the +Æneid, book x; ‘Annuit, et totum metu tremefecit Olympum.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_41" id="note1_41" href="#tag1_41">41.</a> +<i>Nereus.</i>]—Ver. 187. He was one of the most ancient of the +Deities of the sea, and was the son of Oceanus and Tethys.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_42" id="note1_42" href="#tag1_42">42.</a> +<i>The Nymphs.</i>]—Ver. 192. The terrestrial Nymphs were the +Dryads and Hamadryads, who haunting the woods, and the duration of their +existence depending upon the life of particular trees, derived their +name from the Greek word <span class="greek" title="drus">δÏῦς</span>, ‘an oak.’ The Oreades were nymphs who frequented the +mountains, while the Napeæ lived in the groves and valleys. There were +also Nymphs of the sea and of the rivers; of which, the Nereids were so +called from their father Nereus, and the Oceanitides, from Oceanus. +There were also the Naiads, or nymphs of the fountains, and many +others.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_43" id="note1_43" href="#tag1_43">43.</a> +<i>Thus when an impious band.</i>]—Ver. 200. It is a matter of +doubt whether he here refers to the conspiracies of Brutus and Cassius +against Julius Cæsar, or whether to that against Augustus, which is +mentioned by Suetonius, in the nineteenth chapter of his History. As +Augustus survived the latter conspiracy, and the parallel is thereby +rendered more complete, probably this is the circumstance here alluded +to.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_44" id="note1_44" href="#tag1_44">44.</a> +<i>Together with Cyllene.</i>]—Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or Cyllene, was +a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was hence called by the +poets Cyllenius. Lycæus was also a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Pan, +and was covered with groves of pine-trees.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_45" id="note1_45" href="#tag1_45">45.</a> +<i>Of the Molossians.</i>]—Ver. 226. The Molossi were a people of +Epirus, on the eastern side of the Ambracian gulf. Ovid here commits a +slight anachronism, as the name was derived from Molossus, the son of +Neoptolemus, long after the time of Lycaon. Besides, as Burmann +observes, who could believe that ‘wars could be waged at such an early +period between nations so distant as the Molossi and the Arcadians?’ +Apollodorus says, that it was a child of the same country, whose flesh +Lycaon set before Jupiter. Other writers say that it was Nyctimus, the +son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his grandson, that was slain by him.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_46" id="note1_46" href="#tag1_46">46.</a> +<i>Upon the household Gods.</i>]—Ver. 231. This punishment was +awarded to the Penates, or household Gods of Lycaon, for taking such a +miscreant under their protection.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_47" id="note1_47" href="#tag1_47">47.</a> +<i>The savage Erinnys.</i>]—Ver. 241. Erinnys was a general name +given to the Furies by the Greeks. They were three in +number—Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra. These were so called, either +from the Greek <span class="greek" title="eris nou">á¼”Ïις νοῦ</span>, +‘the discord of the mind,’ or from <span class="greek" title="en tê era naiein">á¼Î½ τῇ <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads á¼µÏα ‘hira’">á¼”Ïα</ins> ναίειν</span>, ‘their inhabiting the earth,’ watching +the actions of men.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_48" id="note1_48" href="#tag1_48">48.</a> +<i>To place frankincense.</i>]—Ver. 249. In those early ages, corn +or wheaten flour, was the customary offering to the Deities, and not +frankincense, which was introduced among the luxuries of more refined +times. Ovid is consequently guilty of an anachronism here.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_49" id="note1_49" href="#tag1_49">49.</a> +<i>That a time should come.</i>]—Ver. 256. Lactantius informs us +that the Sibyls predicted that the world should perish by fire. Seneca +also, in his consolation to Marcia, and in his Quæstiones Naturales, +mentions the same destined termination of the present state of the +universe. It was a doctrine of the Stoic philosophers, that the stars +were nurtured with moisture, and that on the cessation of this +nourishment the conflagration of the universe would ensue.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_50" id="note1_50" href="#tag1_50">50.</a> +<i>The folds of his robe.</i>]—Ver. 267. ‘Rorant pennæ sinusque,’ +is quaintly translated by Clarke, ‘his wings and the plaits of his coat +drop.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_51" id="note1_51" href="#tag1_51">51.</a> +<i>Iris.</i>]—Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess of the +rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot fail to +remind us of the ‘bow set in the cloud, for a token of the covenant +between God and the earth,’ on the termination of Noah’s +flood.—Gen. x. 14.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_52" id="note1_52" href="#tag1_52">52.</a> +<i>The mouths of their fountains.</i>]—Ver. 281. The expressions +in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words of the 11th verse +of the 7th chapter of Genesis, ‘The fountains of the great deep were +broken up.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_53" id="note1_53" href="#tag1_53">53.</a> +<i>The wolf swims.</i>]—Ver. 304. One commentator remarks here, +that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf swimming among the +sheep without devouring them. Seneca is, however, too severe upon our +author in saying that he is trifling here, in troubling himself on so +serious an occasion with what sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely +means to say, that the beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that +they forget their carnivorous propensities.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_54" id="note1_54" href="#tag1_54">54.</a> +<i>The Aonian.</i>]—Ver. 313. Aonia was a mountainous region of +BÅ“otia; and Actæa was an ancient name of Attica, from <span class="greek" title="aktê">ἄκτη</span>, the sea-shore.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_55" id="note1_55" href="#tag1_55">55.</a> +<i>By name Parnassus.</i>]—Ver. 317. Mount Parnassus has two +peaks, of which the one was called ‘Tichoreum,’ and was sacred to +Bacchus; and the other ‘Hypampeum,’ and was devoted to Apollo and the +Muses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_56" id="note1_56" href="#tag1_56">56.</a> +<i>The Corycian Nymphs.</i>]—Ver. 320. The Corycian Nymphs were so +called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount Parnassus; they were +fabled to be the daughters of Plistus, a river near Delphi. There +was another Corycian cave in Cilicia, in Asia Minor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_57" id="note1_57" href="#tag1_57">57.</a> +<i>The prophetic Themis.</i>]—Ver. 321. Themis is said to have +preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She was the +daughter of CÅ“lus and Terra, and was the first to instruct men to ask of +the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she took the name of +Themis, which signifies in Greek, ‘that which is just and right.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_58" id="note1_58" href="#tag1_58">58.</a> +<i>The native purple shells.</i>]—Ver. 332. ‘Murex’ was the name +of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much valued by the +ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the meaning here is, that +Triton had his shoulders tinted with the purple color of the murex. It +is, however, more probable that the Poet means to say that he had his +neck and shoulders studded with the shells of the murex, perhaps as a +substitute for scales.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_59" id="note1_59" href="#tag1_59">59.</a> +<i>He bids him blow.</i>]—Ver. 333. There were several Tritons, or +minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief Triton, was fabled to +be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who always preceded Neptune in his +course, and whose arrival he was wont to proclaim by the sound of his +shell. He was usually represented as swimming, with the upper part of +his body resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts +terminated with the tail of a fish.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_60" id="note1_60" href="#tag1_60">60.</a> +<i>The hollow-wreathed trumpet.</i>]—Ver. 335. The ‘Buccina,’ or, +as we call it, ‘the conch shell,’ was a kind of horn, or trumpet, made +out of a shell, called ‘buccinum.’ It was sometimes artificially curved, +and sometimes straight, retaining the original form of the shell. The +twisted form of the shell was one of the characteristic features of the +trumpet, which, in later times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as +to imitate the shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim +the watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence +called ‘buccina prima,’ ‘secunda,’ etc. It was also blown at funerals, +and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down to table and +after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding ‘buccinæ’ were fixed on +the roof of the temple of Saturn.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_61" id="note1_61" href="#tag1_61">61.</a> +<i>The bidden retreat.</i>]—Ver. 340. ‘Canere receptus’ was ‘to +sound the retreat,’ as the signal for the soldiers to cease fighting, +and to resume their march.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_62" id="note1_62" href="#tag1_62">62.</a> +<i>Now the sea.</i>]—Ver. 343. This and the two following lines +are considered as entitled to much praise for their terseness and +brevity, as depicting by their short detached sentences the +instantaneous effect produced by the commands of Neptune in reducing his +dominions to a state of order.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_63" id="note1_63" href="#tag1_63">63.</a> +<i>A common origin.</i>]—Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was the +father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and Epimetheus +being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense that he styles her +‘sister,’ she being really his cousin.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_64" id="note1_64" href="#tag1_64">64.</a> +<i>The arts of my father.</i>]—Ver. 363. He alludes to the story +of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay, and animated them +with fire stolen from heaven.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_65" id="note1_65" href="#tag1_65">65.</a> +<i>The waters of Cephisus.</i>]—Ver. 369. The river Cephisus rises +on Mount Parnassus, and flows near Delphi.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_66" id="note1_66" href="#tag1_66">66.</a> +<i>Poured on their clothes.</i>]—Ver. 371. It was the custom of +the ancients, before entering a temple, either to sprinkle themselves +with water, or to wash the body all over.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_67" id="note1_67" href="#tag1_67">67.</a> +<i>Cover your heads.</i>]—Ver. 382. It was a custom among the +ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of worship, +either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch, that nothing of +ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby interrupt the performance +of the rites.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_68" id="note1_68" href="#tag1_68">68.</a> +<i>Descended from Titan.</i>]—Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the race of +the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of Titan and +Terra.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_69" id="note1_69" href="#tag1_69">69.</a> +<i>Under the same name.</i>]—Ver. 410. With his usual propensity +for punning, he alludes to the use of the word ‘vena,’ as signifying +either ‘a vein’ of the body, or a ‘streak’ or ‘vein’ in stone, according +to the context.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_70" id="note1_70" href="#tag1_70">70.</a> +<i>The seven-streamed Nile.</i>]—Ver. 423. The river Nile +discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable for its +inundations, which happen regularly every year, and overflow the whole +country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the extraordinary fertility +of the soil of that country; for when the waters subside, they leave +behind them great quantities of mud, which, settling upon the land, +enrich it, and continually reinvigorate it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_71" id="note1_71" href="#tag1_71">71.</a> +<i>Instituted sacred games.</i>]—Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias, in his +Corinthiaca, tells us that they were instituted by Diomedes; others, +again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and others, by Amphictyon, or +Adrastus. The Pythian games were celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissæan +plain, which contained a race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in +length, and a theatre, in which the musical contests took place. They +were once held at Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, +because the Ætolians were in possession of the passes round Delphi. They +were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were perhaps +only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn in honor of +the Pythian God, accompanied by the music of the cithara. In later +times, gymnastic and equestrian games and exercises were introduced +there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad, the Pythian games had been +celebrated at the end of every eighth year; after that period they were +held at the end of every fourth year. When they ceased to be solemnized +is unknown; but in the time of the Emperor Julian they still continued +to be held.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_72" id="note1_72" href="#tag1_72">72.</a> +<i>Crown of beechen leaves.</i>]—Ver. 449. This was the prize +which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian games. In +later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor was a laurel +chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of his victory.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_73" id="note1_73" href="#tag1_73">73.</a> +<i>The Delian God.</i>]—Ver. 454. Apollo is so called, from having +been born in the Isle of Delos, in the Ægean Sea. The Peneus was a river +of Thessaly.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_74" id="note1_74" href="#tag1_74">74.</a> +<i>A fillet tied together.</i>]—Ver. 477. The ‘vitta’ was a band +encircling the head, and served to confine the tresses of the hair. It +was worn by maidens and by married women also; but the ‘vitta’ assumed +on the day of marriage was of a different form from that used by +virgins. It was not worn by women of light character, or even by the +‘libertinæ,’ or female slaves who had been liberated; so that it was not +only deemed an emblem of chastity, but of freedom also. It was of +various colors: white and purple are mentioned. In the later ages the +‘vitta’ was sometimes set with pearls.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_75" id="note1_75" href="#tag1_75">75.</a> +<i>Hymen.</i>]—Ver. 480. Hymen, or Hymenæus, was one of the Gods +of Marriage; hence the name ‘Hymen’ was given to the union of two +persons in marriage.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_76" id="note1_76" href="#tag1_76">76.</a> +<i>The nuptial torch.</i>]—Ver. 483. Plutarch tells us, that it +was the custom in the bridal procession to carry five torches before the +bride, on her way to the house of her husband. Among the Romans, the +nuptial torch was lighted at the parental hearth of the bride, and was +borne before her by a boy, whose parents were alive. The torch was also +used at funerals, for the purpose of lighting the pile, and because +funerals were often nocturnal ceremonies. Hence the expression of +Propertius,— ‘Vivimus inter utramque facem,’ ‘We are living +between the two torches.’ Originally, the ‘tædæ’ seem to have been slips +or lengths of resinous pine wood: while the ‘fax’ was formed of a bundle +of wooden staves, either bound by a rope drawn round them in a spiral +form, or surrounded by circular bands at equal distances. They were used +by travellers and others, who were forced to be abroad after sunset; +whence the reference in line 493 to the hedge ignited through the +carelessness of the traveller, who has thrown his torch there on the +approach of morning.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_77" id="note1_77" href="#tag1_77">77.</a> +<i>Here in rude guise.</i>]—Ver. 514. ‘Non hic armenta gregesve +Horridus observo’ is quaintly translated by Clarke, ‘I do not here in a +rude pickle watch herds or flocks.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_78" id="note1_78" href="#tag1_78">78.</a> +<i>Claros and Tenedos.</i>]—Ver. 516. Claros was a city of Ionia, +famed for a temple and oracle of Apollo, and near which there was a +mountain and a grove sacred to him. There was an island in the Myrtoan +Sea of that name, to which some suppose that reference is here made. +Tenedos was an island of the Ægean Sea, in the neighborhood of Troy. +Patara was a city of Lycia, where Apollo gave oracular responses during +six months of the year. It was from Patara that St. Paul took ship for +PhÅ“nicia, Acts, xxi. 1, 2.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_79" id="note1_79" href="#tag1_79">79.</a> +<i>The properties of simples.</i>]—Ver. 522. The first cultivators +of the medical art pretended to nothing beyond an acquaintance with the +medicinal qualities of herbs and simples; it is not improbable that +inasmuch as the vegetable world is nourished and raised to the surface +of the earth in a great degree by the heat of the sun, a ground was +thereby afforded for allegorically saying that Apollo, or the Sun, was +the discoverer of the healing art.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_80" id="note1_80" href="#tag1_80">80.</a> +<i>Ah! wretched me!</i>]—Ver. 523. A similar expression +occurs in the Heroides, v. 149, ‘Me miseram, quod amor non est +medicabilis herbis<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.’</ins></p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_81" id="note1_81" href="#tag1_81">81.</a> +<i>The youthful God.</i>]—Ver. 531. Apollo was always represented +as a youth, and was supposed never to grow old. The Scholiast on the +Thebais of Statius, b. i., v. 694, says, ‘The reason is, +because Apollo is the Sun; and because the Sun is fire, which never +grows old.’ Perhaps the youthfulness of the Deity is here mentioned, to +account for his ardent pursuit of the flying damsel.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_82" id="note1_82" href="#tag1_82">82.</a> +<i>As when the greyhound.</i>]—Ver. 533. The comparison here of +the flight of Apollo after Daphne, to that of the greyhound after the +hare, is considered to be very beautifully drawn, and to give an +admirable illustration of the eagerness with which the God pursues on +the one hand, and the anxiety with which the Nymph endeavors to escape +on the other. Pope, in his Windsor Forest, has evidently imitated this +passage, where he describes the Nymph Lodona pursued by Pan, and +transformed into a river. His words are—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>‘Not half so swift the trembling <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell has ‘doves’">dove</ins> can fly,</p> +<p>When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky;</p> +<p>Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves,</p> +<p>When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves;</p> +<p>As from the God she flew with furious pace,</p> +<p>Or as the God more furious urged the chase.</p> +<p>Now fainting, sinking, pale, the nymph appears;</p> +<p>Now close behind, his sounding steps she hears;</p> +<p>And now his shadow <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell spells ‘reach’d’">reached</ins> her as she run,</p> +<p>His shadow lengthened by the setting sun;</p> +<p>And now his shorter breath, with sultry air,</p> +<p>Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.’</p> +</div> + +<p class="mynote"> +Both editions modernized Pope’s spelling; only the differences between +the two texts are marked.</p> + +<p> +The greyhound was probably called ‘canis Gallicus,’ from having been +originally introduced into Italy from Gaul. ‘Vertagus’ was their Gallic +name, which we find used by Martial, and Gratian in his Cynegeticon, +ver. 203.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_83" id="note1_83" href="#tag1_83">83.</a> +<i>And so is the virgin.</i>]—Ver. 539. ‘Sic Deus et virgo est’ is +translated by <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Clark’">Clarke</ins>, ‘So is the God and the young lady;’ indeed, he +mostly translates ‘virgo,’ ‘young lady.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_84" id="note1_84" href="#tag1_84">84.</a> +<i>Her elegance alone.</i>]—Ver. 552. <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘Clark’">Clarke</ins> translates ‘Remanet nitor +unus in illa,’ ‘her neatness alone continues in her.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_85" id="note1_85" href="#tag1_85">85.</a> +<i>My lyre.</i>]—Ver. 559. The players of the cithara, the +instrument of Apollo, were crowned with laurel, in the scenic +representations of the stage.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_86" id="note1_86" href="#tag1_86">86.</a> +<i>The song of triumph.</i>]—Ver. 560. The Poet here pays a +compliment to Augustus and the Roman people. The laurel was the emblem +of victory among the Romans. On such occasions the ‘fasces’ of the +general and the spears and javelins of the soldiers were wreathed with +laurel; and after the time of Julius Cæsar, the Roman general, when +triumphing, wore a laurel wreath on his head, and held a branch of +laurel in his hand.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_87" id="note1_87" href="#tag1_87">87.</a> +<i>Before his doors.</i>]—Ver. 562. He here alludes to the civic +crown of oak leaves which, by order of the Senate, was placed before the +gate of the Palatium, where Augustus Cæsar resided, with branches of +laurel on either side of it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_88" id="note1_88" href="#tag1_88">88.</a> +<i>A grove of Hæmonia.</i>]—Ver. 568. Hæmonia was an ancient name +of Thessaly, so called from its king, Hæmon, a son of Pelasgus, and +father of Thessalus, from which it received its later name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_89" id="note1_89" href="#tag1_89">89.</a> +<i>Call it Tempe.</i>]—Ver. 569. Tempe was a valley of Thessaly, +proverbial for its pleasantness and the beauty of its scenery. The river +Peneus ran through it, but not with the violence which Ovid here +depicts; for Ælian tells us that it runs with a gentle sluggish stream, +more like oil than water.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_90" id="note1_90" href="#tag1_90">90.</a> +<i>Mount Pindus.</i>]—Ver. 570. Pindus was a mountain situate on +the confines of Thessaly.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_91" id="note1_91" href="#tag1_91">91.</a> +<i>Like thin smoke.</i>]—Ver. 571. He speaks of the spray, which +in the fineness of its particles resembles smoke.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_92" id="note1_92" href="#tag1_92">92.</a> +<i>Spercheus.</i>]—Ver. 579. The Spercheus was a rapid stream, +flowing at the foot of Mount <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Ætna’">Æta</ins> into the Malian Gulf, and on whose banks many +poplars grew.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_93" id="note1_93" href="#tag1_93">93.</a> +<i>Enipeus.</i>]—Ver. 579. The Enipeus rises in Mount Othrys, and +runs through Thessaly. Virgil (Georgics, iv. 468) calls it ‘Altus +Enipeus,’ the deep Enipeus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_94" id="note1_94" href="#tag1_94">94.</a> +<i>Apidanus.</i>]—Ver. 580. The Apidanus, receiving the stream of +the Enipeus at Pharsalia, flows into the Peneus. It is supposed by some +commentators to be here called ‘senex,’ aged, from the slowness of its +tide. But where it unites the Enipeus it flows with violence, so that it +is probably called ‘senex,’ as having been known and celebrated by the +poets from of old.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_95" id="note1_95" href="#tag1_95">95.</a> +<i>Amphrysus.</i>]—Ver. 580. This river ran through that part of +Thessaly known by the name of Phthiotis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_96" id="note1_96" href="#tag1_96">96.</a> +<i>Æas.</i>]—Ver. 580. Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23<a +class="tag" name="tag1_C" id="tag1_C" href="#note1_C">C</a>) +calls this river <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Aeus’">Aous</ins>. It was a small limpid stream, running through Epirus +and Thessaly, and discharging itself into the Ionian sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_97" id="note1_97" href="#tag1_97">97.</a> +<i>Inachus.</i>]—Ver. 583. This was a river of Argolis, now known +as the Naio. It took its rise either in Lycæus or Artemisium, mountains +of Arcadia. Stephens, however, thinks that Lycæus was a mountain of +Argolis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_98" id="note1_98" href="#tag1_98">98.</a> +<i>Lerna.</i>]—Ver. 597. This was a swampy spot on the Argive +territory, where the poets say that the dragon with seven heads, called +Hydra, which was slain by Hercules, had made his haunt. It is not +improbable that the pestilential vapors of this spot were got rid of by +means of its being drained under the superintendence of Hercules, on +which fact the story was founded. Some commentators, however, suppose +the Lerna to have been a flowing stream.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_99" id="note1_99" href="#tag1_99">99.</a> +<i>So often detected.</i>]—Ver. 606. Clarke translates ‘deprensi +toties mariti’ by the expression, ‘who had been so often catched in his +roguery.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_100" id="note1_100" href="#tag1_100">100.</a> +<i>Into a sleek heifer.</i>]—Ver. 611. Clarke renders the words, +‘nitentem juvencam,’ a neat heifer.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_101" id="note1_101" href="#tag1_101">101.</a> +<i>To keep on duty.</i>]—Ver. 627. ‘In statione manebant.’ This is +a metaphorical expression, taken from military affairs, as soldiers in +turns relieve each other, and take their station, when they keep watch +and ward.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_102" id="note1_102" href="#tag1_102">102.</a> +<i>Phoroneus.</i>]—Ver. 668. He was the father of Jasius and of +Inachus, the parent of Io. Some accounts, however, say that Inachus was +the father of Phoroneus, and the son of Oceanus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_103" id="note1_103" href="#tag1_103">103.</a> +<i>Pleiad Maia.</i>]—Ver. 670. Maia was one of the seven daughters +of Atlas, who were styled Pleiädes after they were received among the +constellations.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_104" id="note1_104" href="#tag1_104">104.</a> +<i>Soporiferous wand.</i>]—Ver. 671. This was the ‘caduceus,’ or +staff, with which Mercury summoned the souls of the departed from the +shades, induced slumber, and did other offices pertaining to his +capacity as the herald and messenger of Jupiter. It was represented as +an olive branch, wreathed with two snakes. In time of war, heralds and +ambassadors, among the Greeks, carried a ‘caduceus.’ It was not used by +the Romans.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_105" id="note1_105" href="#tag1_105">105.</a> +<i>A cap for his hair.</i>]—Ver. 672. This was a cap called +‘Petasus.’ It had broad brims, and was not unlike the ‘causia,’ or +Macedonian hat, except that the brims of the latter were turned up at +the sides.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_106" id="note1_106" href="#tag1_106">106.</a> +<i>Nonacris.</i>]—Ver. 690. Nonacris was the name of both a +mountain and a city of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_107" id="note1_107" href="#tag1_107">107.</a> +<i>The Ortygian Goddess.</i>]—Ver. 694. Diana is called +“Ortygian,†from the isle of Delos, where she was born, one of whose +names was Ortygia, from the quantity of quails, <span class="greek" +title="ortuges">ὄÏτυγες</span>, there found.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_108" id="note1_108" href="#tag1_108">108.</a> +<i>Ladon.</i>]—Ver. 702. This was a beautiful river of Arcadia, +flowing into the Alpheus: its banks were covered with vast quantities of +reeds. Ovid here calls its stream ‘placidum;’ whereas in the fifth book +of the Fasti, l. 89, he calls it ‘rapax,’ ‘violent;’ and in the second +book of the Fasti, l. 274, its waters are said to be ‘citæ aquæ,’ swift +waters. Some commentators have endeavored to reconcile these +discrepancies; but the probability is, that Ovid, like many other poets, +used his epithets at random, or rather according to the requirements of +the measure for the occasion.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_109" id="note1_109" href="#tag1_109">109.</a> +<i>The Cyllenian God.</i>]—Ver. 713. Mercury is so called from +Cyllene, in Arcadia, where he was born.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_110" id="note1_110" href="#tag1_110">110.</a> +<i>That his sight was wrapped.</i>]—Ver. 714. Clarke translates +‘Adopertaque lumina somno,’ ‘and his peepers covered with sleep.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_111" id="note1_111" href="#tag1_111">111.</a> +<i>The Argive mistress.</i>]—Ver. 726. Clarke renders ‘Pellicis +Argolicæ,’ ‘of the Grecian miss.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_112" id="note1_112" href="#tag1_112">112.</a> +<i>The linen-wearing throng.</i>]—Ver. 747. The priests, and +worshippers of Isis, with whom Io is here said to be identical, paid +their adoration to her clothed in linen vestments. Probably, Isis was +the first to teach the Egyptians the cultivation of flax.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_113" id="note1_113" href="#tag1_113">113.</a> +<i>Epaphus.</i>]—Ver. 748. Herodotus, in his second book, tells +us, that this son of Jupiter, by Io, was the same as the Egyptian God, +Apis. Eusebius, quoting from Apollodorus, says that Epaphus was the son +of Io, by Telegonus, who married her.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_114" id="note1_114" href="#tag1_114">114.</a> +<i>Clymene.</i>]—Ver. 756. She was a Nymph of the sea, the +daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_115" id="note1_115" href="#tag1_115">115.</a> +<i>Merops.</i>]—Ver. 763. He was king of <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘Ethiopa’">Ethiopia</ins>, and marrying the Nymph +Clymene, was either the stepfather of Phaëton, or, as some writers say, +his putative father.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_116" id="note1_116" href="#tag1_116">116.</a> +<i>To our regions.</i>]—Ver. 773. Ethiopia, which, in the time of +Ovid, was generally looked upon as one of the regions of the East.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_117" id="note1_117" href="#tag1_117">117.</a> +<i>The rays of the Sun.</i>]—Ver. 778. ‘Ignibus sidereis,’ means +here the ‘heat,’ or ‘fire of the sun,’ the sun being considered as a +‘sidus,’ or ‘luminous heavenly body.’</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Notes (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note1_A" id="note1_A" href="#tag1_A">A.</a> +In the McKay text, this and the following three footnotes—one full +page—were misprinted as 66-69 instead of 76-79. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_B" id="note1_B" href="#tag1_B">B.</a> +<i>...the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks.</i> Read as +“...the light breeze spread her careless locks behind her.†In McKay, +“her / her†is printed at a line break and can easily be mistaken +for an error. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note1_C" id="note1_C" href="#tag1_C">C.</a> +<i>Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23)</i> Editions of Pliny vary; +the passage may also be found as ch. 58 or 145. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">57</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">46</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookII" id="bookII"></a> +BOOK THE SECOND.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableI" id="bookII_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Phaëton</span>, insulted by Epaphus, goes to +the Palace of Apollo, to beseech him to give some token that he is his +son. Apollo, having sworn, by the river Styx, to refuse him nothing that +he should desire, he immediately asks to guide his chariot for one day. +He is unsuccessful in the attempt, and, the horses running away, the +world is in danger of being consumed.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> palace of the Sun was raised +high, on stately columns, bright with radiant gold, and carbuncle that +rivals the flames; polished ivory covered its highest top, <i>and</i> +double folding doors shone with the brightness of silver. The +workmanship <i>even</i> exceeded the material; for there Mulciber had +carved the sea circling round the encompassed Earth; and the orb of the +Earth, and the Heavens which hang over that orb. <i>There</i> the waves +have <i>in them</i> the azure Deities, both Triton, sounding <i>with his +shell</i>, and the changing Proteus, and Ægeon,<a class="tag" name="tag2_1" id="tag2_1" href="#note2_1">1</a> pressing the huge backs +of whales with his arms; Doris,<a class="tag" name="tag2_2" id="tag2_2" href="#note2_2">2</a> too, and her daughters, part of whom +appear to be swimming, part, sitting on the bank, to be drying their +green hair; some <i>are seen</i> borne upon fishes. The features in all +are not the same, nor, however, <i>remarkably</i> different: <i>they +are</i> such as those of sisters ought to be. The Earth has <i>upon +it</i> men and cities, and woods, and wild beasts, and rivers, and +Nymphs, and other Deities of the country. Over these is placed the +figure of the shining Heaven, and there are six Signs <i>of the +Zodiac</i> on the right door, and as many on the left.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">58</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 19-49</span> +<p>Soon as the son of Clymene had arrived thither by an ascending path, +and entered the house of his parent, <i>thus</i> doubted of; he +immediately turned his steps to the presence +<span class="pagenum bell">47</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 20-57</span> +of his father, and stood at a distance, for he could not bear the +refulgence nearer. Arrayed in a purple garment, PhÅ“bus was seated on a +throne sparkling with brilliant emeralds. On his right hand, and on his +left, the Days, the Months, the Years, the Ages, and the Hours were +arranged, at corresponding distances, and the fresh Spring was standing, +crowned with a chaplet of blossoms; Summer was standing naked, and +wearing garlands made of ears of corn; Autumn, too, was standing +besmeared with the trodden-out grapes; and icy Winter, rough with his +hoary hair.</p> + +<p>Then the Sun, from the midst of this place, with those eyes with +which he beholds all things, sees the young man struck with fear at the +novelty of <i>these</i> things, and says, “What is the occasion of thy +journey <i>hither</i>? What dost thou seek, Phaëton, in this <i>my</i> +palace, a son not to be denied by his parent?â€</p> + +<p>He answers, “O thou universal Light of the unbounded World, PhÅ“bus, +my father, if thou grantest me the use of that name; and if Clymene is +not concealing an error under a <i>false</i> pretext, give me, my +parent, some token, by which I may be believed to be really thy progeny; +and remove this uncertainty from my mind.†Thus he spoke; but his parent +took off the rays shining all around his head, and commanded him to come +nearer; and, having embraced him, he says, “<i>And</i> neither art thou +deserving to be denied to be mine, and Clymene has told thee thy true +origin; and that thou mayst have the less doubt, ask any gift thou mayst +please, that thou mayst receive it from me bestowing it. Let the lake, +by which the Gods are wont to swear, and which is unseen, <i>even</i> by +my eyes, be as a witness of my promise.â€</p> + +<p>Hardly had he well finished, when he asks for his father’s chariot, +and for the command and guidance of the wing-footed horses for one day. +His father repented that he had <i>so</i> sworn, and shaking his +splendid head +<span class="pagenum mckay">59</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 49-77</span> +three or four times, he said, “By thine have my words been made rash. +I wish I were allowed not to grant what I have promised! +I confess, my son, that this alone I would deny thee. <i>Still,</i> +I may dissuade thee: thy desire is not attended with safety. Thou +desirest, Phaëton, a gift <i>too</i> great, and <i>one</i> which is +suited neither to thy strength, nor to such youthful years. Thy lot is +that of a mortal; that which thou desirest, belongs not to mortals. +<i>Nay</i>, thou +<span class="pagenum bell">48</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 57-86</span> +aimest, in thy ignorance, at even more than it is allowed the Gods above +to obtain. Let every one be self-satisfied, <i>if he likes</i>; still, +with the exception of myself, no one is able to take his stand upon the +fire-bearing axle-tree. Even the Ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the +ruthless bolts with his terrific right hand, cannot guide this chariot; +and <i>yet</i>, what have we greater than Jupiter? The first <i>part of +the</i> road is steep, and such as the horses, <i>though</i> fresh in +the morning, can hardly climb. In the middle of the heavens it is high +aloft, from whence it is often a <i>source of</i> fear, <i>even</i> to +myself, to look <i>down</i> upon the sea and the earth, and my breast +trembles with fearful apprehensions. The last stage is a steep descent, +and requires a sure command <i>of the horses</i>. Then, too, Tethys<a +class="tag" name="tag2_3" id="tag2_3" href="#note2_3">3</a> +herself, who receives me in her waves, extended below, is often wont to +fear, lest I should be borne headlong <i>from above</i>. Besides, the +heavens are carried round<a class="tag" name="tag2_4" id="tag2_4" +href="#note2_4">4</a> with a constant rotation, and carry <i>with +them</i> the lofty stars, and whirl them with rapid revolution. Against +this I have to contend; and that force which overcomes <i>all</i> other +things, <i>does</i> not <i>overcome</i> me; and I am carried in a +contrary direction to the rapid world. Suppose the chariot given <i>to +thee</i>; what couldst thou do? Couldst thou proceed, opposed to the +whirling poles, so that the rapid heavens should not carry thee away? +Perhaps, too, thou dost fancy in thy mind that there are groves, and +cities of the Gods, and temples +<span class="pagenum mckay">60</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 77-103</span> +enriched with gifts: <i>whereas</i>, the way is through dangers, and the +forms of wild beasts;<a class="tag" name="tag2_5" id="tag2_5" href="#note2_5">5</a> and though thou shouldst keep on thy road, and be +drawn aside by no wanderings, still thou must pass amid the horns of the +threatening Bull, and the Hæmonian<a class="tag" name="tag2_6" id="tag2_6" href="#note2_6">6</a> bow, and <i>before</i> the visage of +the raging Lion, and the Scorpion, bending his cruel claws with a wide +compass, and the Crab, that bends his claws in a different manner; nor +is it easy for thee to govern the +<span class="pagenum bell">49</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 86-121</span> +steeds spirited by those fires which they have in their breasts, and +which they breathe forth from their mouths and their nostrils. Hardly +are they restrained by me, when their high-mettled spirit is <i>once</i> +heated, and their necks struggle against the reins. But do thou have a +care, my son, that I be not the occasion of a gift fatal to thee, and +while the matter <i>still</i> permits, alter thy intentions. Thou +askest, forsooth, a sure proof that thou mayst believe thyself +sprung from my blood? I give thee a sure proof in <i>thus</i> being +alarmed <i>for thee</i>; and by my paternal apprehensions, I am +shown to be thy father. Lo, behold my countenance! I wish, too, +that thou couldst direct thy eyes into my breast, and discover my +fatherly concern within! Finally, look around thee, upon whatever the +rich world contains, and ask for anything out of the blessings, so many +and so great, of heaven, of earth, and of sea; <i>and</i> thou shalt +suffer no denial. In this one thing alone I beg to be excused, which, +<i>called</i> by its right name, is a penalty, and not an honor; thou +art asking, Phaëton, a punishment instead of a gift. Why, in thy +ignorance, art thou embracing my neck with caressing arms? Doubt not; +whatever thou shalt desire shall be granted thee (by the Stygian waves I +have sworn it); but do thou make thy desire more considerately.â€</p> + +<p>He had finished his admonitions; and yet <i>Phaëton</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">61</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 103-129</span> +resists his advice, and presses his point, and burns with eagerness for +the chariot. Wherefore, his parent having delayed as long as he could, +leads the young man to the lofty chariot, the gift of Vulcan. The +axle-tree was of gold, the poles were of gold; the circumference of the +exterior of the wheel was of gold; the range of the spokes was of +silver. Chrysolites and gems placed along the yoke in order, gave a +bright light from the reflected sun. And while the aspiring Phaëton is +admiring these things, and is examining the workmanship, behold! the +watchful Aurora opened her purple doors in the ruddy east, and her halls +filled with roses. The stars disappear, the troops whereof Lucifer +gathers, and moves the last from his station in the heavens. But the +father Titan, when he beheld the earth and the universe growing red, and +the horns of the far-distant Moon, as if about to vanish, orders the +swift Hours to yoke the horses. The Goddesses speedily perform his +commands, and lead forth the steeds from the lofty stalls, +<span class="pagenum bell">50</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 121-148</span> +snorting forth flames, and filled with the juice of Ambrosia; and +<i>then</i> they put on the sounding bits.</p> + +<p>Then the father touched the face of his son with a hallowed drug, and +made it able to endure the burning flames, and placed the rays upon his +locks, and fetching from his troubled heart sighs presaging his sorrow, +he said: “If thou canst here at least, my boy, obey the advice of thy +father, be sparing of the whip, and use the bridle with nerve. Of their +own accord they are wont to hasten on; the difficulty is to check them +in their full career. And let not the way attract thee through the five +direct circles.<a class="tag" name="tag2_7" id="tag2_7" href="#note2_7">7</a> There is a track cut +<span class="pagenum mckay">62</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 130-164</span> +obliquely, with a broad curvature, and bounded by the extremities of +three zones, and <i>so</i> it shuns the South pole, and the Bear united +to the North. Let thy way be here; thou wilt perceive distinct traces of +the wheels. And that heaven and earth may endure equal heat, neither +drive too low, nor urge the chariot along the summit of the sky. Going +forth too high, thou wilt set on fire the signs of the heavens; too low, +the earth; in the middle course thou will go most safely. Neither let +the right wheel bear thee off towards the twisted Serpent, nor let the +left lead thee to the low Altar; hold thy course between them. The rest +I leave to Fortune, who, I pray, may aid thee, and take more care +of thee, than thou dost of thyself. Whilst I am speaking, the moist +Night has touched the goals placed on the Western shores; delay is not +allowed me. I am required; the Morning is shining forth, the +darkness being dispersed. Seize the reins with thy hands; or if thou +hast a mind capable of change, make use of my advice, <i>and</i> not my +chariot, while thou art <i>still</i> able, and art even yet standing +upon solid ground; and while thou art not yet in thy ignorance filling +the chariot that thou didst so unfortunately covet.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">51</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 149-181</span> + +<p>The other leaps into the light chariot with his youthful body, and +stands aloft, and rejoices to take in his hand the reins presented <i>to +him</i>, and then gives thanks to his reluctant parent. In the meantime +the swift Pyroeis, and Eoüs and Æthon, the horses of the sun, and +Phlegon, <i>making</i> the fourth, fill the air with neighings, sending +forth flames, and beat the barriers with their feet. After Tethys, +ignorant of the destiny of her grandson, had removed these, and the +scope of the boundless universe was given them, they take the road, and +moving their feet through the air, they cleave the resisting clouds, and +raised aloft by their wings, they pass by the East winds that had arisen +from the same parts. But the weight was light; and such as the horses of +the sun could not feel; and the yoke was deficient of its wonted weight. +And as the curving ships, without proper ballast, are tossed about, and +unsteady, through their too great lightness, are borne through +<span class="pagenum mckay">63</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 165-191</span> +the sea, so does the chariot give bounds<a class="tag" name="tag2_8" id="tag2_8" href="#note2_8">8</a> in the air, unimpeded by its usual +burden, and is tossed on high, and is just like an empty one.</p> + +<p>Soon as the steeds have perceived this, they rush on, and leave the +beaten track, and run not in the order in which <i>they did</i> before. +He himself becomes alarmed; and knows not which way to turn the reins +entrusted <i>to him</i>, nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he +did know, could he control them. Then, for the first time, did the cold +Triones grow warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in +the sea that was forbidden <i>to them</i>. And the Serpent which is +situate next to the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and +formidable to no one, grew warm, and regained new rage from the heat. +They say, too,<a class="tag" name="tag2_9" id="tag2_9" href="#note2_9">9</a> that thou, Boötes, being disturbed, took to flight; +although thou wast <i>but</i> slow, and thy wain impeded thee. But when, +from the height of the skies, the unhappy Phaëton looked down upon the +earth, lying far, very far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook +with a sudden terror; and in a light so great, darkness overspread +<span class="pagenum bell">52</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 181-216</span> +his eyes. And now he could wish that he had never touched the horses of +his father; and now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and that he +prevailed in his request; now desiring to be called the son of Merops. +He is borne along, just as a ship driven by the furious Boreas, to which +its pilot has given up the overpowered helm, <i>and</i> which he has +resigned to the Gods and <i>the effect of</i> his supplications. What +can he do? much of heaven is left behind his back; still more is before +his eyes. Either <i>space</i> he measures in his mind; and at one moment +he is looking forward to the West, which it is not allowed him by fate +to reach; <i>and</i> sometimes he looks back upon the East. Ignorant +what to do, he is <ins class="corr both" title="McKay reads +‘stupei//fied’ at page break; Bell has anomalous spelling ‘stupified’">stupeified</ins>; +<span class="pagenum mckay">64</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 191-217</span> +and he neither lets go the reins, nor is he able to retain them; nor +does he know the names of the horses. In his fright, too, he sees +strange objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the heavens, +and the forms of huge wild beasts. There is a spot where the Scorpion +bends his arms into two curves, and with his tail and claws bending on +either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two signs <i>of +the Zodiac</i>. As soon as the youth beheld him wet with the sweat of +black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point <i>of his +tail</i>, bereft of sense, he let go the reins, in a chill of horror. +Soon as they, falling down, have touched the top of their backs, the +horses range at large: and no one restraining them, they go through the +air of an unknown region; and where their fury drives them thither, +without check, do they hurry along, and they rush on to the stars fixed +in the sky, and drag the chariot through pathless places. One while they +are mounting aloft, and now they are borne through steep places, and +<i>along</i> headlong paths in a tract nearer to the earth.</p> + +<p>The Moon, too, wonders that her brother’s horses run lower than her +own, and the scorched clouds send forth smoke. As each region is most +elevated, it is caught by the flames, and cleft, it makes <i>vast</i> +chasms, and becomes dry, its moisture being carried away. The grass +grows pale; the trees, with their foliage, are burnt up; and the dry +standing corn affords fuel for its own destruction. <i>But</i> I am +complaining of trifling <i>ills</i>. Great cities perish, together with +their fortifications, and the flames turn whole nations, with their +populations, into ashes; woods, together with mountains, +<span class="pagenum bell">53</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 216-223</span> +are on fire. Athos<a class="tag" name="tag2_10" id="tag2_10" href="#note2_10">10</a> burns, and the Cilician Taurus,<a class="tag" +name="tag2_11" id="tag2_11" href="#note2_11">11</a> and Tmolus,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_12" id="tag2_12" href="#note2_12">12</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">65</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 217-226</span> +and Å’ta,<a class="tag" name="tag2_13" id="tag2_13" href="#note2_13">13</a> and Ida,<a class="tag" name="tag2_14" id="tag2_14" href="#note2_14">14</a> now dry, <i>but</i> once most famed +for its springs; and Helicon,<a class="tag" name="tag2_15" id="tag2_15" href="#note2_15">15</a> the resort of the Virgin +<i>Muses</i>, and <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘HÅ“mus’">Hæmus</ins>,<a class="tag" name="tag2_16" id="tag2_16" +href="#note2_16">16</a> not yet <i>called</i> Å’agrian. Ætna<a class="tag" name="tag2_17" id="tag2_17" href="#note2_17">17</a> burns +intensely with redoubled flames, and Parnassus, with its two summits, +and Eryx,<a class="tag" name="tag2_18" id="tag2_18" href="#note2_18">18</a> and Cynthus,<a class="tag" name="tag2_19" id="tag2_19" href="#note2_19">19</a> and Othrys, and Rhodope,<a class="tag" name="tag2_20" id="tag2_20" href="#note2_20">20</a> at +length to be despoiled of its snows, and Mimas,<a class="tag" name="tag2_21" id="tag2_21" href="#note2_21">21</a> and Dindyma,<a class="tag" name="tag2_22" id="tag2_22" href="#note2_22">22</a> and +Mycale,<a class="tag" name="tag2_23" id="tag2_23" href="#note2_23">23</a> and Cithæron,<a class="tag" name="tag2_24" id="tag2_24" href="#note2_24">24</a> created for <i>the +<span class="pagenum bell">54</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 223-241</span> +performance of</i> sacred rites. Nor does its cold avail <i>even</i> +Scythia; Caucasus<a class="tag" name="tag2_25" id="tag2_25" href="#note2_25">25</a> is on fire, and Ossa with Pindus, and Olympus, +greater than them both, and the lofty Alps,<a class="tag" name="tag2_26" id="tag2_26" href="#note2_26">26</a> and the cloud-bearing +Apennines.<a class="tag" name="tag2_27" id="tag2_27" href="#note2_27">27</a></p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">66</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 227-243</span> +<p>Then, indeed, Phaëton beholds the world set on fire on all sides, and +he cannot endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth scorching +air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own chariot to be +on fire. And neither is he able now to bear the ashes and the emitted +embers; and, on every side, he is involved in heated smoke. Covered with +a pitchy darkness, he knows not whither he is going, nor where he is, +and is hurried away at the pleasure of the winged steeds. They believe +that it was then that the nations of the Æthiopians contracted their +black hue,<a class="tag" name="tag2_28" id="tag2_28" href="#note2_28">28</a> the blood being attracted into the surface of the +body. Then was Libya<a class="tag" name="tag2_29" id="tag2_29" +href="#note2_29">29</a> made dry by the heat, the moisture being +carried off; then, with dishevelled hair, the Nymphs lamented the +springs and the lakes. BÅ“otia bewails Dirce,<a class="tag" name="tag2_30" id="tag2_30" href="#note2_30">30</a> Argos Amymone,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_31" id="tag2_31" href="#note2_31">31</a> +and Ephyre<a class="tag" name="tag2_32" id="tag2_32" href="#note2_32">32</a> the waters of Pirene. Nor do rivers that have got +banks distant in +<span class="pagenum bell">55</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 241-251</span> +situation, remain <i>secure</i>; Tanais<a class="tag" name="tag2_33" id="tag2_33" href="#note2_33">33</a> smokes in the midst of its +waters, and the aged Peneus, and Teuthrantian +<span class="pagenum mckay">67</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 243-251</span> +Caïcus,<a class="tag" name="tag2_34" id="tag2_34" href="#note2_34">34</a> and rapid Ismenus,<a class="tag" name="tag2_35" id="tag2_35" href="#note2_35">35</a> with Phocean Erymanthus,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_36" id="tag2_36" href="#note2_36">36</a> +and Xanthus<a class="tag" name="tag2_37" id="tag2_37" href="#note2_37">37</a> again to burn, and yellow Lycormas,<a class="tag" +name="tag2_38" id="tag2_38" href="#note2_38">38</a> and Mæander,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_39" id="tag2_39" href="#note2_39">39</a> +which sports with winding streams, and the Mygdonian Melas,<a class="tag" name="tag2_40" id="tag2_40" href="#note2_40">40</a> and the +Tænarian Eurotas.<a class="tag" name="tag2_41" id="tag2_41" href="#note2_41">41</a> The Babylonian Euphrates, too, was on fire, Orontes<a +class="tag" name="tag2_42" id="tag2_42" href="#note2_42">42</a> +was in flames, and the swift Thermodon<a class="tag" name="tag2_43" id="tag2_43" href="#note2_43">43</a> and Ganges,<a class="tag" +name="tag2_44" id="tag2_44" href="#note2_44">44</a> and Phasis,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_45" id="tag2_45" href="#note2_45">45</a> +and Ister.<a class="tag" name="tag2_46" id="tag2_46" href="#note2_46">46</a> Alpheus<a class="tag" name="tag2_47" id="tag2_47" href="#note2_47">47</a> boils; the banks of Spercheus burn; +and the gold which Tagus<a class="tag" name="tag2_48" id="tag2_48" +href="#note2_48">48</a> carries +<span class="pagenum bell">56</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 251-276</span> +with its stream, melts in the flames. +<span class="pagenum mckay">68</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 252-275</span> +The river birds too, which made famous the Mæonian<a class="tag" name="tag2_49" id="tag2_49" href="#note2_49">49</a> banks <i>of the +river</i> with their song, grew hot in the middle of Caÿster. The Nile, +affrighted, fled to the remotest parts of the earth, and concealed his +head, which still lies hid; his seven last mouths are empty, +<i>become</i> seven <i>mere</i> channels, without any stream. The same +fate dries up the Ismarian <i>rivers</i>, Hebrus together with +Strymon,<a class="tag" name="tag2_50" id="tag2_50" href="#note2_50">50</a> and the Hesperian<a class="tag" name="tag2_51" id="tag2_51" href="#note2_51">51</a> streams, the Rhine, and the Rhone, +and the Po, and the Tiber, to which was promised the sovereignty of the +world.</p> + +<p>All the ground bursts asunder; and through the chinks, the light +penetrates into Tartarus, and startles the Infernal King with his +spouse. The Ocean too, is contracted, and that which lately was sea, is +a surface of parched sand; and the mountains which the deep sea had +covered, start up and increase <i>the number of</i> the scattered +Cyclades.<a class="tag" name="tag2_52" id="tag2_52" href="#note2_52">52</a> The fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked +Dolphins do not care to raise themselves on the surface into the air, as +usual. The bodies of sea calves float lifeless on their backs, on the +top of the water. The story, too, is, that <i>even</i> Nereus himself, +and Doris and their daughters, lay hid in the heated caverns. Three +times had Neptune ventured, with a stern countenance, to thrust his arms +out of the water; three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat +of the air. However, the genial Earth, as she was surrounded with sea, +amid the waters of the main, and the springs, dried up on every side, +which had hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, +burnt-up, lifted up her all-productive face<a class="tag" name="tag2_53" id="tag2_53" href="#note2_53">53</a> as far as +<span class="pagenum mckay">69</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 275-302</span> +her neck, and placed her hands to her forehead, +<span class="pagenum bell">57</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 276-303</span> +and shaking all things with a vast trembling, she sank down a little, +and retired below the spot where she is wont to be, and thus she spoke, +with a parched voice: “O sovereign of the Gods, if thou approvest +of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings linger? Let me, +<i>if</i> doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by thy flames; +and alleviate my misfortune, by being the author <i>of it</i>. With +difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words;†(the vapor +had oppressed her utterance.) “Behold my scorched hair, and such a +quantity of ashes over my eyes, so much <i>too</i>, over my features. +And dost thou give this as my recompense? this, as the reward of my +fertility and of my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked +plough and harrows, and am harassed all the year through? In that I +supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food for +mankind, and frankincense for yourselves? But still, suppose that I am +deserving of destruction, why have the waves <i>deserved this</i>? Why +has thy brother deserved it? Why do the seas, delivered to him by lot, +decrease, and why do they recede still further from the sky? But if +regard for neither thy brother nor for myself influences thee, still +have consideration for thy own skies; look around, on either side, +<i>how</i> each pole is smoking; if the fire shall injure them, thy +palace will fall in ruins. See! Atlas<a class="tag" name="tag2_54" id="tag2_54" href="#note2_54">54</a> himself is struggling, and +hardly can he bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. If the sea, if +the earth perishes, if the palace of heaven, we are thrown<a class="tag" name="tag2_55" id="tag2_55" href="#note2_55">55</a> into the +confused state of ancient chaos. Save it from the flames, if aught still +survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe.â€</p> + +<p>Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the +vapor, nor say more; and she withdrew +<span class="pagenum mckay">70</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 303-304</span> +her face within herself, and the caverns neighboring to the shades +below.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +If we were to regard this fable solely as an allegory intended to convey +<span class="pagenum bell">58</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 304-310</span> +a moral, we should at once perceive that the adventure of Phaëton +represents the wilful folly of a rash young man, who consults his own +inclination, rather than the dictates of wisdom and prudence. Some +ancient writers tell us that Phaëton was the son of PhÅ“bus and Clymene, +while others make the nymph Rhoda to have been his mother. Apollodorus, +following Hesiod, says that Hersa, the daughter of Cecrops, king of +Athens, was the mother of Cephalus, who was carried away by Aurora; +which probably means that he left Greece for the purpose of settling in +the East. Cephalus had a son named Tithonus, the father of Phaëton. Thus +Phaëton was the fourth in lineal descent from Cecrops, who reigned at +Athens about 1580, <small>B.C.</small> The story is +most probably based upon the fact of some excessive heat that happened +in his time. Aristotle supposes that at that period flames fell from +heaven, which ravaged several countries. Possibly the burning of the +cities of the plain, or the stay of the sun in his course at the command +of Joshua, may have been the foundation of the story. St. Chrysostom +suggests that it is based upon an imperfect version of the ascent of +Elijah in a chariot of fire; that name, or rather ‘Elias,’ the Greek +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘from’">form</ins> of it, +bearing a strong resemblance to <span class="greek" title="Hêlios">á¼Î»Î¹Î¿Ï‚</span>, the Greek name of the sun. Vossius suggests that +this is an Egyptian history, and considers the story of the grief of +PhÅ“bus for the loss of his son to be another version of the sorrows of +the Egyptians for the death of Osiris. The tears of the Heliades, or +sisters of Phaëton, he conceives to be identical with the lamentations +of the women who wept for the death of Thammuz. The Poet, when he tells +us that Phaëton abandoned his chariot on seeing The Scorpion, probably +intends to show that the event of which he treats happened in the month +in which the sun enters that sign.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Plutarch and Tzetzes tell us that Phaëton was a king of the Molossians, +who drowned himself in the Po; that he was a student of astronomy, and +foretold an excessive heat which happened in his reign, and laid waste +his kingdom. Lucian, also, in his Discourse on Astronomy, gives a +similar explanation of the story, and says that this prince dying very +young, left his observations imperfect, which gave rise to the fable +that he did not know how to drive the chariot of the sun to the end of +its course.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableII" id="bookII_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, to save the universe from +being consumed, hurls his thunder at Phaëton, on which he falls headlong +into the river Eridanus.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> the omnipotent father, having +called the Gods +<span class="pagenum mckay">71</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 305-330</span> +above to witness, and him, too, who had given the chariot <i>to +Phaëton</i>, that unless he gives assistance, all things will perish in +direful ruin, mounts aloft to the highest eminence, from which he is +wont to spread the clouds over the spacious earth; from which he moves +his thunders, and hurls the brandished lightnings. But then, he had +neither clouds that he could +<span class="pagenum bell">59</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 310-335</span> +draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky. +He thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right ear +against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both of his +life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the flames. The +horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in an opposite direction, +they shake the yoke from off their necks, and disengage themselves from +the torn harness. In one place lie the reins; in another, the axle-tree +wrenched away from the pole; in another part <i>are</i> the spokes of +the broken wheels; and the fragments of the chariot torn in pieces are +scattered far and wide. But Phaëton, the flames consuming his yellow +hair, is hurled headlong, and is borne in a long <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘track’; Ovid II.320 ‘tractu’">tract</ins> +through the air; as sometimes a star from the serene sky may appear to +fall, although it <i>really</i> has not fallen. Him the great Eridanus +receives, in a part of the world far distant from his country, and +bathes his foaming face.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableIII" id="bookII_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> sisters of Phaëton are changed into +poplars, and their tears become amber distilling from those trees.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Hesperian Naiads<a class="tag" +name="tag2_56" id="tag2_56" href="#note2_56">56</a> commit his +body, smoking from the three-forked flames, to the tomb, and inscribe +these verses on the stone:—“Here is Phaëton buried, the driver of +his father’s chariot, which if he did not manage, still he miscarried in +a great attempt.†But his wretched father had hidden his face, overcast +with bitter sorrow, and, if only we can believe it, they say +<span class="pagenum mckay">72</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 331-359</span> +that one day passed without the sun.<a class="tag" name="tag2_57" id="tag2_57" href="#note2_57">57</a> The flames afforded light; and +<i>so far</i>, there was some advantage in that disaster. But Clymene, +after she had said whatever things were to be said amid misfortunes so +great, traversed the whole earth, full of woe, and distracted, and +tearing her bosom. +<span class="pagenum bell">60</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 335-366</span> +And first seeking his lifeless limbs, <i>and</i> then his bones, she +found his bones, however, buried on a foreign bank. She laid herself +down on the spot; and bathed with tears the name she read on the marble, +and warmed it with her open breast. The daughters of the Sun mourn no +less, and give tears, an unavailing gift, to his death; and beating +their breasts with their hands, they call Phaëton both night and day, +who is doomed not to hear their sad complaints; and they lie scattered +about the tomb.</p> + +<p>The Moon had four times filled her disk, by joining her horns; they, +according to their custom (for use had made custom), uttered +lamentations; among whom Phaëthusa, the eldest of the sisters, when she +was desirous to lie on the ground, complained that her feet had grown +stiff; to whom the fair Lampetie attempting to come, was detained by a +root suddenly formed. A third, when she is endeavoring to tear her +hair with her hands, tears off leaves; one complains that her legs are +held fast by the trunk of a tree, another that her arms are become long +branches. And while they are wondering at these things, bark closes upon +their loins; and by degrees, it encompasses their stomachs, their +breasts, their shoulders, and their hands; and only their mouths are +left uncovered, calling upon their mother. What is their mother to do? +but run here and there, whither frenzy leads her, and join her lips +<i>with theirs</i>, while <i>yet</i> she may? That is not enough; she +tries to pull their bodies out of the trunks <i>of the trees</i>, and +with her hands to tear away the tender +<span class="pagenum mckay">73</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 360-380</span> +branches; but from thence drops of blood flow as from a wound. Whichever +<i>of them</i> is wounded, cries out, “Spare me, mother, O spare +me, I pray; in the tree my body is being torn. And now farewell.†+The bark came over the last words.</p> + +<p>Thence tears flow forth; and amber distilling from the new-formed +branches, hardens in the sun; which the clear river receives and sends +to be worn by the Latian matrons.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">61</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 367-<ins class="corr bell" title="text reads ‘438’">391</ins></span> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableIV" id="bookII_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Cycnus</span>, king of Liguria, inconsolable +for the death of Phaëton, is transformed into a swan.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Cycnus</span>, the son of Sthenelus,<a +class="tag" name="tag2_58" id="tag2_58" href="#note2_58">58</a> +was present at this strange event; who, although he was related to thee, +Phaëton, on his mother’s side, was yet more nearly allied in affection. +He having left his kingdom (for he reigned over the people and the great +cities of the Ligurians<a class="tag" name="tag2_59" id="tag2_59" +href="#note2_59">59</a>) was filling the verdant banks and the river +Eridanus, and the wood, <i>now</i> augmented by the sisters, with his +complaints; when the man’s voice became shrill, and gray feathers +concealed his hair. A long neck, too, extends from his breast, and +a membrane joins his reddening toes; feathers clothe his sides, +<i>and</i> his mouth holds a bill without a point. Cycnus becomes a new +bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens or the air, as being +mindful of the fire unjustly sent from thence. He frequents the pools +and the wide lakes, and abhorring fire, he chooses the streams, the +<i>very</i> contrary of flames.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">74</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 381-400</span> +<p>Meanwhile, the father of Phaëton, in squalid garb, and destitute of +his comeliness, just as he is wont to be when he suffers an eclipse of +his disk, abhors both the light, himself, and the day; and gives his +mind up to grief, and adds resentment to his sorrow, and denies his +services to the world. “My lot,†says he, “has been restless enough from +the <i>very</i> beginning of time, and I am tired of labors endured by +me, without end and without honor. Let any one else drive the chariot +that carries the light. If there is no one, and all the Gods confess +that they cannot do it, let <i>Jupiter</i> himself drive it; that, at +least, while he is trying my reins, he may for a time lay aside the +lightnings that bereave fathers. Then he will know, +<span class="pagenum bell">62</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 392-408</span> +having made trial of the strength of the flame-footed steeds, that he +who did not successfully guide them, did not deserve death.â€</p> + +<p>All the Deities stand around the Sun, as he says such things; and +they entreat him, with suppliant voice, not to determine to bring +darkness over the world. Jupiter, as well, excuses the hurling of his +lightnings, and imperiously adds threats to entreaties. PhÅ“bus calls +together his steeds, maddened and still trembling with terror, and, +subduing them, vents his fury both with whip and lash; for he is +furious, and upbraids them with his son, and charges <i>his death</i> +upon them.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Plutarch places the tomb of Phaëton on the banks of the river Po; and it +is not improbable that his mother and sisters, grieving at his fate, +ended their lives in the neighborhood of his tomb, being overcome with +grief, which gave rise to the story that they were changed into the +poplars on its banks, which distilled amber. Some writers say, that they +were changed into larch trees, and not poplars. Hesiod and Pindar also +make mention of this tradition. Possibly, Cycnus, being a friend of +Phaëton, may have died from grief at his loss, on which the poets graced +his attachment with the story that he was changed into a swan. +Apollodorus mentions two other persons of the name of Cycnus. One was +the son of Mars, and was killed before Troy; the other, as Hesiod tells +us, was killed by Hercules. Lucian, in his satirical vein, tells us, +that inquiring on the banks of the Po for the swans, and the poplars +distilling amber, he was told that no such things had ever been seen +there; and that even the tradition of Phaëton and his sisters was +utterly unknown to the inhabitants of those parts.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">75</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 401-422</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableV" id="bookII_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, while taking a survey of the +world, to extinguish the remains of the fire, falls in love with +Calisto, whom he sees in Arcadia; and, in order to seduce that Nymph, he +assumes the form of Diana. Her sister Nymphs disclose her misfortune +before the Goddess, who drives her from her company, on account of the +violation of her vow of chastity.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> the omnipotent father surveys +the vast walls of heaven, and carefully searches, that no part, impaired +by the violence of the fire, may fall to ruin. After he has seen them to +be secure and in their own <i>full</i> strength, he examines the earth, +and the works of man; yet a care for his own Arcadia is more +particularly his object. He restores, too, the springs and the rivers, +that had not yet dared to flow, he gives grass to the earth: green +leaves to the trees; and orders the injured forests +<span class="pagenum bell">63</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 408-438</span> +again to be green. While <i>thus</i> he often went to and fro, he +stopped short on <i>seeing</i> a virgin of Nonacris, and the fires +engendered within his bones received <i>fresh</i> heat. It was not her +employment to soften the wool by teasing, nor to vary her tresses in +their arrangement; while a buckle fastened her garment, and a white +fillet her hair, carelessly flowing; and at one time she bore in her +hand a light javelin, at another, a bow. She was a warrior of +PhÅ“be; nor did any <i>Nymph</i> frequent Mænalus, more beloved by +Trivia,<a class="tag" name="tag2_60" id="tag2_60" href="#note2_60">60</a> than she; but no influence is of long duration. The +lofty Sun had <i>now</i> obtained a position beyond the mid course, when +she enters a grove which no generation had <i>ever</i> cut. Here she +puts her quiver off from her shoulders, and unbends her pliant bow, and +lies down on the ground, which the grass had covered, and presses her +painted quiver, with her neck laid on it. When Jupiter saw her +<i>thus</i> weary, and without a protector, +<span class="pagenum mckay">76</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 423-449</span> +he said, “For certain, my wife will know nothing of this stolen embrace; +or, if she should chance to know, is her scolding, is it, <i>I say</i>, +of such great consequence?â€</p> + +<p>Immediately he puts on the form and dress of Diana, and says, +“O Virgin! one portion of my train, upon what mountains hast thou +been hunting?†The virgin raises herself from the turf, and says, “Hail, +Goddess! <i>that art</i>, in my opinion, greater than Jove, even if he +himself should hear it.†He both smiles and he hears it, and is pleased +at being preferred to himself; and he gives her kisses, not very +moderate, nor such as would be given by a virgin. He stops her as she is +preparing to tell him in what wood she has been hunting, by an embrace, +and he does not betray himself without the commission <i>of +violence</i>. She, indeed, on the other hand, as far as a woman could do +(would that thou hadst seen her, daughter of Saturn, <i>then</i> thou +wouldst have been more merciful), she, indeed, <i>I say</i>, resists; +but what damsel, or who <i>besides</i>, could prevail against Jupiter? +Jove, <i>now</i> the conqueror, seeks the heavens above; the grove and +the conscious +<span class="pagenum bell">64</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 438-465</span> +wood is <i>now</i> her aversion. Making her retreat thence, she is +almost forgetting to take away her quiver with her arrows, and the bow +which she had hung up.</p> + +<p>Behold, Dictynna,<a class="tag" name="tag2_61" id="tag2_61" +href="#note2_61">61</a> attended by her train, as she goes along the +lofty Mænalus, and exulting in the slaughter of the wild beasts, beholds +her, and calls her, thus seen. Being so called, she drew back, and at +first was afraid lest Jupiter might be under her <i>shape</i>; but after +she saw the Nymphs walking along with her, she perceived that there was +no deceit,<a class="tag" name="tag2_62" id="tag2_62" href="#note2_62">62</a> and she approached their train. Alas! how difficult +it is not to betray a crime by one’s looks! She scarce raises her eyes +from the ground, nor, as she used to do, does she walk by the side of +the Goddess, nor is she the foremost in the whole company; +<span class="pagenum mckay">77</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 450-470</span> +but she is silent, and by her blushes she gives signs of her injured +honor. And Diana, but <i>for the fact</i>, that she is a virgin, might +have perceived her fault by a thousand indications; the Nymphs are said +to have perceived it.</p> + +<p>The horns of the Moon were <i>now</i> rising again in her ninth +course, when the hunting Goddess, faint from her brother’s flames, +lighted on a cool grove, out of which a stream ran, flowing with its +murmuring noise, and borne along the sand worn fine <i>by its +action</i>. When she had approved of the spot, she touched the surface +of the water with her foot; and commending it as well, she says, “All +overlookers are far off; let us bathe our bodies, with the stream poured +over them.†She of Parrhasia<a class="tag" name="tag2_63" id="tag2_63" href="#note2_63">63</a> blushed; they all put off their +clothes; she alone sought <i>an excuse for</i> delay. Her garment was +removed as she hesitated, which being put off, her fault was exposed +with her naked body. Cynthia said to her, in confusion, and endeavoring +to conceal her stomach with her hands, “Begone afar hence! and pollute +not the sacred springs;†and she ordered her to leave her train.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">65</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 465-486</span> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableVI" id="bookII_fableVI"> +FABLES VI</a> AND VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Juno</span>, being jealous that Calisto has +attracted Jupiter, transforms her into a Bear. Her son, Arcas, not +recognizing his mother in that shape, is about to kill her; but Jupiter +removes them both to the skies, where they form the Constellations of +the Great and the Little Bear. The raven, as a punishment for his +garrulity, is changed from white to black.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> spouse of the great Thunderer +had perceived this some time before, and had put off the severe +punishment <i>designed for her</i>, to a proper time. There is +<i>now</i> no reason for delay; and now the boy Arcas (that, too, was a +grief to Juno) was born of the mistress <i>of her husband</i>. +Wherefore, she turned her thoughts, full of +<span class="pagenum mckay">78</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 470-494</span> +resentment, and her eyes <i>upon her</i>, and said, “This thing, +forsooth, alone was wanting, thou adulteress, that thou shouldst be +pregnant, and that my injury should become notorious by thy labors, and +that <i>thereby</i> the disgraceful conduct of my <i>husband</i>, +Jupiter, should be openly declared. Thou shalt not go unpunished; for I +will spoil that shape of thine, on which thou pridest thyself, and by +which thou, mischievous one,<a class="tag" name="tag2_64" id="tag2_64" href="#note2_64">64</a> dost charm my husband.â€</p> + +<p><i>Thus</i> she spoke; and seizing her straight in front by the +hair,<a class="tag" name="tag2_65" id="tag2_65" href="#note2_65">65</a> threw her on her face to the ground. She suppliantly +stretched forth her arms; those arms began to grow rough with black +hair,<a class="tag" name="tag2_66" id="tag2_66" href="#note2_66">66</a> and her hands to be bent, and to increase to hooked +claws, and to do the duty of feet, and the mouth, that was once admired +by Jupiter, to become deformed with a wide opening; and lest her +prayers, and words not needed, should influence her feelings, the power +of speech is taken from her; an angry and threatening voice, and full of +terror, is uttered from her hoarse throat. Still, her former +understanding remains in her, even thus become a bear; and expressing +her +<span class="pagenum bell">66</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 486-519</span> +sorrows by her repeated groans, she lifts up her hands, such as they +are, to heaven and to the stars, and she deems Jove ungrateful, though +she cannot call him so. Ah! how often, not daring to rest in the lonely +wood, did she wander about before her own house, and in the fields once +her own. Ah! how often was she driven over the crags by the cry of the +hounds; and, a huntress herself, she fled in alarm, through fear of +the hunters! Often, seeing the wild beasts, did she +<span class="pagenum mckay">79</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 494-521</span> +lie concealed, forgetting what she was; and, a bear herself, +dreaded the he-bears seen on the mountains, and was alarmed at the +wolves, though her father was among them.</p> + +<p>Behold! Arcas, the offspring of the daughter of Lycaon, ignorant of +who is his parent, approaches her, thrice five birthdays being now +nearly past; and while he is following the wild beasts, while he is +choosing the proper woods, and is enclosing the Erymanthian forests<a +class="tag" name="tag2_67" id="tag2_67" href="#note2_67">67</a> +with his platted nets, he meets with his mother. She stood still, upon +seeing Arcas, and was like one recognizing <i>another</i>. He drew back, +and, in his ignorance, was alarmed at her keeping her eyes fixed upon +him without ceasing; and, as she was desirous to approach still nearer, +he would have pierced her breast with the wounding spear. Omnipotent +<i>Jove</i> averted this, and removed both them and <i>such</i> +wickedness; and placed them, carried through vacant space with a rapid +wind, in the heavens, and made them neighboring Constellations.</p> + +<p>Juno swelled with rage after the mistress shone amid the stars, and +descended on the sea to the hoary Tethys, and the aged Ocean, +a regard for whom has often influenced the Gods; and said to them, +inquiring the reason of her coming, “Do you inquire why I, the queen of +the Gods, am come hither from the æthereal abodes? Another has +possession of heaven in my stead. May I be deemed untruthful, if, when +the night has made the world dark, you see not in the highest part of +heaven stars but lately <i>thus</i> honored to my affliction; there, +where the last and most limited circle surrounds the extreme part of the +axis <i>of the world</i>. Is there, then, <i>any ground</i> why one +should hesitate to affront Juno, and dread my being offended, who only +benefit them by my resentment? +<span class="pagenum bell">67</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 520-550</span> +See what a great thing I have done! How vast is my power! I forbade +her to be of human shape; she has been made a Goddess; ’tis thus that I +inflict punishment on offenders; such is my +<span class="pagenum mckay">80</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 522-550</span> +mighty power! Let him obtain <i>for her</i> her former shape, and let +him remove this form of a wild beast; as he formerly did for the Argive +Phoronis. Why does he not marry her as well, divorcing Juno, and place +her in my couch, and take Lycaon for his father-in-law? But if the wrong +done to your injured foster-child affects you, drive the seven Triones +away from your azure waters, and expel the stars received into heaven as +the reward of adultery, that a concubine may not be received into your +pure waves.â€</p> + +<p>The Gods of the sea granted her request. The daughter of Saturn +enters the liquid air in her graceful chariot,<a class="tag" name="tag2_68" id="tag2_68" href="#note2_68">68</a> with her variegated +peacocks; peacocks just as lately tinted, upon the killing of Argus, as +thou, garrulous raven, hadst been suddenly transformed into <i>a bird +having</i> black wings, whereas thou hadst been white before. For this +bird was formerly of a silver hue, with snow-white feathers, so that he +equalled the doves entirely without spot; nor would he give place to the +geese that were to save the Capitol by their watchful voice, nor to the +swan haunting the streams. His tongue was the cause of his disgrace; his +chattering tongue being the cause, that the color which was white is now +the reverse of white.</p> + +<p>There was no one more beauteous in all Hæmonia than <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Larissæn’">Larissæan</ins><a class="tag" name="tag2_69" id="tag2_69" href="#note2_69">69</a> Coronis. +At least, she pleased thee, Delphian <i>God</i>, as long as she +continued chaste, or was not the object of remark. But the bird of +PhÅ“bus found out her infidelity;<a class="tag" name="tag2_70" id="tag2_70" href="#note2_70">70</a> and the inexorable informer winged +his way to his master, that he might disclose the hidden offence. Him +the prattling crow follows, with flapping wings, to make all inquiries +of him. And having heard the occasion of his journey, she says, “Thou +art going on a fruitless errand; do not despise the presages of my +voice.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">81</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘XV.’">II.</ins> 550-564]</span> + +<span class="pagenum bell">68</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 550-567</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, Book iii.) tells us, that Lycaon had +a daughter who delighted in the chase, and that Jupiter, the second of +that name, the king of Arcadia, fell in love with her. This was the +ground on which she was said to have been a favorite of Diana. The story +of Calisto having been received into Heaven, and forming the +Constellation of the Bear, was perhaps grounded on the fact of Lycaon, +her father, having been the first known to take particular notice of +this Constellation. The story of the request of Juno, that Tethys will +not receive this new Constellation into the Ocean, is probably derived +from the circumstance, that the Bear, as well as the other stars within +the Arctic Circle, never sets.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Possibly, Arcas, the son of Calisto, dying at a youthful age, may have +been the origin of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableVIII" id="bookII_fableVIII"> +FABLE VIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">A virgin</span>, the favorite of Apollo, of +the same name with Coronis, is changed into a crow, for a story which +she tells Minerva, concerning the basket in which Ericthonius was +enclosed.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Consider</span> what I was, and what I am, +and inquire into my deserts. Thou wilt find that my fidelity was my +ruin. For once upon a time, Pallas had enclosed Ericthonius, an +offspring born without a mother, in a basket made of Actæan twigs; and +had given it to keep to the three virgins born of the two-shaped<a class="tag" name="tag2_71" id="tag2_71" href="#note2_71">71</a> +Cecrops, and had given them this injunction, that they should not +inquire into her secrets. I, being hidden among the light foliage, +was watching from a thick elm what they were doing. Two <i>of them</i>, +Pandrosos and Herse, observe their charge without <i>any</i> treachery; +Aglauros alone calls her sisters cowards, and unties the knots with her +hand; but within they behold a child, and a dragon extended by him. +I told the Goddess what was done; for which such a return as this +is made to me, that I am said to have been banished from the protection +of Minerva, and am placed after the bird of the night. My punishment may +warn birds not to incur +<span class="pagenum mckay">82</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 564-590</span> +dangers, by their chattering. But I consider <i>that</i> she courted me +with no inclination of my own, nor asking for any such <i>favors</i>. +This thou mayst ask of Pallas thyself; +<span class="pagenum bell">69</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 567-590</span> +although she is angry, she will not, with all her anger, deny this. For +Coroneus, one famous in the land of Phocis (I mention what is well +known) begot me: and <i>so</i> I was a virgin of royal birth, and was +courted by rich suitors (<i>so</i> despise me not). My beauty was the +cause of my misfortune; for while I was passing with slow steps along +the sea-shore, on the surface of the sand, as I was wont <i>to do</i>, +the God of the Ocean beheld me, and was inflamed; and when he had +consumed his time to no purpose, in entreating me with soft words, he +prepared <i>to use</i> violence, and followed me. I fled, and I +left the firm shore, and wearied myself in vain on the yielding sand. +Then I invoked both Gods and men; but my voice did not reach any mortal. +A virgin was moved for a virgin, and gave me assistance. I was +extending my arms toward heaven; <i>when those</i> arms began to grow +black with light feathers. I struggled to throw my garments from +off my shoulders, but they were feathers, and had taken deep root in my +skin. I tried to beat my naked breast with my hands, but I had now +neither hands nor naked breast. I ran; and the sand did not retard +my feet as before, and I was lifted up from the surface of the ground. +After that, being lifted up, I was carried through the air, and was +assigned, as a faultless companion, to Minerva. Yet what does this avail +me, if Nyctimene, made a bird for a horrid crime, has succeeded me in my +honor?â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Ericthonius was fabled to be the son, or foster-child, of Athene, or +Minerva, perhaps because he was the son of the daughter of Cranaus, who +had the name of Athene, by a priest of Vulcan, which Divinity was said +to have been his progenitor. St. Augustine alleges that he was +exposed, and found in a temple dedicated to Minerva and Vulcan. His name +being composed of two words, <span class="greek" title="eris">á¼”Ïις</span> and <span class="greek" title="chthôn">χθὼν</span>, signifying ‘contention,’ and ‘earth,’ Strabo +imagines that he was the son of Vulcan and the Earth. But it seems that +the real ground on which he was called by that name was, that he +disputed the right to the crown of Athens with Amphictyon, on the death +of Cranaus, the second king. Amphictyon prevailed, but Ericthonius +succeeded him. To hide his legs, which were deformed, he is said +<span class="pagenum mckay">83</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 590-605</span> +to have invented chariots; though that is not likely, as Egypt, from +which Greece had received many colonies, was acquainted with the use of +them from the earliest times. He is also said to have instituted the +festival of the Panathenæa, at Athens, whence, in process of time, it +was adopted by the whole of Greece.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Hyginus tells us, that after his death he was received into heaven as +the +<span class="pagenum bell">70</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 590-611</span> +constellation ‘Auriga,’ or ‘the Charioteer;’ and he further informs us, +that the deformity of his legs gave occasion to the saying, that he was +half man and half a serpent. Apollodorus says that he was born in +Attica; that he was the son of Cranaë, the daughter of Attis; and that +he dethroned Amphictyon, and became the fourth king of Athens.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableIX" id="bookII_fableIX"> +FABLE IX.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Nyctimene</span> having entertained a criminal +passion for her father, Nycteus, the Gods, to punish her incest, +transform her into an owl. Apollo pierces the breast of Coronis with an +arrow, on the raven informing him of the infidelity of his mistress.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Has</span> not the thing, which is very +well known throughout the whole of Lesbos,<a class="tag" name="tag2_72" id="tag2_72" href="#note2_72">72</a> been heard of by +thee, that Nyctimene defiled the bed of her father? She is a bird +indeed; but being conscious of her crime, she avoids <i>the human</i> +gaze and the light, and conceals her shame in the darkness; and by all +<i>the birds</i> she is expelled entirely from the sky.â€</p> + +<p>The raven says to him, saying such things, “May this, thy calling of +me back, prove a mischief to thee, I pray; I despise the +worthless omen.†Nor does he drop his intended journey; and he tells his +master, that he has seen Coronis lying down with a youth of Hæmonia. On +hearing the crime of his mistress, his laurel fell down; and at the same +moment his usual looks, his plectrum,<a class="tag" name="tag2_73" id="tag2_73" href="#note2_73">73</a> and his color, forsook the God. +And as his mind was <i>now</i> burning with swelling rage, he took up +his wonted arms, and levelled his bow bent from the extremities, and +pierced, with an unerring shaft, that bosom, that had been so oft +pressed to his +<span class="pagenum mckay">84</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘XV.’">II.</ins> 605-632</span> +own breast. Wounded, she uttered a groan, and, drawing the steel from +out of the wound, she bathed her white limbs with purple blood; and she +said, “I might <i>justly</i>, PhÅ“bus, have been punished by thee, +but <i>still I might</i> have first brought forth; now we two shall die +in one.†Thus far <i>she spoke</i>; and she poured forth her life, +together with her blood. A deadly coldness took possession of her +body deprived of life.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">71</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 611-632</span> + +<p>The lover, too late, alas! repents of his cruel vengeance, and blames +himself that he listened <i>to the bird, and</i> that he was so +infuriated. He hates the bird, through which he was forced to know of +the crime and the cause of his sorrow; he hates, too, the string, the +bow, and his hand; and together with his hand, <i>those</i> rash +weapons, the arrows. He cherishes her fallen to the ground, and by late +resources endeavors to conquer her destiny; and in vain he practices his +physical arts.</p> + +<p>When he found that these attempts were made in vain, and that the +funeral pile was being prepared, and that her limbs were about to be +burnt in the closing flames, then, in truth, he gave utterance to sighs +fetched from the bottom of his heart (for it is not allowed the +celestial features to be bathed with tears). No otherwise than, as when +an axe, poised from the right ear <i>of the butcher</i>, dashes to +pieces, with a clean stroke, the hollow temples of the sucking calf, +while the dam looks on. Yet after PhÅ“bus had poured the unavailing +perfumes on her breast, when he had given the <i>last</i> embrace and +had performed the due obsequies prematurely hastened, he did not suffer +his own offspring to sink into the same ashes; but he snatched the child +from the flames and from the <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘wound’">womb</ins> of his mother, and carried him into the cave +of the two-formed Chiron. And he forbade the raven, expecting for +himself the reward of his tongue that told no untruth, to perch any +longer among the white birds.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +History does not afford us the least insight into the foundation of the +story of Coronis transformed into a crow, for making too faithful a +report, nor that of the raven changed from white to black, +<span class="pagenum mckay">85</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘XIV.’">II.</ins> 632-651</span> +for talking too much. If they are based upon some events which really +happened, we must be content to acknowledge that these Fables refer to +the history of two persons entirely unknown to us, and who, perhaps, +lived as far back as the time of the daughters of Cecrops, to whom the +story seems to bear some relation. Coronis being the name of a crow as +well as of a Nymph, Lucian and other writers have fabled that her son, +Æsculapius, was produced from the egg of that bird, and was born in the +shape of a serpent, under which form he was very generally +worshipped.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">72</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 632-658</span> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableX" id="bookII_fableX"> +FABLE X.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Ocyrrhoë</span>, the daughter of the Centaur +Chiron, attempting to predict future events, tells her father the fate +of the child Æsculapius, on which the Gods transform her into a +mare.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">In</span> the meantime the half-beast +<i>Chiron</i> was proud of a pupil of Divine origin, and rejoiced in the +honor annexed to the responsibility. Behold! the daughter of the Centaur +comes, having her shoulders covered with her yellow hair; whom once the +nymph Chariclo,<a class="tag" name="tag2_74" id="tag2_74" href="#note2_74">74</a> having borne her on the banks of a rapid stream, +called Ocyrrhoë. She was not contented to learn her father’s arts +<i>only; but</i> she sang the secrets of the Fates. Therefore, when she +had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, and grew warm with +the God, whom she held confined within her breast, she beheld the +infant, and she said, “Grow on, child, the giver of health to the whole +world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their <i>own existence</i> +to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when taken away; and +daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, thou wilt be +hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any more to grant +that <i>boon</i>. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless carcase; +and a God <i>again</i>, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt thou +renew thy destiny. Thou likewise, dear father, now immortal, and +produced at thy nativity, on the condition of enduring for ever, wilt +then wish that thou couldst die, when thou shalt be +<span class="pagenum mckay">86</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘XV.’">II.</ins> 652-675</span> +tormented on receiving the blood of a baneful serpent<a class="tag" +name="tag2_75" id="tag2_75" href="#note2_75">75</a> in thy wounded +limbs; and the Gods shall make thee from an immortal <i>being</i>, +subject to death, and the three Goddesses<a class="tag" name="tag2_76" id="tag2_76" href="#note2_76">76</a> shall cut thy +threads.â€</p> + +<p>Something still remained in addition to what she had said. She heaved +a sigh from the bottom of her breast, and the tears bursting forth, +trickled down her cheeks, and thus she said: “The Fates prevent me, and +I am forbidden to say any more, +<span class="pagenum bell">73</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 658-682</span> +and the use of my voice is precluded. My arts, which have brought the +wrath of a Divinity upon me, were not of so much value; I wish that +I had not been acquainted with the future. Now the human shape seems to +be withdrawing from me; now grass pleases <i>me</i> for my food; now I +have a desire to range over the extended plains; I am turned into a +mare, and into a shape kindred <i>to that of my father</i>. But yet, why +entirely? For my father partakes of both forms.â€</p> + +<p>As she was uttering such words as these, the last part of her +complaint was but little understood; and her words were confused. And +presently neither <i>were</i> they words indeed, nor did it appear to be +the voice of a mare, but of one imitating a mare. And in a little time +she uttered perfect neighing, and stretched her arms upon the grass. +Then did her fingers grow together, and a smooth hoof united five nails +in one continued piece of horn. The length of her face and of her neck +increased; the greatest part of her long hair became a tail. And as the +hairs lay scattered about her neck, they were transformed into a mane +<i>lying</i> upon the right side; at once both her voice and her shape +were changed. And this wondrous change gave her the <i>new</i> name +<i>of Enippe</i>.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">87</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘XV.’">II.</ins> 676-693</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableXI" id="bookII_fableXI"> +FABLE XI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Mercury</span>, having stolen the oxen of +Apollo, and Battus having perceived the theft, he engages him, by a +present, to keep the matter secret. Mistrusting, however, his fidelity, +he assumes another shape, and tempting him with presents, he succeeds in +corrupting him. To punish his treachery, the God changes him into a +touchstone.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Philyrean<a class="tag" name="tag2_77" id="tag2_77" href="#note2_77">77</a> hero wept, and in +vain, <i>God</i> of Delphi, implored thy assistance; but neither couldst +thou reverse the orders of great Jupiter, nor, if thou couldst have +reversed them wast thou then present; <i>for then</i> thou wast dwelling +in Elis and the Messenian<a class="tag" name="tag2_78" id="tag2_78" href="#note2_78">78</a> fields. This was the time when a +shepherd’s skin garment was covering thee, and a stick cut out of the +wood was the burden of thy left hand, <i>and</i> of the other, +<span class="pagenum bell">74</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 682-707</span> +a pipe unequal with its seven reeds. And while love is thy concern, +while thy pipe is soothing thee, some cows are said to have strayed +unobserved into the plains of Pylos.<a class="tag" name="tag2_79" id="tag2_79" href="#note2_79">79</a> The son of Maia the daughter of +Atlas, observes them, and with his <i>usual</i> skill hides them, driven +off, in the woods. Nobody but an old man, well-known in that country, +had noticed the theft: all the neighborhood called him Battus. He was +keeping the forests and the grassy pastures, and the set of fine-bred +mares of the rich Neleus.<a class="tag" name="tag2_80" id="tag2_80" href="#note2_80">80</a></p> + +<p><i>Mercury</i> was afraid of him, and took him aside with a gentle +hand, and said to him, “Come, stranger, whoever thou art, if, perchance +any one should ask after these herds, deny that thou hast seen them; +and, lest +<span class="pagenum mckay">88</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 694-707</span> +no requital be paid thee for so doing, take a handsome cow as thy +reward;†and <i>thereupon</i> he gave <i>him one</i>. On receiving it, +the stranger returned this answer: “Thou mayst go in safety. May that +stone first make mention of thy theft;†and he pointed to a stone. The +son of Jupiter feigned to go away. <i>But</i> soon he returned, and +changing his form, together with his voice, he said, “Countryman, if +thou hast seen any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break +silence about the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull +shall be presented thee as a reward.†But the old man,<a class="tag" +name="tag2_81" id="tag2_81" href="#note2_81">81</a> after his +reward was <i>thus</i> doubled, said, “They will be beneath those +hills;†and beneath those hills they <i>really</i> were. The <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘sun’">son</ins> of Atlas laughed +and said, “Dost thou, treacherous man, betray me to my own self? Dost +betray me to myself?†and <i>then</i> he turned his perjured breast into +a hard stone, which even now is called the “Touchstone;â€<a class="tag" +name="tag2_82" id="tag2_82" href="#note2_82">82</a> and this old +disgrace is <i>attached</i> to the stone that <i>really</i> deserves it +not.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">75</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 708-718</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were perhaps +the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is also probable +that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame by the knowledge +he had acquired at a time and in a country where learning was little +cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first promulgator of the +utility of medicines, in which he was said to have instructed his pupil +Æsculapius. He was also considered to be an excellent musician and a +good astronomer, as we learn from Homer, Diodorus Siculus, and other +authors. Most of the heroes of that age, and among them Hercules and +Jason, studied under him. Very probably, the only foundation for the +story of the transformation of Ocyrrhoë, was the skill and address +which, under her father’s instruction, she acquired in riding and +<span class="pagenum mckay">89</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 708-726</span> +the management of horses. For if, as it seems really was the case, the +horsemen of that age were taken for monsters, half men and half horses, +it is not surprising to find the story that the daughter of a Centaur +was transformed into a mare.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Chiron is generally supposed to have marked out the Constellations, for +the purpose of directing the Argonauts in their voyage for the recovery +of the Golden Fleece.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableXII" id="bookII_fableXII"> +FABLE XII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Mercury</span>, falling in love with Herse, +the daughter of Cecrops, endeavors to engage Aglauros in his interest, +and by her means, to obtain access to her sister. She refuses to assist +him, unless he promises to present her with a large sum of money.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Hence</span>, the bearer of the caduceus +raised himself upon equal wings; and as he flew, he looked down upon the +fields of Munychia,<a class="tag" name="tag2_83" id="tag2_83" href="#note2_83">83</a> and the land pleasing to Minerva, and the groves of +the well-planted Lycæus. On that day, by chance, the chaste virgins +were, in their purity, carrying the sacred offerings in baskets crowned +with flowers, upon their heads to the joyful citadel of Pallas. The +winged God beholds them returning thence; and he does not shape his +course directly forward, but wheels round in the <i>same</i> circle. As +that bird swiftest in speed, the kite, on espying the entrails, while he +is afraid, and the priests stand in numbers around the sacrifice, wings +his flight in circles, and yet ventures not to go far away, +<span class="pagenum bell">76</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 719-736</span> +and greedily hovers around <i>the object of</i> his hopes with waving +wings, so does the active Cyllenian <i>God</i> bend his course over the +Actæan towers, and circles round in the same air. As much as Lucifer +shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much as the golden +PhÅ“be <i>shines more brightly</i> than thee, O Lucifer, so much +superior was Herse, as she went, to all the <i>other</i> virgins, and +was the ornament of the solemnity and of her companions. The son of +Jupiter was astonished at her beauty; and as he hung in the air, he +burned no otherwise than as when the +<span class="pagenum mckay">90</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 727-741</span> +Balearic<a class="tag" name="tag2_84" id="tag2_84" href="#note2_84">84</a> sling throws forth the plummet of lead; it flies and +becomes red hot in its course, and finds beneath the clouds the fires +which it had not <i>before</i>.</p> + +<p>He alters his course, and, having left heaven, goes a different way; +nor does he disguise himself; so great is his confidence in his beauty. +This, though it is <i>every way</i> complete, still he improves by care, +and smooths his hair and <i>adjusts</i> his mantle,<a class="tag" name="tag2_85" id="tag2_85" href="#note2_85">85</a> that it may hang +properly, so that the fringe and all the gold may be seen; <i>and +minds</i> that his long smooth wand, with which he induces and drives +away sleep, is in his +<span class="pagenum bell">77</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 736-764</span> +right hand, and that his wings<a class="tag" name="tag2_86" id="tag2_86" href="#note2_86">86</a> shine upon his beauteous feet.</p> + +<p>A private part of the house had three bed-chambers, adorned with +ivory and with tortoiseshell, of which thou, Pandrosos, hadst the +right-hand one, Aglauros the left-hand, and Herse had the one in the +middle. She that occupied the left-hand one was the first to remark +Mercury approaching, and she ventured to ask +<span class="pagenum mckay">91</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 741-764</span> +the name of the God, and the occasion of his coming. To her thus +answered the grandson of Atlas and of Pleione: “I am he who carries +the commands of my father through the air. Jupiter himself is my father. +Nor will I invent pretences; do thou only be willing to be attached to +thy sister, and to be called the aunt of my offspring. Herse is the +cause of my coming; I pray thee to favor one in love.†Aglauros +looks upon him with the same eyes with which she had lately looked upon +the hidden mysteries of the yellow-haired Minerva, and demands for her +agency gold of great weight; <i>and</i>, in the meantime, obliges him to +go out of the house. The warlike Goddess turned upon her the orbs of her +stern eyes, and drew a sigh from the bottom <i>of her heart</i>, with so +great a motion, that she heaved both her breast and the Ægis placed +before her valiant breast. It occurred <i>to her</i> that she had laid +open her secrets with a profane hand, at the time when she beheld +progeny created for <i>the God</i> who inhabits Lemnos,<a class="tag" +name="tag2_87" id="tag2_87" href="#note2_87">87</a> without a +mother, <i>and</i> contrary to the assigned laws; and that she could now +be agreeable both to the God and to the sister <i>of Aglauros</i>, and +that she would be enriched by taking the gold, which she, in her +avarice, had demanded. Forthwith she repairs to the abode of Envy, +hideous with black gore. Her abode is concealed in the lowest recesses +of a cave, wanting sun, <i>and</i> not pervious to any wind, dismal and +filled with benumbing cold; and which is ever without fire, and ever +abounding with darkness.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Cicero tells us, that there were several persons in ancient times named +Mercury. The probability is, that one of them fell in love with Herse, +one of the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens; and that Aglauros +becoming jealous of her, this tradition was built upon facts of so +ordinary a nature.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">92</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 765-789</span> + +<span class="pagenum bell">78</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 765-791</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableXIII" id="bookII_fableXIII"> +FABLE XIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Pallas</span> commands Envy to make Aglauros +jealous of her sister Herse. Envy obeys the request of the Goddess; and +Aglauros, stung with that passion, continues obstinate in opposing +Mercury’s passage to her sister’s <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘apartments’ here, ‘apartment’ elsewhere">apartment</ins>, +for which the God changes her into a statue.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">When</span> the female warrior, to be +dreaded in battle, came hither, she stood before the abode (for she did +not consider it lawful to go under the roof), and she struck the +door-posts with the end of the spear. The doors, being shaken, flew +open; she sees Envy within, eating the flesh of vipers, the nutriment of +her own bad propensities; and when she sees her, she turns away her +eyes. But the other rises sluggishly from the ground, and leaves the +bodies of the serpents half devoured, and stalks along with sullen pace. +And when she sees the Goddess graced with beauty and with +<i>splendid</i> arms, she groans, and fetches a deep sigh at her +appearance. A paleness rests on her face, <i>and</i> leanness in +all her body; she never looks direct on you; her teeth are black with +rust; her breast is green with gall; her tongue is dripping with venom. +Smiles there are none, except such as the sight of grief has excited. +Nor does she enjoy sleep, being kept awake with watchful cares; but sees +with sorrow the successes of men, and pines away at seeing them. She +both torments and is tormented at the same moment, and is <i>ever</i> +her own punishment. Yet, though Tritonia<a class="tag" name="tag2_88" id="tag2_88" href="#note2_88">88</a> hated her, she spoke +to her briefly in such words as these: “Infect one of the daughters of +Cecrops with thy poison; there is occasion so <i>to do</i>; Aglauros is +she.â€</p> + +<p>Saying no more, she departed, and spurned the ground with her spear +impressed on it. She, beholding the Goddess as she departed, with a look +askance, uttered a few murmurs, and grieved at the success of Minerva; +and took her staff, which wreaths of thorns entirely +<span class="pagenum mckay">93</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 790-822</span> +surrounded; and veiled in black clouds, wherever she goes she tramples +down the blooming +<span class="pagenum bell">79</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 791-829</span> +fields, and burns up the grass, and crops the tops <i>of the +flowers</i>. With her breath, too, she pollutes both nations and cities, +and houses; and at last she descries the Tritonian<a class="tag" name="tag2_89" id="tag2_89" href="#note2_89">89</a> citadel, +flourishing in arts and riches, and cheerful peace. Hardly does she +restrain her tears, because she sees nothing to weep at. But after she +has entered the chamber of the daughter of Cecrops, she executes her +orders; and touches her breast with her hand stained with rust, and +fills her heart with jagged thorns. She breathes into her as well the +noxious venom, and spreads the poison black as pitch throughout her +bones, and lodges it in the midst of her lungs.</p> + +<p>And that these causes of mischief may not wander through too wide a +space, she places her sister before her eyes, and the fortunate marriage +of <i>that</i> sister, and the God under his beauteous appearance, and +aggravates each particular. By this, the daughter of Cecrops being +irritated, is gnawed by a secret grief, and groans, tormented by night, +tormented by day, and wastes away in extreme wretchedness, with a slow +consumption, as ice smitten upon by a sun often clouded. She burns at +the good fortune of the happy Herse, no otherwise than as when fire is +placed beneath thorny reeds, which do not send forth flames, and burn +with a gentle heat. Often does she wish to die, that she may not be a +witness to any such thing; often, to tell the matters, as criminal, to +her severe father. At last, she sat herself down in the front of the +threshold, in order to exclude the God when he came; to whom, as he +proffered blandishments and entreaties, and words of extreme kindness, +she said, “Cease <i>all this</i>; I shall not remove myself hence, +until thou art repulsed.†“Let us stand to that agreement,†says the +active Cyllenian <i>God</i>; and he opens the carved door with his wand. +But in her, as she endeavors to arise, the parts which we bend in +sitting cannot be moved, through their numbing weight. She, indeed, +struggles to raise herself, with her body, +<span class="pagenum mckay">94</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 823-840</span> +upright; but the joints of her knees are stiff, and a chill runs through +her nails, and her veins are pallid, through the loss of blood.</p> + +<p>And as the disease <i>of</i> an incurable cancer is wont to spread in +all directions, and to add the uninjured parts to the tainted; so, by +degrees, did a deadly chill enter her breast, and stop the passages of +life, and her respiration. She did not endeavor +<span class="pagenum bell">80</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 829-849</span> +to speak; but if she had endeavored, she had no passage for her voice. +Stone had now possession of her neck; her face was grown hard, and she +sat, a bloodless statue. Nor was the stone white; her mind had +stained it.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pausanias, in his Attica, somewhat varies this story, and says that the +daughters of Cecrops, running mad, threw themselves from the top of a +tower. It is very probable that on the introduction of the worship of +Pallas, or Minerva, into Attica, these daughters of Cecrops may have +hesitated to encourage the innovation, and the story was promulgated +that the Goddess had in that manner punished their impiety. This seems +the more likely, from the fact mentioned by Pausanias that Pandrosos, +the third daughter of Cecrops, had, after her death, a temple built +in honor of her, near that of Minerva, because she had continued +faithful to that Goddess, and had not disobeyed her, as her sisters had +done. The reputation and good fame of Herse and Aglauros had, however, +been restored by the time of Herodotus, since he informs us that they +both had their temples at Athens.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookII_fableXIV" id="bookII_fableXIV"> +FABLE XIV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span> assumes the shape of a Bull, +and carrying off Europa, swims with her on his back to the isle of +Crete.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">When</span> the grandson of Atlas had +inflicted this punishment upon her words and her profane disposition, he +left the lands named after Pallas, and entered the skies with his waving +wings. His father calls him on one side; and, not owning the cause of +his love, he says, “My son, the trusty minister of my commands, banish +delay, and swiftly descend with thy usual speed, and repair to the +region which looks towards thy <i>Constellation</i> mother on the left +side, (the natives call it +<span class="pagenum mckay">95</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 840-870</span> +Sidonis<a class="tag" name="tag2_90" id="tag2_90" href="#note2_90">90</a> by name) and drive towards the sea-shore, the herd +belonging to the king, which thou <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay uses the Bell spelling ‘seeest’ here only">seest</ins> feeding +afar upon the grass of the mountain.â€</p> + +<p><i>Thus</i> he spoke; and already were the bullocks, driven from the +mountain, making for the shore named, where the daughter of the great +king, attended by Tyrian virgins, was wont to amuse herself. Majesty and +love but ill accord, nor can they continue in the same abode. The father +and the ruler of the Gods, whose right hand is armed with the +three-forked flames, +<span class="pagenum bell">81</span> +<span class="linenum bell">II. 849-875</span> +who shakes the world with his nod, laying aside the dignity of empire, +assumes the appearance of a bull; and mixing with the oxen, he lows, +and, in all his beauty, walks about upon the shooting grass. For his +color is that of snow, which neither the soles of hard feet have trodden +upon, nor the watery South wind melted. His neck swells with muscles; +dewlaps hang from <i>between</i> his shoulders. His horns are small +indeed, but such as you might maintain were made with the hand, and more +transparent than a bright gem. There is nothing threatening in his +forehead; nor is his eye formidable; his countenance expresses +peace.</p> + +<p>The daughter of Agenor is surprised that he is so beautiful, and that +he threatens no attack; but although so gentle, she is at first afraid +to touch him. By and by she approaches him, and holds out flowers to his +white mouth. The lover rejoices, and till his hoped-for pleasure comes, +he gives kisses to her hands; scarcely, oh, scarcely, does he defer the +rest. And now he plays with her, and skips upon the green grass; +<i>and</i> now he lays his snow-white side upon the yellow sand. And, +her fear <i>now</i> removed by degrees, at one moment he gives his +breast to be patted by the hand of the virgin; at another, his horns to +be wreathed with new-made garlands. The virgin of royal birth even +ventured to sit down upon the back of the bull, not knowing upon whom +she was pressing. Then the God, by degrees <i>moving</i> from the land, +and from the dry shore, places +<span class="pagenum mckay">96</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">II. 870-875</span> +the fictitious hoofs of his feet in the waves near the brink. Then he +goes still further, and carries his prize over the expanse of the midst +of the ocean. She is affrighted, and, borne off, looks back on the shore +she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn, <i>while</i> +the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled by the +breeze.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient +Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were +several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great +difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar adventures. +Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of Phoroneus, to +Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about <small>B.C.</small> 1770; and that of Danaë to Jupiter PrÅ“tus, who +lived about 1350 years before the Christian era. It was Jupiter +Tantalus, according to him, that carried off Ganymede; and it was +Jupiter, the father of Hercules, that deceived Leda. He says +<span class="pagenum bell">72</span> +that the subject of the present Fable was Jupiter Asterius, who reigned +about <small>B.C.</small> 1400. Diodorus Siculus +tells us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the +daughter of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island +of Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that +Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter of +Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of carrying her +off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn from Herodotus, +that the custom of carrying those away by force, who could not be +obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude ages.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the form +of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those who +related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself under the +shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palæphatus and Tzetzes +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘suggests’">suggest</ins>, that the story took its rise from the name of +the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the Greek +name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon +etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word +‘Alpha,’ or ‘Ilpha,’ which, in the PhÅ“nician dialect, meant either a +ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on +reading the annals of the PhÅ“nicians, by mistake, took the word in the +latter sense.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Europa was honored as a Divinity after her death, and a festival was +instituted in her memory, which <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Hesychus’">Hesychius</ins> calls ‘Hellotia,’ from <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read Ἐλλωτὶς ‘Ellôtis’ for ‘Hellôtis’">Ἑλλωτὶς</ins>, the name she received after her death.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note2_1" id="note2_1" href="#tag2_1">1.</a> +<i>Ægeon.</i>]—Ver. 10. Homer makes him to be the same with +Briareus. According to another account, which Ovid here follows, he was +a sea God, the son of Oceanus and Terra.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_2" id="note2_2" href="#tag2_2">2.</a> +<i>Doris.</i>]—Ver. 11. She was the daughter of Oceanus, the wife +of Nereus, and the mother of the fifty Nereids.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_3" id="note2_3" href="#tag2_3">3.</a> +<i>Tethys.</i>]—Ver. 69. She was the daughter of CÅ“lus and Terra, +and the wife of Oceanus. Her name is here used to signify the ocean +itself.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_4" id="note2_4" href="#tag2_4">4.</a> +<i>Are carried round.</i>]—Ver. 70. Clarke thus renders this +line,—“Add, too, that the heaven was whisked round with a +continual rolling.â€</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_5" id="note2_5" href="#tag2_5">5.</a> +<i>Wild beasts.</i>]—Ver. 78. The signs of the Zodiac.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_6" id="note2_6" href="#tag2_6">6.</a> +<i>Hæmonian.</i>]—Ver. 81. Or Thessalian. He here alludes to the +Thessalian Chiron, the Centaur, who, according to Ovid and other +writers, was placed in the Zodiac as the Constellation Sagittarius: +while others say that Crotus, or Croto, the son of Eupheme, the nurse of +the Muses, was thus honored.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_7" id="note2_7" href="#tag2_7">7.</a> +<i>Through the five direct circles.</i>]—Ver. 129. There is some +obscurity in this passage, arising from the mode of expression. PhÅ“bus +here counsels Phaëton what track to follow, and tells him to pursue his +way by an oblique path, and not directly in the plane of the equator. +This last is what he calls ‘directos via quinque per arcus.’ These five +arcs, or circles, are the five parallel circles by which astronomers +distinguish the heavens, namely, the two polar circles, the two tropics, +and the equinoctial. The latter runs exactly in the middle, between the +other two circles, so that the expression must be understood to mean, +‘pursue not your way directly through that circle which is the +middlemost of the five, but observe the track that cuts it +obliquely.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_8" id="note2_8" href="#tag2_8">8.</a> +<i>The chariot give bounds.</i>]—Ver. 165-6. Clarke thus renders +these lines.—‘Thus does the chariot give jumps into the air +without its usual weight, and is kicked up on high, and is like one +empty.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_9" id="note2_9" href="#tag2_9">9.</a> +<i>They say, too.</i>]—Ver. 176-7. The following is Clarke’s +translation of these two lines,—‘They say, too, that you, Boötes, +scowered off in a mighty bustle, although you were but slow, and thy +cart hindered thee.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_10" id="note2_10" href="#tag2_10">10.</a> +<i>Athos.</i>]—Ver. 217. Athos (now Monte Santo) was a mountain of +Macedonia, so lofty that its shadow was said to extend even to the Isle +of Lemnos, which was eighty-seven miles distant.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_11" id="note2_11" href="#tag2_11">11.</a> +<i>Taurus.</i>]—Ver. 217. This was an immense mountain range which +ran through the middle of Cilicia, in Asia Minor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_12" id="note2_12" href="#tag2_12">12.</a> +<i>Tmolus.</i>]—Ver. 217. Tmolus (now Bozdaz) was a mountain of +Lydia, famed for its wines and saffron. Pactolus, a stream with +sands reputed to be golden, took its rise there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_13" id="note2_13" href="#tag2_13">13.</a> +<i>Å’ta.</i>]—Ver. 217. This was a mountain chain, which divided +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Thessalis’">Thessaly</ins> from Doris and Phocis; famed for the death +of Hercules on one of its ridges.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_14" id="note2_14" href="#tag2_14">14.</a> +<i>Ida.</i>]—Ver. 218. There were two mountains of the name of +Ide, or Ida; one in Crete, the other near Troy. The latter is here +referred to, as being famed for its springs.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_15" id="note2_15" href="#tag2_15">15.</a> +<i>Helicon.</i>]—Ver. 219. This was a mountain of BÅ“otia, sacred +to the Virgin Muses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_16" id="note2_16" href="#tag2_16">16.</a> +<i><ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘HÅ“mus’">Hæmus</ins>.</i>—Ver. 219. This, which is now called the +Balkan range, was a lofty chain of mountains running through Thrace. +Orpheus, the son of Å’agrus and Calliope, was there torn in pieces by the +Mænades, or Bacchanalian women, whence the mountain obtained the epithet +of ‘Œagrian.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_17" id="note2_17" href="#tag2_17">17.</a> +<i>Ætna.</i>]—Ver. 220. This is the volcanic mountain of Sicily; +the flames caused by the fall of Phaëton, added to its own, caused them +to be redoubled.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_18" id="note2_18" href="#tag2_18">18.</a> +<i>Eryx.</i>]—Ver. 221. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘A’ only">This was a</ins> mountain of Sicily, now called San +Juliano. On it, a magnificent temple was erected, in honor of +Venus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_19" id="note2_19" href="#tag2_19">19.</a> +<i>Cynthus.</i>]—Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Delos, on which +Apollo and Diana were said to have been born.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_20" id="note2_20" href="#tag2_20">20.</a> +<i>Rhodope.</i>]—Ver. 222. It was a high mountain, capped with +perpetual snows, in the northern part of Thrace.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_21" id="note2_21" href="#tag2_21">21.</a> +<i>Mimas.</i>]—Ver. 222. A mountain of Ionia, near the Ionian +Sea. It was of very great height; whence Homer calls it <span class="greek" title="hupsikrêmnos">ὑψίκÏημνος</span>.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_22" id="note2_22" href="#tag2_22">22.</a> +<i>Dindyma.</i>]—Ver. 223. This was a mountain of Phrygia, near +Troy, sacred to Cybele, the mother of the Gods.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_23" id="note2_23" href="#tag2_23">23.</a> +<i>Mycale.</i>]—Ver. 223. A mountain of Caria, opposite to +the Isle of Samos.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_24" id="note2_24" href="#tag2_24">24.</a> +<i><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘CithÅ“ron’">Cithæron</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 223. This was a mountain of +BÅ“otia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus, there celebrated. In its +neighborhood, Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Mænades, for slighting +the worship of Bacchus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_25" id="note2_25" href="#tag2_25">25.</a> +<i>Caucasus.</i>]—Ver. 224. This was a mountain chain in Asia, +between the Euxine and Caspian Seas.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_26" id="note2_26" href="#tag2_26">26.</a> +<i>Alps.</i>]—Ver. 226. This mountain range divides France from +Italy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_27" id="note2_27" href="#tag2_27">27.</a> +<i>Apennines.</i>]—Ver. 226. This range of mountains runs down the +centre of Italy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_28" id="note2_28" href="#tag2_28">28.</a> +<i>Their black hue.</i>]—Ver. 235. The notion that the blackness +of the African tribes was produced by the heat of the sun, is borrowed +by the Poet from Hesiod. Hyginus, too, says, ‘the Indians, because, by +the proximity of the fire, their blood was turned black by the heat +thereof, became of black appearance themselves.’ Notwithstanding the +learned and minute investigations of physiologists on the subject, this +question is still involved in considerable obscurity.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_29" id="note2_29" href="#tag2_29">29.</a> +<i>Libya.</i>]—Ver. 237. This was a region between Mauritania and +Cyrene. The Greek writers, however, often use the word to signify the +whole of Africa. Servius gives a trifling derivation for the name, in +saying that Libya was so called, because <span class="greek" title="leipei ho huetos">λείπει ὠὕετος</span>, ‘it is without rain.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_30" id="note2_30" href="#tag2_30">30.</a> +<i>Dirce.</i>]—Ver. 239. Dirce was a celebrated fountain of +BÅ“otia, into which it was said that Dirce, the wife of Lycus, king of +Thebes, was transformed.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_31" id="note2_31" href="#tag2_31">31.</a> +<i>Amymone.</i>]—Ver. 240. It was a fountain of Argos, near Lerna, +into which the Nymph, Amymone, the daughter of Lycus, king of the +Argives, was said to have been transformed.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_32" id="note2_32" href="#tag2_32">32.</a> +<i>Ephyre.</i>]—Ver. 240. It was the most ancient name of Corinth, +in the citadel of which, or the Acrocorinthus, was the spring Pyrene, of +extreme brightness and purity and sacred to the Muses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_33" id="note2_33" href="#tag2_33">33.</a> +<i>Tanais.</i>]—Ver. 242. This river, now the Don, after a long +winding course, discharges itself into the ‘Palus Mæotis,’ now the sea +of ‘Azof.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_34" id="note2_34" href="#tag2_34">34.</a> +<i>Caïcus.</i>]—Ver. 243. This is a river of Mysia, here called +‘Teuthrantian,’ from Mount Teuthras, in its vicinity.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_35" id="note2_35" href="#tag2_35">35.</a> +<i>Ismenus.</i>]—Ver. 244. Ismenus was a river of BÅ“otia, that +flowed past Thebes into the Euripus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_36" id="note2_36" href="#tag2_36">36.</a> +<i>Erymanthus.</i>]—Ver. 245. This was a river of Arcadia, which, +rising in a mountain of that name, fell into the Alpheus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_37" id="note2_37" href="#tag2_37">37.</a> +<i>Xanthus.</i>]—Ver. 245. This was a river of Troy; here spoken +of as destined to behold flames a second time, in the conflagration of +that city.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_38" id="note2_38" href="#tag2_38">38.</a> +<i>Lycormas.</i>]—Ver. 245. This was a rapid river of Ætolia, +which was afterwards known by the name of Evenus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_39" id="note2_39" href="#tag2_39">39.</a> +<i>Mæander.</i>]—Ver. 246. This was a river of Phrygia, flowing +between Lydia and Caria; it was said to have 600 windings in its +course.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_40" id="note2_40" href="#tag2_40">40.</a> +<i>Melas.</i>]—Ver. 247. This name was given to many rivers of +Thrace, Thessaly, and Asia, on account of the darkness of the color of +their waters; the name was derived from the Greek word <span class="greek" title="melas">μέλας</span>, ‘black.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_41" id="note2_41" href="#tag2_41">41.</a> +<i>Tænarian Eurotas.</i>]—Ver. 247. The Eurotas was a river of +Laconia, which flowed under the walls of the city of Sparta, and +discharged itself into the sea near the promontory of Tænarus, now +called Cape <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Metapan’">Matapan</ins>. The Eurotas is now called ‘Basilipotamo,’ or +‘king of streams.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_42" id="note2_42" href="#tag2_42">42.</a> +<i>Orontes.</i>]—Ver. 248. The Orontes was a river of Asia Minor, +which flowed near Antioch.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_43" id="note2_43" href="#tag2_43">43.</a> +<i>Thermodon.</i>]—Ver. 249. This was a river of Cappadocia, near +which the Amazons were said to dwell.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_44" id="note2_44" href="#tag2_44">44.</a> +<i>Ganges.</i>]—Ver. 249. This is one of the largest rivers in +Asia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf; and not, as Gierig +says, in his note on this passage, in the Red Sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_45" id="note2_45" href="#tag2_45">45.</a> +<i>Phasis.</i>]—Ver. 249. This was a river of Colchis, falling +into the Euxine Sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_46" id="note2_46" href="#tag2_46">46.</a> +<i>Ister.</i>]—Ver. 249. The Danube had that name from its source +to the confines of Germany; and thence, in its course through Scythia to +the sea, it was called by the name of ‘Ister.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_47" id="note2_47" href="#tag2_47">47.</a> +<i>Alpheus.</i>]—Ver. 250. It was a river of Arcadia, in +Peloponnesus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_48" id="note2_48" href="#tag2_48">48.</a> +<i>Tagus.</i>]—Ver. 251. This was a river of Spain, which was said +to bring down from the mountains great quantities of golden sand. The +Poet here feigns this to be melted by the heat of the sun, and in that +manner to be carried along by the current of the river.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_49" id="note2_49" href="#tag2_49">49.</a> +<i>Mæonian.</i>]—Ver. 252. Mæonia was so called from the river +Mæon, and was another name of Lydia. The Caÿster, famous for its swans, +flowed through Lydia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_50" id="note2_50" href="#tag2_50">50.</a> +<i>Strymon.</i>]—Ver. 257. The Hebrus and the Strymon were rivers +of Thrace. Ismarus was a mountain of that country, famous for its +vines.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_51" id="note2_51" href="#tag2_51">51.</a> +<i>Hesperian.</i>]—Ver. 258. Hesperia, or ‘the western country,’ +was a general name of not only Spain and Gaul, but even Italy. The Rhine +is a river of France and Germany, the Rhone of France. The Padus, or Po, +and the Tiber, are rivers of Italy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_52" id="note2_52" href="#tag2_52">52.</a> +<i>Cyclades.</i>]—Ver. 264. The Cyclades were a cluster of islands +in the Ægean Sea, surrounding Delos as though with a circle, whence +their name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_53" id="note2_53" href="#tag2_53">53.</a> +<i>Her all-productive face.</i>]—Ver. 275. The earth was similarly +called by the Greeks <span class="greek" title="pammêtôr">παμμήτωÏ</span>, ‘the mother of all things.’ So Virgil calls +it ‘omniparens.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_54" id="note2_54" href="#tag2_54">54.</a> +<i>Atlas.</i>]—Ver. 296. This was a mountain of Mauritania, which, +by reason of its height, was said to support the heavens.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_55" id="note2_55" href="#tag2_55">55.</a> +<i>We are thrown.</i>]—Ver. 299. Clarke translates, ‘In chaos +antiquum confundimur,’ ‘We are then jumbled into the old chaos +again.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_56" id="note2_56" href="#tag2_56">56.</a> +<i>The Hesperian Naiads.</i>]—Ver. 325. These were the Naiads of +Italy. They were by name Phaëthusa, Lampetie, and PhÅ“be.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_57" id="note2_57" href="#tag2_57">57.</a> +<i>Passed without the sun.</i>]—Ver. 331. There is, perhaps, in +this line some faint reference to a tradition of the sun having, in the +language of Scripture, ‘stood still upon Gibeon, in his course, by the +command of Joshua, when dispensing the divine vengeance upon the +Amorites,’ Joshua, x. 13. Or of the time when ‘the shadow returned +ten degrees backward’, by the sun-dial of Ahaz, 2 Kings, <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘xx.7’">xx.11</ins>. </p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_58" id="note2_58" href="#tag2_58">58.</a> +<i>Sthenelus.</i>]—Ver. 367. He was a king of Liguria. +Commentators have justly remarked that it was not very likely that a +king of Liguria should be related to Clymene, a queen of the +Ethiopians, as Ovid, in the next line, says was the case. This story was +probably invented by some writer, who fancied that there were two +persons of the name of Phaëton; one the subject of eastern tradition, +and the other a personage of the Latin mythology.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_59" id="note2_59" href="#tag2_59">59.</a> +<i>The Ligurians.</i>]—Ver. 370. These were a people situate on +the eastern side of Etruria, between the rivers Var and Macra. The +Grecian writers were in the habit of styling the whole of the north of +Italy Liguria.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_60" id="note2_60" href="#tag2_60">60.</a> +<i>Trivia.</i>]—Ver. 416. This was an epithet of Diana, as +presiding over and worshipped in the places where three roads met, which +were called ‘trivia.’ Being known as Diana on earth, the Moon in the +heavens, and Proserpine in the infernal regions, she was represented at +these places with three faces; those of a horse, a dog, and a +female; the latter being in the middle.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_61" id="note2_61" href="#tag2_61">61.</a> +<i>Dictynna.</i>]—Ver. 441. Diana was so called from the Greek +word <span class="greek" title="diktus">δικτὺς</span>, ‘a net,’ +which was used by her for the purposes of hunting.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_62" id="note2_62" href="#tag2_62">62.</a> +<i>There was no deceit.</i>]—Ver. 446. Clarke translates ‘sensit +abesse dolos,’ ‘she was convinced there was no roguery in the case.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_63" id="note2_63" href="#tag2_63">63.</a> +<i>She of Parrhasia.</i>]—Ver. 460. Calisto is so called from +Parrhasia, a region of Arcadia. Parrhasius was the name of a +mountain, a grove, and a city of that country and was derived from +the name of Parrhasus, a son of Lycaon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_64" id="note2_64" href="#tag2_64">64.</a> +<i>Thou, mischievous one.</i>]—Ver. 475. Clarke, rather too +familiarly, renders ‘importuna,’ ‘plaguy baggage.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_65" id="note2_65" href="#tag2_65">65.</a> +<i>In front by the hair.</i>]—Ver. 476. ‘Adversâ prensis a fronte +capillis,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘seizing her fore-top.’ Had he been +describing the combats of two fish-wives, such a version would have +been, perhaps, more appropriate than in the present instance.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_66" id="note2_66" href="#tag2_66">66.</a> +<i>With black hair.</i>]—Ver. 478. To the explanation given at the +end of the story, we may here add the curious one offered by Palæphatus. +He says that Calisto was a huntress who entered the den of a bear, by +which she was devoured; and that the bear coming out, and Calisto being +no more seen, it was reported that she had been transformed into a +bear.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_67" id="note2_67" href="#tag2_67">67.</a> +<i>Erymanthian forests.</i>]—Ver. 499. Erymanthus was a mountain +of Arcadia, which was afterwards famous for the slaughter there, by +Hercules, of the wild boar, which made it his haunt.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_68" id="note2_68" href="#tag2_68">68.</a> +<i>Graceful chariot.</i>]—Ver. 531. Clarke translates ‘habili +curru,’ ‘her neat chariot.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_69" id="note2_69" href="#tag2_69">69.</a> +<i>Larissæan.</i>]—Ver. 542. Larissa was the chief city of +Thessaly, and was situate on the river Peneus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_70" id="note2_70" href="#tag2_70">70.</a> +<i>Her infidelity.</i>]—Ver. 545. ‘Sed ales sensit adulterium +PhÅ“beius,’ is translated by Clarke, ‘but the PhÅ“ban bird found out her +pranks.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_71" id="note2_71" href="#tag2_71">71.</a> +<i>Two-shaped.</i>]—Ver. 555. Cecrops is here so called, and in +the Greek, <span class="greek" title="diphuês">διφυὴς</span> from +the fact of his having been born in Egypt, and having settled in Greece, +and was thus to be reckoned both as an Egyptian, and in the number of +the Greeks.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_72" id="note2_72" href="#tag2_72">72.</a> +<i>Lesbos.</i>]—Ver. 591. This was an island in the Ægean sea, +lying to the south of Troy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_73" id="note2_73" href="#tag2_73">73.</a> +<i>Plectrum.</i>]—Ver. 601. This was a little rod, or staff, with +which the player used to strike the strings of the lyre, or cithara, on +which he was playing.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_74" id="note2_74" href="#tag2_74">74.</a> +<i>Chariclo.</i>]—Ver. 636. She was the daughter of Apollo, or of +Oceanus, but is supposed not to have been the same person that is +mentioned by Apollodorus as the mother of the prophet Tiresias.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_75" id="note2_75" href="#tag2_75">75.</a> +<i>A baneful serpent.</i>]—Ver. 652. This happened when one of the +arrows of Hercules, dipped in the poison of the Lernæan Hydra, pierced +the foot of Chiron while he was examining it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_76" id="note2_76" href="#tag2_76">76.</a> +<i>The three Goddesses.</i>]—Ver. 654. Namely, Clotho, Lachesis, +and Atropos, the ‘Parcæ,’ or ‘Destinies.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_77" id="note2_77" href="#tag2_77">77.</a> +<i>Philyrean.</i>]—Ver. 676. Chiron was the son of Philyra, by +Saturn.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_78" id="note2_78" href="#tag2_78">78.</a> +<i>Messenian.</i>]—Ver. 679. Elis and Messenia were countries of +Peloponnesus; the former was on the northwest, and the latter on the +southwest side of it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_79" id="note2_79" href="#tag2_79">79.</a> +<i>Plains of Pylos.</i>]—Ver. 684. There were three cities named +Pylos in Peloponnesus. One was in Elis, another in Messenia, and the +third was situate between the other two. The latter is supposed to have +been the native place of Nestor, though they all laid claim to that +honor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_80" id="note2_80" href="#tag2_80">80.</a> +<i>Neleus.</i>]—Ver. 689. He was the king of Pylos, and the father +of Nestor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_81" id="note2_81" href="#tag2_81">81.</a> +<i>The old man.</i>]—Ver. 702. Clarke quaintly translates ‘at +senior,’ ‘but then the old blade.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_82" id="note2_82" href="#tag2_82">82.</a> +<i>The ‘Touchstone.’</i>]—Ver. 706. It is a matter of doubt among +commentators whether ‘index’ here means a general term for the +touchstone, by which metals are tested; or whether it means that Battus +was changed into one individual stone, which afterwards was called +‘index.’ Lactantius, by his words, seems to imply that the latter was +the case. He says, ‘He changed him into a stone, which, from this +circumstance, is called “index†about Pylos.’ ‘Index’ was a name of +infamy, corresponding with the Greek word <span class="greek" title="sykophantês">συκοφάντης</span>, and with our term ‘spy.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_83" id="note2_83" href="#tag2_83">83.</a> +<i>Munychia.</i>]—Ver. 709. Munychia was the name of a promontory +and harbor of Attica, between the Piræus and the promontory of ‘Sunium.’ +The spot was so called from Munychius, who there built a temple in honor +of Diana.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_84" id="note2_84" href="#tag2_84">84.</a> +<i>Balearic.</i>]—Ver. 727. The Baleares were the islands of +Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza, in the Mediterranean, near the coast of +Spain. The natives of these islands were famous for their skill in the +use of the sling. That weapon does not appear to have been used in the +earliest times among the Greeks, as Homer does not mention it; it had, +however, been introduced by the time of the war with Xerxes, though even +then the sling was, perhaps, rarely used as a weapon. The Acarnanians +and the Achæans of Agium, Patræ, and Dymæ were very expert in the use of +the sling. That used by the Achæans was made of three thongs of leather, +and not of one only, like those of other nations. The natives of the +Balearic isles are said to have attained their skill from the +circumstance of their mothers, when they were children, obliging them to +obtain their food by striking it, from a tree, with a sling. While other +slings were made of leather, theirs were made of rushes. Besides stones, +plummets of lead, called ‘glandes,’ (as in the present instance), and +<span class="greek" title="molubdides">μολύβδιδες</span>, of a form +between acorns and almonds, were cast in moulds, to be thrown from +slings. They have been frequently dug up in various parts of Greece, and +particularly on the plains of Marathon. Some have the device of a +thunderbolt; while others are inscribed with <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads δεζαί ‘dezai’ for ‘dexai’">δέξαι</ins>, ‘take +this.’ It was a prevalent idea with the ancients that the stone +discharged from the sling became red hot in its course, from the +swiftness of its motion.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_85" id="note2_85" href="#tag2_85">85.</a> +<i>Adjusts his mantle.</i>]—Ver. 733. ‘Chlamydemque ut pendeat +apte, Collocat,’ etc., is translated by Clarke—‘And he places his +coat that it might hang agreeably, that the border and all its gold +might appear.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_86" id="note2_86" href="#tag2_86">86.</a> +<i>That his wings.</i>]—Ver. 736. Clarke renders ‘ut tersis +niteant talaria plantis,’ ‘that his wings shine upon his spruce +feet.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_87" id="note2_87" href="#tag2_87">87.</a> +<i>God who inhabits Lemnos.</i>]—Ver. 757. Being precipitated from +heaven for his deformity, Vulcan fell upon the Isle of Lemnos, in the +Ægean Sea, where he exercised the craft of a blacksmith, according to +the mythologists. The birth of Ericthonius, by the aid of Minerva, is +here referred to.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_88" id="note2_88" href="#tag2_88">88.</a> +<i>Tritonia.</i>]—Ver. 783. Minerva is said to have been called +Tritonia, either from the Cretan word <span class="greek" title="tritô">Ï„Ïιτω</span>, signifying ‘a head,’ as she sprang from the head +of Jupiter; or from Trito, a lake of Libya, near which she was said +to have been born.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_89" id="note2_89" href="#tag2_89">89.</a> +<i>Tritonian.</i>]—Ver. 794. Athens, namely, which was sacred to +Pallas, or Minerva, its tutelary divinity.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note2_90" id="note2_90" href="#tag2_90">90.</a> +<i>Sidonis.</i>]—Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a maritime city +of PhÅ“nicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was not an unworthy +rival.</p> + +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">97</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">83</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookIII" id="bookIII"></a> +BOOK THE THIRD.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableI" id="bookIII_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, having carried away Europa, +her father, Agenor, commands his son Cadmus to go immediately in search +of her, and either to bring back his sister with him, or never to return +to PhÅ“nicia. Cadmus, wearied with his toils and fruitless inquiries, +goes to consult the oracle at Delphi, which bids him observe the spot +where he should see a cow lie down, and build a city there, and give the +name of BÅ“otia to the country.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> now the God, having laid aside +the shape of the deceiving Bull, had discovered himself, and reached the +Dictæan land; when her father, ignorant <i>of her fate</i>, commands +Cadmus to seek her <i>thus</i> ravished, and adds exile as the +punishment, if he does not find her; being <i>both</i> affectionate and +unnatural in the self-same act. The son of Agenor, having wandered over +the whole world,<a class="tag" name="tag3_1" id="tag3_1" href="#note3_1">1</a> as an exile flies from his country and the wrath of his +father, for who is there that can discover the intrigues of Jupiter? +A suppliant, he consults the oracle of PhÅ“bus, and inquires in what +land he must dwell. “A heifer,†PhÅ“bus says, “will meet thee in the +lonely fields, one that has never borne the yoke, and free from the +crooked plough. Under her guidance, go on thy way; and where she shall +lie down on the grass, there cause a city to be built, and call it the +BÅ“otian<a class="tag" name="tag3_2" id="tag3_2" href="#note3_2">2</a> <i>city</i>.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">98</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 13-34</span> +<p>Scarcely had Cadmus well got down from the Castalian +<span class="pagenum bell">84</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 14-34</span> +cave,<a class="tag" name="tag3_3" id="tag3_3" href="#note3_3">3</a> <i>when</i> he saw a heifer, without a keeper, slowly +going along, bearing no mark of servitude upon her neck. He follows, and +pursues her steps with leisurely pace, and silently adores PhÅ“bus, the +adviser of his way. <i>And</i> now he had passed the fords of the +Cephisus, and the fields of Panope, <i>when</i> the cow stood still and +raising her forehead, expansive with lofty horns, towards heaven, she +made the air reverberate with her lowings. And so, looking back on her +companions that followed behind, she lay down, and reposed her side upon +the tender grass. Cadmus returned thanks, and imprinted kisses upon the +stranger land, and saluted the unknown mountains and fields. He was +<i>now</i> going to offer sacrifice to Jupiter, and commanded his +servants to go and fetch some water for the libation from the running +springs. An ancient grove was standing <i>there, as yet</i> profaned by +no axe. There was a cavern in the middle <i>of it</i>, thick covered +with twigs and osiers, forming a low arch by the junction of the rocks; +abounding with plenty of water. Hid in this cavern, there was a dragon +sacred to Mars,<a class="tag" name="tag3_4" id="tag3_4" href="#note3_4">4</a> adorned with crests and a golden <i>color</i>. His eyes +sparkle with fire, <i>and</i> all his body is puffed out with poison; +three tongues, <i>too</i>, are brandished, and his teeth stand in a +triple row.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Reverting to the history of Europa, it may be here remarked, that +Apollodorus has preserved her genealogy. Libya, according +<span class="pagenum mckay">99</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 35-48</span> +to that author, had two sons by Neptune, Belus and Agenor. The latter +married Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, PhÅ“nix, and Cilix, and a +daughter named Europa. Some ancient writers, however, say, that Europa +was the daughter of PhÅ“nix, and the grandchild of Agenor.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Some authors, and Ovid among the rest, have supposed that Europe +received its name from Europa. Bochart has, with considerable +probability, suggested that it was originally so called from the fair +complexion of the +<span class="pagenum bell">85</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 35-49</span> +people who inhabited it. Europa herself may have received her name also +from the fairness of her complexion: hence, the poets, as the Scholiast +on Theocritus tells us, invented a fable, that a daughter of Juno stole +her mother’s paint, to give it to Europa, who used it with so much +success as to ensure, by its use, an extremely fair and beautiful +complexion.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableII" id="bookIII_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> companions of Cadmus, fetching +water from the fountain of Mars, are devoured by the Dragon that guards +it. Cadmus, on discovering their destruction, slays the monster, and, by +the advice of Minerva, sows <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘their’">the</ins> teeth, which immediately produce a crop of +armed men. They forthwith quarrel among themselves, and kill each other, +with the exception of five who assist Cadmus in building the city of +Thebes.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">After</span> the men who came from the +Tyrian nation had touched this grove with ill-fated steps, and the urn +let down into the water made a splash; the azure dragon stretched forth +his head from the deep cave, and uttered dreadful hissings. The urns +dropped from their hands; and the blood left their bodies, and a sudden +trembling seized their astonished limbs. He wreathes his scaly orbs in +rolling spires, and with a spring becomes twisted into mighty folds; and +uprearing himself from below the middle into the light air, he looks +down upon all the grove, and is of as large a size,<a class="tag" name="tag3_5" id="tag3_5" href="#note3_5">5</a> as, if you were to look +on him entire, <i>the serpent</i> which separates the two Bears.</p> + +<p>There is no delay; he seizes the PhÅ“nicians (whether they are +resorting to their arms or to flight, or whether fear itself is +preventing either <i>step</i>); some he kills with +<span class="pagenum mckay">100</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 48-71</span> +his sting,<a class="tag" name="tag3_6" id="tag3_6" href="#note3_6">6</a> some with his long folds, some breathed upon<a class="tag" name="tag3_7" id="tag3_7" href="#note3_7">7</a> by the venom +of his baneful poison.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">86</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 50-83</span> + +<p>The sun, now at its height, had made the shadows <i>but</i> small: +the son of Agenor wonders what has detained his companion and goes to +seek his men. His garment was a skin torn from a lion; his weapon was a +lance with shining steel, and a javelin; and a courage superior to any +weapon. When he entered the grove, and beheld the lifeless bodies, and +the victorious enemy <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘in’">of</ins> immense size upon them, licking the horrid wounds with +bloodstained tongue, he said, “Either I will be the avenger of your +death, bodies <i>of my</i> faithful <i>companions</i>, or <i>I will +be</i> a sharer <i>in it</i>.†<i>Thus</i> he said; and with his right +hand he raised a huge stone,<a class="tag" name="tag3_8" id="tag3_8" href="#note3_8">8</a> and hurled the vast <i>weight</i> with +a tremendous effort. <i>And</i> although high walls with lofty towers +would have been shaken with the shock of it, <i>yet</i> the dragon +remained without a wound; and, being defended by his scales as though +with a coat of mail, and the hardness of his black hide, he repelled the +mighty stroke with his skin. But he did not overcome the javelin as well +with the same hardness; which stood fast, fixed in the middle joint of +his yielding spine, and sank with the entire <i>point of</i> steel into +his entrails. Fierce with pain, he turned his head towards his back, and +beheld his wounds, and bit the javelin fixed there. And after he had +twisted it on every side with all his might, with difficulty he wrenched +it from his back; yet the steel +<span class="pagenum mckay">101</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 71-100</span> +stuck fast in his bones. But then, when this newly inflicted wound has +increased his wonted fury, his throat swelled with gorged veins, and +white foam flowed around his pestilential jaws. The Earth, too, scraped +with <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘his’">the</ins> +scales, sounds again, and the livid steam that issues from his infernal +mouth,<a class="tag" name="tag3_9" id="tag3_9" href="#note3_9">9</a> infects the tainted air. One while he is enrolled in +spires making enormous rings; sometimes he unfolds himself straighter +than a long beam. Now with a vast impulse, like a torrent swelled with +rain, he is borne along, and bears down the obstructing forests with his +breast. The son of Agenor gives way a little; and by the spoil of the +lion he sustains the shock, and with his lance extended before him, +pushes back his mouth, as it advances. +<span class="pagenum bell">87</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 83-112</span> +The dragon rages, and vainly inflicts wounds on the hard steel, and +fixes his teeth upon the point. And now the blood began to flow from his +poisonous palate, and had dyed the green grass with its spray. But the +wound was slight; because he recoiled from the stroke, and drew back his +wounded throat, and by shrinking prevented the blow from sinking deep, +and did not suffer it to go very far. At length, the son of Agenor, +still pursuing, pressed the spear lodged in his throat, until an oak +stood in his way as he retreated, and his neck was pierced, together +with the trunk. The tree was bent with the weight of the serpent, and +groaned at having its trunk lashed with the extremity of its tail.</p> + +<p>While the conqueror was surveying the vast size of his vanquished +enemy, a voice was suddenly heard (nor was it easy to understand +whence <i>it was</i>, but heard it was). “Why, son of Agenor, art thou +<i>thus</i> contemplating the dragon slain <i>by thee</i>? Even thou +<i>thyself</i> shalt be seen <i>in the form of</i> a dragon.â€<a class="tag" name="tag3_10" id="tag3_10" href="#note3_10">10</a> He, for +a long time in alarm, lost his color together with his presence of mind, +and his hair stood on end with a chill +<span class="pagenum mckay">102</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 101-119</span> +of terror. Lo! Pallas, the favorer of the hero, descending through the +upper region of the air, comes to him, and bids him sow the dragon’s +teeth under the earth turned up, as the seeds of a future people. He +obeyed; and when he had opened a furrow with the pressed plough, he +scattered the teeth on the ground as ordered, the seed of a race of men. +Afterwards (’tis beyond belief) the turf began to move, and first +appeared a point of a spear out of the furrows, next the coverings of +heads nodding with painted cones;<a class="tag" name="tag3_11" id="tag3_11" href="#note3_11">11</a> then the shoulders and the breast, +and the arms laden with weapons start up, and a crop of men armed with +shields grows apace. So, when the curtains<a class="tag" name="tag3_12" id="tag3_12" href="#note3_12">12</a> are drawn up in the +joyful theaters, figures +<span class="pagenum bell">88</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 112-130</span> +are wont to rise, and first to show their countenances; by degrees the +rest; and being drawn out in a gradual continuation, the whole appear, +and place their feet on the lowest edge <i>of the stage</i>. Alarmed +with this new enemy, Cadmus is preparing to take arms, when one of the +people that the earth had produced cries out, “Do not take up +<i>arms</i>, nor engage thyself in <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘a civil war’">civil war</ins>.†And then, engaged hand +to hand, he strikes one of his earth-born brothers with the cruel sword, +<i>while</i> he himself falls by a dart sent from a distance. +<span class="pagenum mckay">103</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 120-130</span> +He, also, who had put him to death, lives no longer than the other, and +breathes forth the air which he has so lately received. In a similar +manner, too, the whole troop becomes maddened, and the brothers +<i>so</i> newly sprung up, fall in fight with each other, by mutual +wounds. And now the youths that had the space of <i>so</i> short an +existence allotted them, beat with throbbing <ins class="corr bell" +title="Bell translates ‘breasts’">breast</ins> their blood-stained +mother, five <i>only</i> remaining, of whom Echion<a class="tag" name="tag3_13" id="tag3_13" href="#note3_13">13</a> was one. He, by the +advice of Tritonia, threw his arms upon the ground, and both asked and +gave the assurance of brotherly concord.</p> + +<p>The Sidonian stranger had these as associates in his task, when he +built the city that was ordered by the oracle of PhÅ“bus.</p> + +<h6> +EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Agenor, on losing his daughter, commands his sons to go in search of +her, and not to return till they have found her. The young princes, +either unable to learn what was become of her, or, perhaps, being too +weak to recover her out of the hands of the king of Crete, did not +return to their +<span class="pagenum bell">89</span> +father, but established themselves in different countries; Cadmus +settling in BÅ“otia, Cilix in Cilicia, to which he gave his name, and +PhÅ“nix, as Hyginus tells us, remaining in Africa. Photius, quoting from +Conon, the historian, informs us, that the hope of conquering some +country in Europe, and establishing a colony there, was the true ground +of the voyage of Cadmus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Palæphatus, and other writers, say, that the Dragon which was killed by +Cadmus was a king of the country, who was named Draco, and was a son of +Mars: that his teeth were his subjects, who rallied again after their +defeat, and that Cadmus put them all to the sword, except Chthonius, +Udeus, Hyperenor, Pelor, and Echion, who became reconciled to him. +Heraclitus, however, assures us, that Cadmus really did slay a serpent, +which was very annoying to the BÅ“otian territory. Bochart and +Le Clerc are of opinion that the Fable has the following +foundation:—They say, that in the PhÅ“nician language, the same +word signifies either the teeth of a serpent, or short javelins, pointed +with brass; that the word which signifies the number five likewise means +an army; and that probably, from these circumstances, the Fable may have +taken its rise. For the Greeks, in following the annals written in the +PhÅ“nician language, while writing the history of the founder of Thebes, +instead of describing his soldiers as wearing helmets on their heads, +with back and breast-plates, and with darts in their +<span class="pagenum mckay">104</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 131-<ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘332’">132</ins></span> +hands pointed with brass, which equipment was then entirely novel in +Greece, chose rather to follow the more wonderful version, and to say, +that Cadmus had five companions produced from the teeth of a serpent; +as, according to Bochart’s suggestion, the same PhÅ“nician phrase may +either signify a company of men sprung from the teeth of a serpent, or a +company of men armed with brazen darts.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +This conjecture is, perhaps, confirmed by a story related by Herodotus +(book ii.), which resembles it very much. He tells us, that Psammeticus, +king of Egypt, being driven to the marshy parts of his kingdom, sent to +consult the oracle of Latona, which answered that he should be restored +by brass men coming from the sea. At the time, this answer appeared to +him entirely frivolous; but certain Ionian soldiers, being obliged, some +years after, to retire to Egypt, and appearing on the shore with their +weapons and armor, all of brass, those who perceived them ran +immediately to inform the king, that men clad in brass were plundering +the country. The prince then fully comprehended the meaning of the +oracle, and making an alliance with them, recovered his throne by the +assistance they gave him. These brass men come from the sea, and those +sprung from the earth were soldiers who assisted Psammeticus and Cadmus +in carrying out their objects. Bochart’s conjecture is strengthened by +the fact, that Cadmus was either the inventor of the cuirass and +javelin, or the first that brought them into Greece. Without inquiring +further into the subject, we may conclude, that the men sprung from the +earth, or the dragon’s teeth which were sown, were the people of the +country, whom Cadmus found means to bring over to his interest; and that +they first helped him to conquer his enemies, and then to build the +citadel of Thebes, to ensure his future security. Apollodorus says that +Cadmus, to expiate the slaughter of the dragon, was obliged to serve +Mars a whole year; which year, containing eight of +<span class="pagenum bell">90</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 131-142</span> +our years, it is not improbable that Cadmus rendered services for a long +time to his new allies before he received any assistance from them.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableIII" id="bookIII_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Actæon</span>, the grandson of Cadmus, +fatigued with hunting and excessive heat, inadvertently wanders to the +cool valley of Gargaphie, the usual retreat of Diana, when tired with +the same exercise. There, to his misfortune, he surprises the Goddess +and her Nymphs while bathing, for which she transforms him into a stag, +and his own hounds tear him to pieces.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> now Thebes was standing; now +Cadmus, thou mightst seem happy in thy exile. Both Mars and Venus<a +class="tag" name="tag3_14" id="tag3_14" href="#note3_14">14</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">105</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 132-150</span> +had become thy father-in-law and mother-in-law; add to this, issue by a +wife so illustrious, so many sons<a class="tag" name="tag3_15" id="tag3_15" href="#note3_15">15</a> and daughters, and grandchildren, +dear pledges <i>of love</i>; these, too, now of a youthful age. But, +forsooth, the last day <i>of life</i> must always be awaited by man, and +no one ought to be pronounced happy before his death,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_16" id="tag3_16" href="#note3_16">16</a> and his last +obsequies. Thy grandson, Cadmus, was the first occasion of sorrow to +thee, among so much prosperity, the horns, too, not his own, placed upon +his forehead, and you, O dogs, glutted with the blood of your +master. But, if you diligently inquire into his <i>case</i>, you will +find the fault of an accident, and not criminality in him; for what +criminality did mistake embrace?</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">91</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 143-170</span> + +<p>There was a mountain stained with the blood of various wild beasts; +and now the day had contracted the meridian shadow of things, and the +sun was equally distant from each extremity <i>of the heavens</i>; when +the Hyantian youth<a class="tag" name="tag3_17" id="tag3_17" href="#note3_17">17</a> <i>thus</i> addressed the partakers of his toils, +as they wandered along the lonely haunts <i>of the wild beasts</i>, with +gentle accent: “Our nets are moistened, my friends, and our spears, too, +with the blood of wild beasts; and the day has yielded sufficient sport; +when the next morn, borne upon her rosy chariot, shall bring back the +light, let us seek again our proposed +<span class="pagenum mckay">106</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 151-173</span> +task. Now PhÅ“bus is at the same distance from both lands, <i>the Eastern +and the Western</i>, and is cleaving the fields with his heat. Cease +your present toils, and take away the knotted nets.†The men execute his +orders, and cease their labors. There was a valley, thick set with +pitch-trees and the sharp-pointed cypress; by name Gargaphie,<a class="tag" name="tag3_18" id="tag3_18" href="#note3_18">18</a> sacred +to the active Diana. In the extreme recess of this, there was a grotto +in a grove, formed by no art; nature, by her ingenuity, had +counterfeited art; for she had formed a natural arch, in the native +pumice and the light sand-stones. A limpid fountain ran murmuring +on the right hand with its little stream, having its spreading channels +edged with a border of grass. Here, <i>when</i> wearied with hunting, +the Goddess of the woods was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in <ins +class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘the clear water’">clear +water</ins>.</p> + +<p>After she had entered there, she handed to one of the Nymphs, her +armor-bearer, her javelin, her quiver, and her unstrung bow. Another +Nymph put her arms under her mantle, when taken off: two removed the +sandals from her feet. But Crocale,<a class="tag" name="tag3_19" id="tag3_19" href="#note3_19">19</a> the daughter of Ismenus, more +skilled than they, gathered her hair, which lay scattered over her neck, +into a knot, although she herself was with <i>her hair</i> loose. +<span class="pagenum bell">92</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 171-197</span> +Nephele,<a class="tag" name="tag3_20" id="tag3_20" href="#note3_20">20</a> and Hyale,<a class="tag" name="tag3_21" id="tag3_21" href="#note3_21">21</a> and Rhanis,<a class="tag" name="tag3_22" id="tag3_22" href="#note3_22">22</a> fetch water, Psecas<a +class="tag" name="tag3_23" id="tag3_23" href="#note3_23">23</a> +and Phyale<a class="tag" name="tag3_24" id="tag3_24" href="#note3_24">24</a> <i>do the same</i>, and pour it from their large +urns. And while the Titanian <i>Goddess</i> was there bathing in the +wonted +<span class="pagenum mckay">107</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 174-198</span> +stream, behold! the grandson of Cadmus, having deferred the remainder of +his sport till <i>next day</i>, came into the grove, wandering through +the unknown wood, with uncertain steps; thus did his fate direct +him.</p> + +<p>Soon as he entered the grotto, dropping with its springs, the Nymphs, +naked as they were, on seeing a man, smote their breasts, and filled all +the woods with sudden shrieks, and gathering round Diana, covered her +with their bodies. Yet the Goddess herself was higher than they, and was +taller than them all by the neck. The color that is wont to be in +clouds, tinted by the rays of the sun <i>when</i> opposite, or that of +the ruddy morning, was on the features of Diana, when seen without her +garments. She, although surrounded with the crowd of her attendants, +stood sideways, and turned her face back; and how did she wish that she +had her arrows at hand; <i>and</i> so she took up water,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_25" id="tag3_25" href="#note3_25">25</a> which she did +have <i>at hand</i>, and threw it over the face of the man, and +sprinkling his hair with the avenging stream, she added these words, the +presages of his future woe: “Now thou <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘mayest’">mayst</ins> tell, if tell thou canst, how that I +was seen by thee without my garments.†Threatening no more, she places +on his sprinkled head the horns of a lively stag; she adds length to his +neck, and sharpens the tops of his ears; and she changes his hands into +feet, and his arms into long legs, and covers his body with a spotted +coat of hair; fear, too is added. +<span class="pagenum bell">93</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 198-212</span> +The Autonoëian<a class="tag" name="tag3_26" id="tag3_26" href="#note3_26">26</a> hero took to flight, and wondered +<span class="pagenum mckay">108</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 199-213</span> +that he was so swift in his speed; but when he beheld his own horns in +the wonted stream, he was about to say, “Ah, wretched me!†<i>when</i> +no voice followed. He groaned; that was <i>all</i> his voice, and his +tears trickled down a face not his own, <i>but that of a stag</i>. His +former understanding alone remained. What should he do? Should he return +home, and to the royal abode? or should he lie hid in the woods? Fear +hinders the one <i>step</i>, shame the other. While he was hesitating, +the dogs espied him, and first Melampus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_27" id="tag3_27" href="#note3_27">27</a> and the good-nosed +Ichnobates gave the signal, in full cry. Ichnobates,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_28" id="tag3_28" href="#note3_28">28</a> was a Gnossian +<i>dog</i>; Melampus was of Spartan breed. Then the rest rush on, +swifter than the rapid winds; Pamphagus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_29" id="tag3_29" href="#note3_29">29</a> and Dorcæus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_30" id="tag3_30" href="#note3_30">30</a> and +Oribasus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_31" id="tag3_31" href="#note3_31">31</a> all Arcadian <i>dogs</i>; and able Nebrophonus,<a +class="tag" name="tag3_32" id="tag3_32" href="#note3_32">32</a> +and with Lælaps,<a class="tag" name="tag3_33" id="tag3_33" href="#note3_33">33</a> fierce Theron,<a class="tag" name="tag3_34" id="tag3_34" href="#note3_34">34</a> and Pterelas,<a class="tag" name="tag3_35" id="tag3_35" href="#note3_35">35</a> excelling in +<span class="pagenum bell">94</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 212-221</span> +speed, Agre<a class="tag" name="tag3_36" id="tag3_36" href="#note3_36">36</a> in her scent, and Hylæus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_37" id="tag3_37" href="#note3_37">37</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">109</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 214-223</span> +lately wounded by a fierce boar, and Nape,<a class="tag" name="tag3_38" id="tag3_38" href="#note3_38">38</a> begotten by a wolf, +and PÅ“menis,<a class="tag" name="tag3_39" id="tag3_39" href="#note3_39">39</a> that had tended cattle, and Harpyia,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_40" id="tag3_40" href="#note3_40">40</a> followed by +her two whelps, and the Sicyonian Ladon,<a class="tag" name="tag3_41" id="tag3_41" href="#note3_41">41</a> having a slender +girth; Dromas,<a class="tag" name="tag3_42" id="tag3_42" href="#note3_42">42</a> too, and Canace,<a class="tag" name="tag3_43" id="tag3_43" href="#note3_43">43</a> Sticte,<a class="tag" name="tag3_44" id="tag3_44" href="#note3_44">44</a> and Tigris, and +Alce,<a class="tag" name="tag3_45" id="tag3_45" href="#note3_45">45</a> and <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Luecon’">Leucon</ins>,<a class="tag" name="tag3_46" id="tag3_46" +href="#note3_46">46</a> with snow-white hair, and Asbolus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_47" id="tag3_47" href="#note3_47">47</a> with +black, and the able-bodied Lacon,<a class="tag" name="tag3_48" id="tag3_48" href="#note3_48">48</a> and Aëllo,<a class="tag" name="tag3_49" id="tag3_49" href="#note3_49">49</a> good at running, and +Thoüs,<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘,50,’ with duplicate comma"><a class="tag" name="tag3_50" id="tag3_50" href="#note3_50">50</a></ins>and swift Lycisca,<a class="tag" name="tag3_51" id="tag3_51" href="#note3_51">51</a> with her Cyprian +brother, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Harpaulus’">Harpalus</ins>,<a class="tag" name="tag3_52" id="tag3_52" href="#note3_52">52</a> too, having his black face marked +with white down +<span class="pagenum bell">95</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 221-245</span> +the middle, and Melaneus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_53" id="tag3_53" href="#note3_53">53</a> and Lachne,<a class="tag" name="tag3_54" id="tag3_54" href="#note3_54">54</a> with a <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘white-haired’; Ovid III.222 ‘hirsuta’">wire-haired</ins> body, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">110</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 224-246</span> +Labros,<a class="tag" name="tag3_55" id="tag3_55" href="#note3_55">55</a> and Agriodos,<a class="tag" name="tag3_56" id="tag3_56" href="#note3_56">56</a> bred of a Dictæan sire, but of a +Laconian dam, and <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Hylector’">Hylactor</ins>,<a class="tag" name="tag3_57" id="tag3_57" href="#note3_57">57</a> with his shrill note; and others +which it were tedious to recount.</p> + +<p>This pack, in eagerness for their prey, are borne over rocks and +cliffs, and crags difficult of approach, where the path is steep, and +where there is no road. He flies along the routes by which he has so +often pursued; alas! he is <i>now</i> flying from his own servants. Fain +would he have cried, “I am Actæon, recognize your own master.†+Words are wanting to his wishes; the air resounds with their barking. +Melanchætes<a class="tag" name="tag3_58" id="tag3_58" href="#note3_58">58</a> was the first to make a wound on his back, +Theridamas<a class="tag" name="tag3_59" id="tag3_59" href="#note3_59">59</a> the next; Oresitrophus<a class="tag" name="tag3_60" id="tag3_60" href="#note3_60">60</a> fastened upon his +shoulder. These had gone out later, but their course was shortened by a +near cut through the hill. While they hold their master, the rest of the +pack come up, and fasten their teeth in his body. Now room is wanting +for <i>more</i> wounds. He groans, and utters a noise, though not that +of a man, <i>still</i>, such as a stag cannot make; and he fills the +well-known mountains with dismal moans, and suppliant on his bended +knees, and like one in entreaty, he turns round his silent looks as +though <i>they were</i> his arms.</p> + +<p>But his companions, in their ignorance, urge on the eager pack with +their usual cries, and seek Actæon with their eyes; and cry out “Actæon†+aloud, as though he were absent. At his name he turns his head, as they +complain that he is not +<span class="pagenum bell">96</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 245-252</span> +there, and in his indolence, is not enjoying a sight of the sport +afforded them. He wished, indeed, he had been away, but there +<span class="pagenum mckay">111</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 247-252</span> +he was; and he wished to see, not to feel as well, the cruel feats of +his own dogs. They gather round him on all sides, and burying their jaws +in his body, tear their master in pieces under the form of an imaginary +stag. And the rage of the quiver-bearing Diana is said not to have been +satiated, until his life was ended by many a wound.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +If the maxim of Horace, ‘Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice nodus,’ +had been a little more frequently observed by the ancient poets, their +Deities would not have been so often placed in a degrading or disgusting +light before posterity. There cannot be a better illustration of the +truth of this than the present Fable, where Ovid represents the chaste +and prudent Diana as revenging herself in a cruel and barbarous manner +for the indiscretion, or rather misfortune, of an innocent young +man.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Cicero mentions several Goddesses of the name of Diana. The first was +the daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine; the second of Jupiter and +Latona; and the third of Upis and Glauce. Strabo mentions another Diana, +named Britomartis, the daughter of Eubalus. The worship, however, of +Diana as the Goddess of the Moon, was, most probably, derived from +Egypt, with the Isis of whom she is perhaps identical. The adventure +narrated in this Fable is most probably to be attributed to Diana +Britomartis, as Strabo tells us, that she was particularly fond of the +chase. Pausanias, in his Attica, tells the story in much the same terms, +but he adds, that on seeing Diana bathing, the novelty of the sight +excited Actæon’s curiosity, and prompted him to approach nearer. To +explain this fable, some authors suggest, that Actæon’s dogs becoming +mad, devoured him; while others suppose, that having ruined himself by +the expense of supporting a large pack of hounds, and a hunting +establishment, it was reported that he had been devoured by his dogs. +Diodorus Siculus, and Euripides, tell us, that Actæon showed contempt to +Diana, and was about to eat of the sacrifice that had been offered to +her; and of course, in such a case, punishment at the hands of the +Goddess would be deemed a just retribution. Apollodorus says, that +Actæon was brought up by Chiron, and that he was put to death on Mount +Cithæron, for having seen Diana bathing; though, according to one +ancient authority, he was punished for having made improper overtures to +Semele. Apollodorus also says, that his dogs died of grief, on the loss +of their master, and he has preserved some of their names.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">112</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 253-274</span> + +<span class="pagenum bell">97</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 253-277</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableIV" id="bookIII_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Juno</span>, incensed against Semele for her +intrigue with Jupiter, takes the form of Beroë, the more easily to +ensure her revenge. Having first infused in Semele suspicions of her +lover, she then recommends her to adopt a certain method of proving his +constancy. Semele, thus deceived, obtains a reluctant promise from +Jupiter, to make his next visit to her in the splendor and majesty in +which he usually approached his wife.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">They</span> speak in various ways <i>of +this matter</i>. To some, the Goddess seems more severe than is proper; +others praise her, and call her deserving <i>of her state</i> of strict +virginity: both sides find their reasons. The wife of Jupiter alone does +not so much declare whether she blames or whether she approves, as she +rejoices at the calamity of a family sprung from Agenor, and transfers +the hatred that she has conceived from the Tyrian mistress to the +partners of her race. Lo! a fresh occasion is <i>now</i> added to +the former one; and she grieves that Semele is pregnant from the seed of +great Jupiter. She then lets loose her tongue to abuse.</p> + +<p>“And what good have I done by railing so often?†said she. “She +herself must be attacked <i>by me</i>. If I am properly called the +supreme Juno, I will destroy her; if it becomes me to hold the +sparkling sceptre in my right hand; if I am the queen, and both the +sister and wife of Jupiter. The sister <i>I am</i>, no doubt. But I +suppose she is content with a stolen embrace, and the injury to my bed +is but trifling. She is <i>now</i> pregnant; that <i>alone</i> was +wanting; and she bears the evidence of his crime in her swelling womb, +and wishes to be made a mother by Jupiter, a thing which hardly +fell to my lot alone. So great is her confidence in her beauty. +I will take care<a class="tag" name="tag3_61" id="tag3_61" +href="#note3_61">61</a> he shall deceive her; and may I be no daughter +of Saturn, if she does not descend to the Stygian waves, sunk +<i>there</i> by her own <i>dear</i> Jupiter.â€</p> + +<p>Upon this she rises from her throne, and, hidden in a cloud of fiery +hue, she approaches the threshold of +<span class="pagenum mckay">113</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 274-301</span> +Semele. Nor did she remove the clouds before she counterfeited an old +woman, and planted gray hair on her temples; and furrowed her skin with +wrinkles, and moved her bending limbs with palsied step, +<span class="pagenum bell"> +<ins class="corr bell" title="text reads ‘96’">98</ins></span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 277-301</span> +and made her voice that of an old woman. She became Beroë<a class="tag" name="tag3_62" id="tag3_62" href="#note3_62">62</a> herself, +the Epidaurian<a class="tag" name="tag3_63" id="tag3_63" href="#note3_63">63</a> nurse of Semele. When, therefore, upon engaging in +discourse with her, and <i>after</i> long talking, they came to the name +of Jupiter, she sighed, and said, “I <i>only</i> wish it may be +Jupiter; yet I <i>am apt to</i> fear everything. Many a one under the +name of a God has invaded a chaste bed. Nor yet is it enough that he is +Jupiter; let him, if, indeed, he is the real one, give some pledge of +his affection; and beg of him to bestow his caresses on thee, just in +the greatness and form in which he is received by the stately Juno; and +let him first assume his ensigns <i>of royalty</i>.†With such words did +Juno tutor the unsuspecting daughter of Cadmus. She requested of Jupiter +a favor, without naming it. To her the God said, “Make thy choice, thou +shalt suffer no denial; and that thou mayst believe it the more, let the +majesty of the Stygian stream bear witness. He <i>is</i> the dread and +the God of the Gods.â€</p> + +<p>Overjoyed at <i>what was</i> her misfortune, and too <i>easily</i> +prevailing, as now about to perish by the complaisance of her lover, +Semele said, “Present thyself to me, just such as the daughter of Saturn +is wont to embrace thee, when ye honor the ties of Venus.†The God +wished to shut her mouth as she spoke, <i>but</i> the hasty words had +now escaped into air. He groaned; for neither was it <i>now</i> possible +for her not to have wished, nor for him not to have sworn. Therefore, in +extreme sadness, he mounted the lofty skies, and with his nod drew along +the attendant clouds; to which he added showers and lightnings mingled +with winds, and thunders, and the inevitable thunderbolt.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">114</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 302-315</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is most probable, that an intrigue between a female named Semele and +one of the princes called Jupiter having had a tragical end, gave +occasion to this Fable. Pausanias, in his Laconica, tells us, that +Cadmus, exasperated against his daughter Semele, caused her and her son +to be thrown into the sea; and that being thrown ashore at Oreate, an +ancient town of Laconia, Semele was buried there.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">99</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 302-316</span> + +<p class="explanation"> +Semele, according to Apollodorus, was, after her death, ranked among the +Goddesses by the name of Thyone. He says that her son Bacchus going down +to hell, brought her thence, and carried her up to heaven; where, +according to Nonnus, she conversed with Pallas and Diana, and ate at the +same table with Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The author, known by +the name of Orpheus, gives Semele the title of Goddess, and <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads Πανβασιγεια ‘Panbasigeia’ for ‘Panbasileia’">Πανβασίλεια</ins>, or ‘Queen of the Universe.’</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableV" id="bookIII_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Semele</span> is visited by Jupiter, according +to the promise she had obliged him to make; but, being unable to support +the effulgence of his lightning, she is burnt to ashes in his presence. +Bacchus, with whom she is pregnant, is preserved; and Tiresias decided +the dispute between Jupiter and Juno, concerning the sexes.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> yet, as much as possible, he +tries to mitigate his powers. Nor is he now armed with those flames with +which he had overthrown the hundred-handed TyphÅ“us; in those, <i>there +is</i> too much fury. There is another thunder, less baneful, to which +the right hand of the Cyclops gave less ferocity and flames, <i>and</i> +less anger. The Gods above call this second-rate thunder; it he assumes, +and he enters the house of Agenor. Her mortal body could not endure<a +class="tag" name="tag3_64" id="tag3_64" href="#note3_64">64</a> +the æthereal shock, and she was burned amid her nuptial presents. The +infant, as yet unformed, is taken out of the womb of his mother, and +prematurely (if we can believe it) is inserted in the thigh of the +father, and completes the time that he should have spent in the womb. +His aunt, Ino, nurses him privately in his early cradle. After that, the +Nyseian Nymphs<a class="tag" name="tag3_65" id="tag3_65" href="#note3_65">65</a> conceal him, entrusted <i>to</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">115</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 315-338</span> +<i>them</i>, in their caves, and give him the nourishment of milk.</p> + +<p>And while these things are transacted on earth by the +<span class="pagenum bell">100</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 316-342</span> +law of destiny, and the cradle of Bacchus, twice born,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_66" id="tag3_66" href="#note3_66">66</a> is secured; +they tell that Jupiter, by chance, well drenched with nectar, laid aside +<i>all</i> weighty cares, and engaged in some free jokes with Juno, in +her idle moments, and said: “Decidedly the pleasure of you, +<i>females</i>, is greater than that which falls to the lot of <i>us</i> +males.†She denied it. It was agreed <i>between them</i>, to ask what +was the opinion of the experienced Tiresias. To him both pleasures were +well known. For he had separated with a blow of his staff two bodies of +large serpents, as they were coupling in a green wood; and (passing +strange) <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘became’">become</ins> a woman from a man, he had spent seven autumns. +In the eighth, he again saw the same <i>serpents</i>, and said, “If the +power of a stroke given you is so great as to change the condition of +the giver into the opposite one, I will now strike you again.†+Having struck the same snakes, his former sex returned, and his original +shape came <i>again</i>. He, therefore, being chosen as umpire in this +sportive contest, confirmed the words of Jove. The daughter of Saturn is +said to have grieved more than was fit, and not in proportion to the +subject; and she condemned the eyes of the umpire to eternal +darkness.</p> + +<p>But the omnipotent father (for it is not allowed any God to cancel +the acts of <i>another</i> Deity) gave him the knowledge of things to +come, in recompense for his loss of sight, and alleviated his punishment +by this honor.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">116</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 339-362</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableVI" id="bookIII_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Echo</span>, having often amused Juno with her +stories, to give time to Jupiter’s mistresses to make their escape, the +Goddess, at last, punishes her for the deception. She is slighted and +despised by Narcissus, with whom she falls in love.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">He</span>, much celebrated by fame +throughout the cities of Aonia,<a class="tag" name="tag3_67" id="tag3_67" href="#note3_67">67</a> gave unerring answers to the people +consulting him. The azure Liriope<a class="tag" name="tag3_68" id="tag3_68" href="#note3_68">68</a> was the first to make essay and +experiment of +<span class="pagenum bell">101</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 342-371</span> +his infallible voice; whom once Cephisus encircled in his winding +stream, and offered violence to, <i>when</i> enclosed by his waters. The +most beauteous Nymph produced an infant from her teeming womb, which +even then might have been beloved, and she called him Narcissus. Being +consulted concerning him, whether he was destined to see the distant +season of mature old age; the prophet, expounding destiny, said, “If he +never recognizes himself.†Long did the words of the soothsayer appear +frivolous; <i>but</i> the event, the thing <i>itself</i>, the manner of +his death, and the novel nature of his frenzy, confirmed it.</p> + +<p>And now the son of Cephisus had added one to three times five years, +and he might seem to be a boy and a young man as well. Many a youth,<a +class="tag" name="tag3_69" id="tag3_69" href="#note3_69">69</a> +and many a damsel, courted him; but there was so stubborn a pride in his +youthful beauty, <i>that</i> no youths, no damsels made any impression +on him. The noisy Nymph, who has neither learned to hold her tongue +after another speaking, nor to speak first herself, resounding Echo, +espied him, as he was driving the timid stags into his nets. Echo was +then a body, not a voice; and yet the babbler had no other use of her +speech than she now has, to be able to repeat the last words out of +many. +<span class="pagenum mckay">117</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 362-385</span> +Juno had done this; because when often she might have been able to +detect the Nymphs in the mountains in the embrace of her <i>husband</i>, +Jupiter, she purposely used to detain<a class="tag" name="tag3_70" id="tag3_70" href="#note3_70">70</a> the Goddess with a long story, +until the Nymphs had escaped. After the daughter of Saturn perceived +<i>this</i>, she said, “But small exercise of this tongue, with which I +have been deluded, shall be allowed thee, and a very short use of thy +voice.†And she confirmed her threats by the event. Still, in the end of +one’s speaking she redoubles the voice, and returns the words she hears. +When, therefore, she beheld Narcissus<a class="tag" name="tag3_71" id="tag3_71" href="#note3_71">71</a> wandering through +<span class="pagenum bell">102</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 371-401</span> +the pathless forests, and fell in love with him, she stealthily followed +his steps; and the more she followed him, with the nearer flame <ins +class="corr mckay" title="‘did’ invisible in McKay">did</ins> she +burn. In no other manner than as when the native sulphur, spread +around<a class="tag" name="tag3_72" id="tag3_72" href="#note3_72">72</a> the tops of torches, catches the flame applied <i>to +it</i>. Ah! how often did she desire to accost him in soft accents, and +to employ soft entreaties! Nature resists, and suffers her not to begin; +but what <i>Nature</i> does permit, that she is ready for; to await his +voice, to which to return her own words.</p> + +<p>By chance, the youth, being separated from the trusty company of his +attendants, cries out, “Is there any one here?†and Echo answers “Here!†+He is amazed; and when he has cast his eyes on every side, he cries out +with a loud voice, “Come!†<i>Whereon</i> she calls <i>the youth</i> who +calls. He looks back; and again, as no one comes, he says, “Why dost +thou avoid me?†and just as many words as he spoke, he receives. He +persists; and being deceived by the imitation of an alternate +<span class="pagenum mckay">118</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 385-401</span> +voice, he says, “Let us come together here;†and Echo, that could never +more willingly answer any sound whatever, replies, “Let us come together +here!†and she follows up her own words, and rushing from the woods,<a +class="tag" name="tag3_73" id="tag3_73" href="#note3_73">73</a> +is going to throw her arms around the neck she has <i>so</i> longed for. +He flies; and as he flies, he exclaims, “Remove thy hands from thus +embracing me; I will die first, before thou shalt have the +enjoyment of me.†She answers nothing but “Have the enjoyment of me.†+<i>Thus</i> rejected, she lies hid in the woods, and hides her blushing +face with green leaves, and from that time lives in lonely caves; but +yet her love remains, and increases from the mortification of her +refusal. Watchful cares waste away her miserable body; leanness shrivels +her skin, and all the juices of her body fly off in air. Her voice and +her bones alone are left.</p> + +<p>Her voice <i>still</i> continues, <i>but</i> they say that her bones +received the form of stones. Since then, she lies concealed in the +woods, and is never seen on the mountains: <i>but</i> is heard in all +<i>of them</i>. It is her voice <i>alone</i> which remains alive in +her.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">103</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 402-413</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +It appears much more reasonable to attempt the explanation of this story +on the grounds of natural philosophy than of history. The poets, in +their fondness for basing every subject upon fiction, probably invented +the fable, to explain what to them appeared an extraordinary phenomenon. +By way of embellishing their story, they tell us that Echo was the +daughter of the Air and the Tongue, and that the God Pan fell in love +with her; by which, probably, the simple fact is meant, that some +person, represented under the name of that god, endeavored to trace the +cause of this phenomenon.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +If, however, we should endeavor to base the story upon purely historical +grounds, we may suppose that it took its rise from some Nymph, who +wandered so far into the woods as to be unable to find her way out +again; and from the fact that those who went to seek her, hearing +nothing but the echo of their own voices, brought back the strange but +unsatisfactory intelligence that the Nymph had been changed into a +voice.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">119</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 401-419</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableVII" id="bookIII_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Narcissus</span> falls in love with his own +shadow, which he sees in a fountain; and, pining to death, the Gods +change him into a flower, which still bears his name.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Thus</span> had he deceived her, thus, too, +other Nymphs that sprung from the water or the mountains, thus the +throng of youths before <i>them</i>. Some one, therefore, who had been +despised <i>by him</i>, lifting up his hands towards heaven, said, +“Thus, though he should love, let him not enjoy what he loves!†+Rhamnusia<a class="tag" name="tag3_74" id="tag3_74" href="#note3_74">74</a> assented to a prayer so reasonable. There was a clear +spring, like silver, with its unsullied waters, which neither shepherds, +nor she-goats feeding on the mountains, nor any other cattle, had +touched; which neither bird nor wild beast had disturbed, nor bough +falling from a tree. There was grass around it, which the neighboring +water nourished, and a wood, that suffered the stream to become warm +with no <i>rays of the</i> sun. Here the youth, fatigued both with the +labor of hunting and the +<span class="pagenum bell">104</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 413-445</span> +heat, lay down, attracted by the appearance of the spot, and the spring; +and, while he was endeavoring to quench his thirst, another thirst grew +<i>upon him</i>.</p> + +<p>While he is drinking, being attracted with the reflection of his own +form, seen <i>in the water</i>, he falls in love with a thing that has +no substance; <i>and</i> he thinks that to be a body, which is +<i>but</i> a shadow. He is astonished at himself, and remains unmoved +with the same countenance, like a statue formed of Parian marble.<a +class="tag" name="tag3_75" id="tag3_75" href="#note3_75">75</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">120</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 420-450</span> +Lying on the ground, he gazes on his eyes <i>like</i> two stars, and +fingers worthy of Bacchus, and hair worthy of Apollo, and his youthful +cheeks and ivory neck, and the comeliness of his mouth, and his blushing +complexion mingled with the whiteness of snow; and everything he +admires, for which he himself is worthy to be admired. In his ignorance, +he covets himself; and he that approves, is himself <i>the thing</i> +approved. While he pursues he is pursued, and at the same moment he +inflames and burns. How often does he give vain kisses to the deceitful +spring; how often does he thrust his arms, catching at the neck he sees, +into the middle of the water, and yet he does not catch himself in them. +He knows not what he sees, but what he sees, by it is he inflamed; and +the same mistake that deceives his eyes, provokes them. Why, credulous +<i>youth</i>, dost thou vainly catch at the flying image? What thou art +seeking is nowhere; what thou art in love with, turn but away <i>and</i> +thou shalt lose it; what thou seest, the same is <i>but</i> the shadow +of a reflected form; it has nothing of its own. It comes and stays with +thee; with thee it will depart, if thou canst <i>but</i> depart +thence.</p> + +<p>No regard for food,<a class="tag" name="tag3_76" id="tag3_76" +href="#note3_76">76</a> no regard for repose, can draw him away +thence; but, lying along upon the overshadowed grass, he gazes upon the +fallacious image with unsatiated eyes, and by his own sight he himself +is undone. Raising himself a little <i>while</i>, extending his arms to +the woods that stand around him, he says, “Was ever, O, ye woods! +any one more fatally in love? For <i>this</i> ye know, and have been a +convenient shelter for many a one. And do you remember any one, who +<i>ever</i> thus pined away, +<span class="pagenum bell">105</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 445-480</span> +during so long a time, though so many ages of your life has been spent? +It both pleases me and I see it; but what I see, and what pleases me, +yet I cannot obtain; so great a mistake possesses one in love; and to +make me grieve the more, neither a vast sea separates us, nor a +<i>long</i> way, nor mountains, nor a city with its gates closed; we are +kept asunder by a little water. He himself wishes to be embraced; for as +<span class="pagenum mckay">121</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 451-483</span> +often as I extend my lips to the limpid stream, so often does he +struggle towards me with his face held up; you would think he might be +touched. It is a very little that stands in the way of lovers. Whoever +thou art, come up hither. Why, <i>dear</i> boy, the choice one, dost +thou deceive me? or whither dost thou retire, when pursued? Surely, +neither my form nor my age is such as thou shouldst shun; the Nymphs, +too, have courted me. Thou encouragest I know not what hopes in me with +that friendly look, and when I extend my arms to thee, thou willingly +extendest thine; when I smile, thou smilest in return; often, too, have +I observed thy tears, when I was weeping; my signs, too, thou returnest +by thy nods, and, as I guess by the motion of thy beauteous mouth, thou +returnest words that come not to my ears. In thee ’tis I, +I <i>now</i> perceive; nor does my form deceive me. I burn +with the love of myself, and both raise the flames and endure them. What +shall I do? Should I be entreated, or should I entreat? What, then, +shall I entreat? What I desire is in my power; plenty has made me poor. +Oh! would that I could depart from my own body! a new wish, +<i>indeed</i>, in a lover; I could wish that what I am in love with +was away. And now grief <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘has taken’">is taking</ins> away<a class="tag" name="tag3_A" id="tag3_A" href="#note3_A">A</a> my strength, and no long period of my +life remains; and in my early days am I cut off; nor is death grievous +to me, now about to get rid of my sorrows by death. I wish that he +who is beloved could enjoy a longer life. Now we two, of one mind, shall +die in <i>the extinction of</i> one life.â€</p> + +<p><i>Thus</i> he said, and, with his mind <i>but</i> ill at ease, he +returned to the same reflection, and disturbed the water with his tears; +and the form was rendered defaced by the moving of the stream; when he +saw it <i>beginning</i> to disappear, he cried aloud, “Whither dost thou +fly? Stay, I beseech thee! and do not in thy cruelty abandon thy +lover; let it be allowed me to behold that which I may not touch, and to +give nourishment to my wretched frenzy.†And, while he was grieving, he +<span class="pagenum bell">106</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 480-510</span> +tore his garment from the upper border, and beat his naked breast with +his palms, white as marble. His breast, when struck, received a little +redness, no otherwise than as +<span class="pagenum mckay">122</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 484-510</span> +apples are wont, which are partly white <i>and</i> partly red; or as a +grape, not yet ripe, in the parti-colored clusters, is wont to assume a +purple tint. Soon as he beheld this again in the water, when clear, he +could not endure it any longer; but, as yellow wax with the fire, or the +hoar frost of the morning, is wont to waste away with the warmth of the +sun, so he, consumed by love, pined away, and wasted by degrees with a +hidden flame. And now, no longer was his complexion of white mixed with +red; neither his vigor nor his strength, nor <i>the points</i> which had +charmed when seen so lately, nor <i>even</i> his body, which formerly +Echo had been in love with, now remained. Yet, when she saw these +things, although angry, and mindful <i>of his usage of her</i>, she was +grieved, and, as often as the unhappy youth said, “Alas!†she repeated, +“Alas!†with re-echoing voice; and when he struck his arms with his +hands, she, too, returned the like sound of a blow.</p> + +<p>His last accents, as he looked into the water, as usual, were these: +“Ah, youth, beloved in vain!†and the spot returned just as many words; +and after he had said, “Farewell!†Echo, too, said, “Farewell!†He laid +down his wearied head upon the green grass, <i>when</i> night closed the +eyes that admired the beauty of their master; and even then, after he +had been received into the infernal abodes, he used to look at himself +in the Stygian waters. His Naiad sisters lamented him, and laid their +hair,<a class="tag" name="tag3_77" id="tag3_77" href="#note3_77">77</a> cut off, over their brother; the Dryads, too, +lamented him, <i>and</i> Echo resounded to their lamentations. And now +they were preparing the funeral pile, and the shaken torches, and the +bier. The body was nowhere <i>to be found</i>. Instead of his body, they +found a yellow flower, with white leaves encompassing it in the +middle.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +If this story is based upon any historical facts, they are entirely lost +to us; as all we learn from history concerning Narcissus, is the +<span class="pagenum mckay">123</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 511-512</span> +fact that he was a Thespian by birth. The Fable seems rather to be +intended as a +<span class="pagenum bell">107</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 511-512</span> +useful moral lesson, disclosing the fatal effects of self-love. His +pursuit, too, of his own image, ever retiring from his embrace, strongly +resembles the little reality that exists in many of those pleasures +which mankind so eagerly pursue.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pausanias, in his BÅ“otica, somewhat varies the story. He tells us that +Narcissus having lost his sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who +resembled him very much, and was his constant companion in the chase, +thought, on seeing himself one day in a fountain, that it was the shade +of his lost sister, and, thereupon, pined away and died of grief. +According to him, the fountain was near a village called Donacon, in the +country of the Thespians. Pausanias regards the account of his change +into the flower which bears his name as a mere fiction, since Pamphus +says that Proserpina, when carried away, long before the time of +Narcissus, gathered that flower in the fields of Enna; and that the same +flower was sacred to her. Persons sacrificing to the Furies, or +Eumenides, used to wear chaplets made of the Narcissus, because that +flower commonly grew about graves and sepulchres.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Tiresias, who predicted the untoward fate of Narcissus, was, as we are +informed by Apollodorus, the son of Evenus and Chariclo, and was the +most renowned soothsayer of his time. He lost his life by drinking of +the fountain of Telphusa when he was overheated; or, as some suppose, +through the unwholesome quality of the water. As he lived to a great +age, and became blind towards the end of his life, the story, which Ovid +mentions, was invented respecting him. Another version of it was, that +he lost his sight, by reason of his having seen Minerva while bathing. +This story was very probably based either upon the fact that he had +composed a Treatise upon the Animal Functions of the Sexes, or that he +had promulgated the doctrine that the stars had not only souls +(a common opinion in those times), but also that they were of +different sexes. He is supposed to have lived about 1200 years before +the Christian era.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIII_fableVIII" id="bookIII_fableVIII"> +FABLE VIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Pentheus</span> ridicules the predictions of +Tiresias; and not only forbids his people to worship Bacchus, who had +just entered Greece in triumph, but even commands them to capture him, +and to bring him into his presence. Under the form of AcÅ“tes, one of his +companions, Bacchus suffers that indignity, and relates to Pentheus the +wonders which the God had wrought. The recital enrages Pentheus still +more, who thereupon goes to Mount Cithæron, to disturb the orgies then +celebrating there; on which his own mother and the other Bacchantes tear +him to pieces.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">This</span> thing, when known, brought +deserved fame to the prophet through the cities of Achaia;<a class="tag" name="tag3_78" id="tag3_78" href="#note3_78">78</a> and +great +<span class="pagenum mckay">124</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 513-537</span> +was the reputation +<span class="pagenum bell">108</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 512-534</span> +of the soothsayer. Yet Pentheus,<a class="tag" name="tag3_79" id="tag3_79" href="#note3_79">79</a> the son of Echion, a contemner +of the Gods above, alone, of all men, despises him, and derides the +predicting words of the old man, and upbraids him with his darkened +state, and the misfortune of <i>having lost</i> his sight. He, shaking +his temples, white with hoary hair, says: “How fortunate wouldst thou +be, if thou as well couldst become deprived of this light, that thou +mightst not behold the rites of Bacchus. For soon the day will come, and +even now I predict that it is not far off, when the new <i>God</i> +Liber, the son of Semele, shall come hither. Unless thou shalt vouchsafe +him the honor of a temple, thou shalt be scattered, torn in pieces, in a +thousand places, and with thy blood thou shalt pollute both the woods, +and thy mother and the sisters of thy mother. <i>These things</i> will +come to pass; for thou wilt not vouchsafe honor to the Divinity; and +thou wilt complain that under this darkness I have seen too much.â€</p> + +<p>The son of Echion drives him away as he says such things as these. +Confirmation follows his words, and the predictions of the prophet are +fulfilled. Liber comes, and the fields resound with festive howlings. +The crowd runs out; both matrons and new-married women mixed with the +men, both high and low, are borne along to the <i>celebration of</i> +rites <i>till then</i> unknown. “What madness,†says Pentheus, “has +confounded your minds, O ye warlike men,<a class="tag" name="tag3_80" id="tag3_80" href="#note3_80">80</a> descendants of the +Dragon? Can brass knocked against brass prevail so much with you? And +the pipe with the bending horn, and these magical delusions? And shall +the yells of women, and madness produced by wine, and troops of +effeminate <i>wretches</i>, and empty tambourines<a class="tag" name="tag3_81" id="tag3_81" href="#note3_81">81</a> prevail +<span class="pagenum mckay">125</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 538-550</span> +over you, whom neither the warrior’s sword +<span class="pagenum bell">109</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 535-549</span> +nor the trumpet could affright, nor troops with weapons prepared <i>for +fight</i>? Am I to wonder at you, old men, who, carried over distant +seas, have fixed in these abodes a <i>new</i> Tyre, and your banished +household Gods, <i>but who</i> now allow them to be taken without a +struggle? Or you, of more vigorous age and nearer to my own, ye youths; +whom it was befitting to be brandishing arms, and not the thyrsus,<a +class="tag" name="tag3_82" id="tag3_82" href="#note3_82">82</a> +and to be covered with helmets, not green leaves? Do be mindful, +I entreat you, of what race you are sprung, and assume the courage +of that dragon, who <i>though but</i> one, destroyed many. He died for +his springs and his stream; but do you conquer for your own fame. He put +the valiant to death; do you expel the feeble <i>foe</i>, and regain +your country’s honor. If the fates forbid Thebes to stand long, +I wish that engines of war<a class="tag" name="tag3_83" id="tag3_83" href="#note3_83">83</a> and +<span class="pagenum bell">110</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 549-577</span> +men should demolish the walls, and that fire and sword should resound. +<i>Then</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">126</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 551-571</span> +should we be wretched without <i>any</i> fault <i>of our own,</i> and +our fate were to be lamented, <i>but</i> not concealed, and our tears +would be free from shame. But now Thebes will be taken by an unarmed +boy, whom neither wars delight, nor weapons, nor the employment of +horses, but hair wet with myrrh, and effeminate chaplets, and purple, +and gold interwoven with embroidered garments; whom I, indeed, (do you +only stand aside) will presently compel to own that his father is +assumed, and that his sacred rites are fictitious. Has Acrisius<a class="tag" name="tag3_84" id="tag3_84" href="#note3_84">84</a> +courage enough to despise the vain Deity, and to shut the gates of Argos +against his approach; and shall this stranger affright Pentheus with all +Thebes? Go quickly, (this order he gives to his servants), go, and bring +hither in chains the ringleader. Let there be no slothful delay in +<i>executing</i> my commands.â€</p> + +<p>His grandfather,<a class="tag" name="tag3_85" id="tag3_85" href="#note3_85">85</a> <i>Cadmus</i>, Athamas, and the rest of the company +of his friends rebuke him with expostulations, and in vain <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘strive’">try</ins> to restrain +him. By their admonition he becomes more violent, and by being curbed +his fury is irritated, and is on the increase, and the very restraint +did him injury. So have I beheld a torrent, where nothing obstructed it +in its course, run gently and with moderate noise; but wherever beams +and stones in its way withheld it, it ran foaming and raging, +<span class="pagenum mckay">127</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 572-594</span> +and more violent from its obstruction. Behold! <i>the servants</i> +return, all stained with blood; and when their master inquires where +Bacchus is, they deny that they have seen Bacchus. “But this one,†say +they, “we have taken, who was his attendant and minister in his sacred +rites.†And <i>then</i> they deliver one, who, from the Etrurian nation, +had followed the sacred rites of the Deity, with his hands bound behind +his back.</p> + +<p>Pentheus looks at him with eyes that anger has made terrible, +<span class="pagenum bell">111</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 577-598</span> +and although he can scarcely defer the time of his punishment, he says, +“O <i>wretch</i>, doomed to destruction, and about, by thy death, +to set an example to others, tell me thy name, and the name of thy +parents, and thy country, and why thou dost attend the sacred rites of a +new fashion.†He, void of fear, says, “My name is AcÅ“tes; Mæonia<a class="tag" name="tag3_86" id="tag3_86" href="#note3_86">86</a> is my +country; my parents were of humble station. My father left me no fields +for the hardy oxen to till, no wool-bearing flocks, nor any herds. He +himself was <i>but</i> poor, and he was wont with line, and hooks, to +deceive the leaping fishes, and to take them with the rod. His trade was +his <i>only</i> possession. When he gave that calling over <i>to me</i>, +he said, ‘Receive, as the successor and heir of my employment, those +riches which I possess;’ and at his death he left me nothing but the +streams. This one thing alone can I call my patrimony. <i>But</i> soon, +that I might not always be confined to the same rocks, I learned +with a steadying right hand to guide the helm of the ship, and I made +<ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘observation’">observations</ins> with my eyes of the showery +Constellation of the Olenian she-goat,<a class="tag" name="tag3_87" id="tag3_87" href="#note3_87">87</a> and Taygete,<a class="tag" +name="tag3_88" id="tag3_88" href="#note3_88">88</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">128</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 594-620</span> +and the Hyades,<a class="tag" name="tag3_89" id="tag3_89" href="#note3_89">89</a> and the Bear, and the quarters of the winds, and the +harbors fit for ships. By chance, as I was making for Delos, +I touched at the coast of the land of Dia,<a class="tag" name="tag3_90" id="tag3_90" href="#note3_90">90</a> and came up to the +shore by <i>plying</i> the oars on the right side; +<span class="pagenum bell">112</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 599-632</span> +and I gave a nimble leap, and lighted upon the wet sand. When the night +was past, and the dawn first began to grow red, I arose and ordered +<i>my men</i> to take in fresh water, and I pointed out the way which +led to the stream. I myself, from a lofty eminence, looked around +<i>to see</i> what the breeze promised me; and <i>then</i> I called my +companions, and returned to the vessel. ‘Lo! we are here,’ says <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Ophletes’">Opheltes</ins>, my +chief mate; and having found, as he thought, a prize in the lonely +fields, he was leading along the shore, a boy with <i>all</i> the +beauty of a girl. He, heavy with wine and sleep, seemed to stagger, and +to follow with difficulty. I examined his dress, his looks, and his +gait, <i>and</i> I saw nothing there which could be taken to be mortal. +I both was sensible of it, and I said to my companions, ‘I am in +doubt what Deity is in that body; but in that body a Deity there is. +Whoever thou art, O be propitious and assist our toils; and pardon +these as well.’ ‘Cease praying for us,’ said Dictys, than whom there was +not another more nimble at climbing to the main-top-yards, and at +sliding down by catching hold of a rope. This Libys, this the +yellow-haired Melanthus, the guardian of the prow, and this <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Alcemedon’">Alcimedon</ins> approved +of; and Epopeus<a class="tag" name="tag3_91" id="tag3_91" href="#note3_91">91</a> as well, the cheerer of their spirits, who by his +voice gave both rest and time to the oars; <i>and</i> so did all the +rest; so blind is the greed for booty. ‘However,’ +<span class="pagenum mckay">129</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 621-648</span> +I said, ‘I will not allow this ship to be damaged by this sacred +freight. Here I have the greatest share of right.’ and I opposed them at +the entrance.</p> + +<p>“Lycabas, the boldest of all the number, was enraged, who, expelled +from a city of Etruria, was suffering exile as the punishment for a +dreadful murder.<a class="tag" name="tag3_92" id="tag3_92" href="#note3_92">92</a> He, while I was resisting, seized hold of my throat +with his youthful fist, and shaking me, had thrown me overboard into the +sea, if I had not, although stunned, held fast by grasping a rope. The +impious crew approved of the deed. Then at last Bacchus (for Bacchus it +was), as though his sleep had been broken by the noise, and his sense +was returning into his breast after <i>much</i> wine, said: ‘What are +you doing? What is this noise? Tell me, sailors, +<span class="pagenum bell">113</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 632-665</span> +by what means have I come hither? Whither do you intend to carry me?’ +‘Lay aside thy fears,’ said Proreus, ‘and tell us what port thou wouldst +wish to reach. Thou shalt stop at the land that thou desirest.’ ‘Direct +your course then to Naxos,’<a class="tag" name="tag3_93" id="tag3_93" href="#note3_93">93</a> says Liber, ‘that is my home; it +shall prove a hospitable land for you.’</p> + +<p>“In their deceit they swore by the ocean and by all the Deities, that +so it should be; and bade me give sail to the painted ship. Naxos was to +our right; <i>and</i> as I was <i>accordingly</i> setting sail for the +right hand, every one said for himself, ‘What art thou about, madman? +What insanity possesses thee, AcÅ“tes? Stand away to the left.’ The +greater part signified <i>their meaning</i> to me by signs; some +whispered in my ear what they wanted. I was at a loss, and I said, +‘Let some one else take the helm;’ and I withdrew myself from the +execution both of their wickedness, and of my own calling. I was +reviled by them all, and the whole crew muttered <i>reproaches</i> +against me. Æthalion, among them, says, ‘As if, forsooth, all our safety +is centred in thee,’ and he himself comes up, and takes my duty; +<span class="pagenum mckay">130</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 649-678</span> +and leaving Naxos, he steers a different course. Then the God, mocking +them as if he had at last but that moment discovered their knavery, +looks down upon the sea from the crooked stern; and, like one weeping, +he says: ‘These are not the shores, sailors, that you have promised me; +this is not the land desired by me. By what act have I deserved this +treatment? What honor is it to you, if you <i>that are</i> young men, +deceive a <i>mere</i> boy? if you <i>that are</i> many, deceive me, +<i>who am but</i> one?’ I had been weeping for some time. The impious +gang laughed at my tears, and beat the sea with hastening oars. Now by +himself do I swear to thee (and no God is there more powerful than he), +that I am relating things to thee as true, as they are beyond all +belief. The ship stood still upon the ocean, no otherwise than if it was +occupying a dry dock. They, wondering at it, persisted in the plying of +their oars; they unfurled their sails, and endeavored to speed onward +with this twofold aid. Ivy impeded the oars,<a class="tag" name="tag3_94" id="tag3_94" href="#note3_94">94</a> and twined <i>around +them</i> in encircling wreaths; and +<span class="pagenum bell">114</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 665-699</span> +clung to the sails with heavy clusters of berries. He himself, having +his head encircled with bunches of grapes, brandished a lance covered +with vine leaves. Around him, tigers and visionary forms of lynxes, and +savage bodies of spotted panthers, were extended.</p> + +<p>“The men leaped overboard, whether it was madness or fear that caused +this; and first <i>of all</i>, Medon began to grow black with fins, with +a flattened body, and to bend in the curvature of the back-bone. To him +Lycabas said, ‘Into what prodigy art thou changing?’ and, as he spoke, +the opening of his mouth was wide, his nose became crooked, and his +hardened skin received scales upon it. But Libys, while he was +attempting to urge on the resisting oars, saw his hands shrink into a +small compass, and now to be hands no longer, <i>and</i> that now, <i>in +fact</i>, they may be pronounced fins. Another, desirous +<span class="pagenum mckay">131</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 679-708</span> +to extend his arms to the twisting ropes, had no arms, and becoming +crooked, with a body deprived of limbs, he leaped into the waves; the +end of his tail was hooked, just as the horns of the half-moon are +curved. They flounce about on every side, and bedew <i>the ship</i> with +plenteous spray, and again they emerge, and once more they return +beneath the waves. They sport with <i>all</i> the appearance of a dance, +and toss their sportive bodies, and blow forth the sea, received within +their wide nostrils. Of twenty the moment before (for so many did that +ship carry), I was the only one remaining. The God encouraged me, +frightened and chilled with my body all trembling, and scarcely myself, +saying, ‘Shake off thy fear, and make for Dia.’ Arriving there, +I attended upon the sacred rites of Bacchus, at the kindled +altars.â€</p> + +<p>“We have lent ear to a long story,â€<a class="tag" name="tag3_95" id="tag3_95" href="#note3_95">95</a> says Pentheus, “that our anger +might consume its strength in its tediousness. Servants! drag him +headlong, and send to Stygian night his body, racked with dreadful +tortures.†At once the Etrurian AcÅ“tes, dragged away, is shut up in a +strong prison; and while the cruel instruments of the death that is +ordered, and the iron and the fire are being made ready, the report is +that the doors +<span class="pagenum bell">115</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 699-730</span> +opened of their own accord, and that the chains, of their own accord, +slipped from off his arms, no one loosening them.</p> + +<p>The son of Echion persists: and now he does not command others to go, +but goes himself to where Cithæron,<a class="tag" name="tag3_96" id="tag3_96" href="#note3_96">96</a> chosen for the celebration of +these sacred rites, was resounding with singing, and the shrill voices +of the votaries of Bacchus. Just as the high-mettled steed neighs, when +the warlike trumpeter gives the alarm with the sounding brass, and +conceives a desire for battle, so did the sky, struck with the +long-drawn howlings, excite Pentheus, and his wrath was rekindled on +hearing the clamor. There was, about the middle +<span class="pagenum mckay">132</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">III. 708-733</span> +of the mountain, the woods skirting its extremity, a plain free +from trees, <i>and</i> visible on every side. Here his mother was the +first to see him looking on the sacred rites with profane eyes; she +first was moved by a frantic impulse, <i>and</i> she first wounded her +<i>son</i>, Pentheus, by hurling her thyrsus, <i>and</i> cried out, “Ho! +come, my two sisters;<a class="tag" name="tag3_97" id="tag3_97" +href="#note3_97">97</a> that boar which, of enormous size, is roaming +amid our fields, that boar I must strike.†All the raging multitude +rushes upon him alone; all collect together, and all follow him, now +trembling, now uttering words less atrocious <i>than before</i>, now +blaming himself, now confessing that he <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘had’">has</ins> offended.</p> + +<p>However, on being wounded, he says, “Give me thy aid, Autonoë, my +aunt; let the ghost of Actæon<a class="tag" name="tag3_98" id="tag3_98" href="#note3_98">98</a> influence thy feelings.†She knows +not what Actæon <i>means</i>, and tears away his right hand as he is +praying; the other is dragged off by the violence of Ino. The wretched +<i>man</i> has <i>now</i> no arms to extend to his mother; but showing +his maimed body, with the limbs torn off, he says, “Look at this, my +mother!†At the sight Agave howls aloud, and tosses her neck, and shakes +her locks in the air; and seizing his head, torn off, with her +blood-stained fingers, she cries out, “Ho! my companions, this victory +is our work!â€</p> + +<p>The wind does not more speedily bear off, from a lofty tree, the +leaves nipped by the cold of autumn, and now adhering +<span class="pagenum bell">116</span> +<span class="linenum bell">III. 730-733</span> +with difficulty, than were the limbs of the man, torn asunder by their +accursed hands. Admonished by such examples, the Ismenian matrons +frequent the new worship, and offer frankincense, and reverence the +sacred altars.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Cicero mentions two Deities of the name of Bacchus; while other authors +speak of several of that name. The first was the son of +<span class="pagenum mckay">133</span> +Jupiter and Proserpina; the second was the son of the Nile, and the +founder of the city of Nysa, in Arabia; Caprius was the father of the +third. The fourth was the son of the Moon and Jupiter, in honor of whom +the Orphic ceremonies were performed. The fifth was the son of Nisus and +Thione, and the instituter of the Trieterica. Diodorus Siculus mentions +but three of the name of Bacchus; namely, the Indian, surnamed the +bearded Bacchus, who conquered India; the son of Jupiter and Ceres, who +was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and Semele, who was +called the Theban Bacchus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The most reasonable opinion seems to be that of Herodotus and Plutarch, +who inform us, that the true Bacchus, and the most ancient of them all, +was born in Egypt, and was originally called Osiris. The worship of that +Divinity passed from Egypt to Greece, where it received great +alterations; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was Orpheus who +introduced it, and made those innovations. In gratitude to the family of +Cadmus, from which he had received many favors, he dedicated to Bacchus, +the grandson of Cadmus, those mysteries which had been instituted in +honor of Osiris, whose worship was then but little known in Greece. +Diodorus Siculus says, that as Semele was delivered of Bacchus in the +seventh month, it was reported that Jupiter shut him up in his thigh, to +carry him there the remaining time of gestation. This Fable was probably +founded on the meaning of an equivocal word. The Greek word <span class="greek" title="mêros">μηÏὸς</span> signifies either ‘a thigh,’ or +‘the hollow of a mountain.’ Thus the Greeks, instead of saying that +Bacchus had been nursed on Mount Nysa, in Arabia, according to the +Egyptian version of the story, published that he had been carried in the +thigh of Jupiter.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +As Bacchus applied himself to the cultivation of the vine, and taught +his subjects several profitable and necessary arts, he was honored as a +Divinity; and having won the esteem of many neighboring countries, his +worship soon spread. Among his several festivals there was one called +the Trieterica, which was celebrated every three years. In that feast +the Bacchantes carried the figure of the God in a chariot drawn by two +tigers, or panthers; and, crowned with vine leaves, and holding thyrsi +in their hands, they ran in a frantic manner around the chariot, filling +the air with the noise of tambourines and brazen instruments, shouting +‘Evoë. Bacche!’ and calling the God by his several names of Bromius, +Lyæus, Evan, Lenæus, and Sabazius. To this ceremonial, received from the +Egyptians, the Greeks added other ceremonies replete with abominable +licentiousness, and repulsive to common decency. These were often +suppressed by public enactment, but were as often re-established by the +votaries of +<span class="pagenum bell">117</span> +lewdness and immodesty, and such as found in these festivals a pretext +and opportunity for the commission of the most horrible offences.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the unfortunate fate of Pentheus is supposed by the ancient +writers to have been strictly true. Pentheus, the son of Echion and +Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, having succeeded his grandfather in his +kingdom, is supposed, like him, to have opposed those abuses that had +crept into the mysteries of Bacchus, and went to Mount Cithæron for the +purpose of chastising the Bacchantes, who were celebrating his festival; +whereupon, in their +<span class="pagenum mckay">134</span> +frantic madness, the worshippers, among whom were his mother and his +aunt, tore him <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘to’">in</ins> pieces. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Pausanius’">Pausanias</ins>, however, says that Pentheus really was a +wicked prince; and he somewhat varies his story, as he tells us that +having got into a tree to overlook the secret ceremonies of the orgies, +Pentheus was discovered by the Bacchantes, who punished his curiosity by +putting him to death. The story of the transformation of the mariners is +supposed by <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Bochârt’">Bochart</ins> to have been founded on the adventure of +certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the figure +of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called ‘tursio,’ +probably the porpoise, or sea-hog. They were probably shipwrecked near +the Isle of Naxos, which was sacred to Bacchus, whose mysteries they had +perhaps neglected, or even despised. On this slender ground, perhaps, +the report spread, that the God himself had destroyed them, as a +punishment for their impiety.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note3_1" id="note3_1" href="#tag3_1">1.</a> +<i>Over the whole world.</i>]—Ver. 6. Apollodorus tells us that +Cadmus lived in Thrace until the death of his mother, Telephassa, who +accompanied him; and that, after her decease, he proceeded to Delphi to +make inquiries of the oracle.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_2" id="note3_2" href="#tag3_2">2.</a> +<i>BÅ“otian.</i>]—Ver. 13. He implies here that BÅ“otia received its +name from the Greek word <span class="greek" title="bous">βοῦς</span>, ‘an ox’ or ‘cow.’ Other writers say that it was so +called from BÅ“otus, the son of Neptune and Arne. Some authors also say +that Thebes received its name from the Syrian word ‘Thebe,’ which <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘signifies’">signified</ins> +‘an ox.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_3" id="note3_3" href="#tag3_3">3.</a> +<i>Castalian cave.</i>]—Ver. 14. Castalius was a fountain at the +foot of Mount Parnassus, and in the vicinity of Delphi. It was sacred to +the Muses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_4" id="note3_4" href="#tag3_4">4.</a> +<i>Sacred to Mars.</i>]—Ver. 32. Euripides says, that the dragon +had been set there by Mars to watch the spot and the neighboring stream. +Other writers say that it was a son of Mars, Dercyllus by name, and that +a Fury, named Tilphosa, was its mother. Ancient history abounds with +stories of enormous serpents. The army of Regulus is said by Pliny the +Elder, to have killed a serpent of enormous size, which obstructed the +passage of the river Bagrada, in Africa. It was 120 feet in length.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_5" id="note3_5" href="#tag3_5">5.</a> +<i>As large a size.</i>]—Ver. 44. This description of the enormous +size of the dragon or serpent is inconsistent with what the Poet says in +line 91, where we find Cadmus enabled to pin his enemy against an +oak.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_6" id="note3_6" href="#tag3_6">6.</a> +<i>With his sting.</i>]—Ver. 48. He enumerates in this one +instance the various modes by which serpents put their prey to death, +either by means of their sting, or, in the case of the larger kinds of +serpent, by twisting round it, and suffocating it in their folds.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_7" id="note3_7" href="#tag3_7">7.</a> +<i>Some breathed upon.</i>]—Ver. 49. It was a prevalent notion +among the ancients, that some serpents had the power of killing their +prey by their poisonous breath. Though some modern commentators on this +passage may be found to affirm the same thing, it is extremely doubtful +if such is the fact. The notion was, perhaps, founded on the power which +certain serpents have of fascinating their prey by the agency of the +eye, and thus depriving it of the means of escape.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_8" id="note3_8" href="#tag3_8">8.</a> +<i>A huge stone.</i>]—Ver. 59. ‘Molaris’ here means a stone as +large as a mill-stone, and not a mill-stone itself, for we must remember +that this was an uninhabited country, and consequently a stranger to the +industry of man.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_9" id="note3_9" href="#tag3_9">9.</a> +<i>His infernal mouth.</i>]—Ver. 76. ‘Stygio’ means ‘pestilential +as the exhalations of the marshes of Styx.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_10" id="note3_10" href="#tag3_10">10.</a> +<i>Form of a dragon.</i>]—Ver. 98. This came to pass when, having +been expelled from his dominions by Zethus and Amphion, he retired to +Illyria, and was there transformed into a serpent, a fate which was +shared by his wife Hermione.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_11" id="note3_11" href="#tag3_11">11.</a> +<i>With painted cones.</i>]—Ver. 108. The ‘conus’ was the conical +part of the helmet into which the crest of variegated feathers was +inserted.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_12" id="note3_12" href="#tag3_12">12.</a> +<i>When the curtains.</i>]—Ver. 111. The ‘Siparium’ was a piece of +tapestry stretched on a frame, and, rising before the stage, answered +the same purpose as the curtain or drop-scene with us, in concealing the +stage till the actors appeared. Instead of drawing up this curtain to +discover the stage and actors, according to our present practice, it was +depressed when the play began, and fell beneath the level of the stage; +whence ‘aulæa premuntur,’ ‘the curtain is dropped,’ meant that the play +had commenced. When the performance was finished, this was raised again +gradually from the foot of the stage; therefore ‘aulæa tolluntur,’ ‘the +curtain is raised,’ would mean that the play had finished. From the +present passage we learn, that in drawing it up from the stage, the +curtain was gradually displayed, the unfolding taking place, perhaps, +below the boards, so that the heads of the figures rose first, until the +whole form appeared in full with the feet resting on the stage, when the +‘siparium’ was fully drawn up. From a passage in Virgil’s Georgics (book +iii. l. 25), we learn that the figures of Britons (whose country had +then lately been the scene of new conquests) were woven on the canvas of +the ‘siparium,’ having their arms in the attitude of lifting the +curtain.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_13" id="note3_13" href="#tag3_13">13.</a> +<i>Echion.</i>]—Ver. 126. The names of the others were Udeus, +Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, according to Apollodorus. To these some +added Creon, as a sixth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_14" id="note3_14" href="#tag3_14">14.</a> +<i>Mars and Venus.</i>]—Ver. 132. The wife of Cadmus was Hermione, +or Harmonia, who was said to have been the daughter of Mars and Venus. +The Deities honored the nuptials with their presence, and presented +marriage gifts, while the Muses and the Graces celebrated the festivity +with hymns of their own composition.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_15" id="note3_15" href="#tag3_15">15.</a> +<i>So many sons.</i>]—Ver. 134. Apollodorus, Hyginus, and others, +say that Cadmus had but one son, Polydorus. If so, ‘tot,’ ‘so many,’ +must here refer to the number of his daughters and grandchildren. His +daughters were four in number, Autonoë, Ino, Semele, and Agave. Ino +married Athamas, Autonoë Aristæus, Agave Echion, while Semele captivated +Jupiter. The most famous of the grandsons of Cadmus were Bacchus, +Melicerta, Pentheus, and Actæon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_16" id="note3_16" href="#tag3_16">16.</a> +<i>Before his death.</i>]—Ver. 135. This was the famous remark of +Solon to CrÅ“sus, when he was the master of the opulent and flourishing +kingdom of Lydia, and seemed so firmly settled on his throne, that there +was no probability of any interruption of his happiness. Falling into +the hands of Cyrus the Persian, and being condemned to be burnt alive, +he recollected this wise saying of Solon, and by that means saved his +life, as we are told by Herodotus, who relates the story at length. +Euripides has a similar passage in his Troades, line 510.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_17" id="note3_17" href="#tag3_17">17.</a> +<i>The Hyantian youth.</i>]—Ver. 147. Actæon is thus called, as +being a BÅ“otian. The Hyantes were the ancient or aboriginal inhabitants +of BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_18" id="note3_18" href="#tag3_18">18.</a> +<i>Gargaphie.</i>]—Ver. 156. Gargaphie, or Gargaphia, was a valley +situate near Platæa, having a fountain of the same name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_19" id="note3_19" href="#tag3_19">19.</a> +<i>Crocale.</i>]—Ver. 169. So called, perhaps, from <span class="greek" title="kekruphalos">κεκÏύφαλος</span>, an ornament for the +head, being a coif, band, or fillet of network for the hair called in +Latin ‘reticulum,’ by which name her office is denoted. The handmaid, +whose duty it was to attend to the hair, held the highest rank in +ancient times among the domestics.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_20" id="note3_20" href="#tag3_20">20.</a> +<i>Nephele.</i>]—Ver. 171. From the Greek word <span class="greek" title="nephelê">νεφέλη</span>, ‘a cloud.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_21" id="note3_21" href="#tag3_21">21.</a> +<i>Hyale.</i>]—Ver. 171. This is from <span class="greek" title="hualos">ὕαλος</span>, ‘glass,’ the name signifying ‘glassy,’ +‘pellucid.’ The very name calls to mind Milton’s line in his +Comus—</p> + +<p class="poem"> +‘Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_22" id="note3_22" href="#tag3_22">22.</a> +<i>Rhanis.</i>]—Ver. 171. This name is adapted from the Greek verb +<span class="greek" title="rhainô">ῥαίνω</span>, ‘to sprinkle.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_23" id="note3_23" href="#tag3_23">23.</a> +<i>Psecas.</i>]—Ver. 172. From the Greek <span class="greek" +title="psekas">ψεκὰς</span>, ‘a dew-drop.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_24" id="note3_24" href="#tag3_24">24.</a> +<i><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Phyule’">Phyale</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 172. This is from the Greek +<span class="greek" title="phialê">φιαλὴ</span>, ‘an urn.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_25" id="note3_25" href="#tag3_25">25.</a> +<i>Took up water.</i>]—Ver. 189. The ceremonial of sprinkling +previous to the transformation seems not to have been neglected any more +by the offended Goddesses of the classical Mythology, than by the +intriguing enchantresses of the Arabian Nights’ Entertainments; as the +unfortunate Beder, when under the displeasure of the vicious queen Labè, +experienced to his great inconvenience. The love for the supernatural, +combined with an anxious desire to attribute its operations to material +and visible agencies, forms one of the most singular features of the +human character.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_26" id="note3_26" href="#tag3_26">26.</a> +<i>Autonoëian.</i>]—Ver. 198. Autonoë was the daughter of Cadmus +and Hermione, or Harmonia, and the wife of Aristæus, by whom she was the +mother of Actæon. We may here remark, that in one of his satires, Lucian +introduces Juno as saying to Diana, that she had let loose his dogs on +Actæon, for fear lest, having seen her naked, he should divulge the +deformity of her person.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_27" id="note3_27" href="#tag3_27">27.</a> +<i>Melampus.</i>]—Ver. 206. These names are all from the Greek, +and are interesting, as showing the epithets by which the ancients +called their dogs. The pack of Actæon is said to have consisted of fifty +dogs. Their names were preserved by several Greek poets, from whom +Apollodorus copied them; but the greater part of his list has perished, +and what remains is in a very corrupt state. Hyginus has preserved two +lists, the first of which contains thirty-nine names, most of which are +similar to those here given by Ovid, and in almost the same order; while +the second contains thirty-six names, different from those here given. +Æschylus has named but four of them, and Ovid here names thirty-six. +Crete, Arcadia, and Laconia produced the most valuable hounds. Melampus, +‘Black-foot,’ is from the Greek words <span class="greek" title="melas">μέλας</span>, ‘black,’ and <span class="greek" title="pous">ποῦς</span>, ‘a foot.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_28" id="note3_28" href="#tag3_28">28.</a> +<i>Ichnobates.</i>]—Ver. 207. ‘Tracer.’ From the Greek <span class="greek" title="ichnos">ἰχνὸς</span>, ‘a footstep,’ and <span class="greek" title="bainô">βαίνω</span>, ‘to go.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_29" id="note3_29" href="#tag3_29">29.</a> +<i>Pamphagus.</i>]—Ver. 210. ‘Glutton.’ From <span class="greek" +title="pan">πᾶν</span>, ‘all,’ and <span class="greek" title="phagô">φάγω</span>, ‘to eat.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_30" id="note3_30" href="#tag3_30">30.</a> +<i>Dorcæus.</i>]—Ver. 210. ‘Quicksight.’ From <span class="greek" title="derkô">δέÏκω</span>, ‘to see.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_31" id="note3_31" href="#tag3_31">31.</a> +<i>Oribasus.</i>]—Ver. 210. ‘Ranger.’ From <span class="greek" +title="oros">ὄÏος</span>, ‘a mountain,’ and <span class="greek" +title="bainô">βαίνω</span>, ‘to go.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_32" id="note3_32" href="#tag3_32">32.</a> +<i>Nebrophonus.</i>]—Ver. 211. ‘Kill-buck.’ From <span class="greek" title="nebros">νεβÏὸς</span>, ‘a fawn,’ and <span class="greek" title="phoneô">φονέω</span>, ‘to kill.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_33" id="note3_33" href="#tag3_33">33.</a> +<i>Lælaps.</i>]—Ver. 211. ‘Tempest.’ So called from its swiftness +and power, <span class="greek" title="lailaps">λαίλαψ</span>, +signifying ‘a whirlwind.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_34" id="note3_34" href="#tag3_34">34.</a> +<i>Theron.</i>]—Ver. 211. ‘Hunter.’ From the Greek, <span class="greek" title="thereuô">θεÏεύω</span>, ‘to trace,’ or ‘hunt.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_35" id="note3_35" href="#tag3_35">35.</a> +<i>Pterelas.</i>]—Ver. 212. ‘Wing.’ ‘Swift-footed,’ from <span +class="greek" title="pteron">πτεÏὸν</span>, ‘a wing,’ and <span +class="greek" title="elaunô">á¼Î»Î±á½»Î½Ï‰</span>, ‘to drive onward.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_36" id="note3_36" href="#tag3_36">36.</a> +<i>Agre.</i>]—Ver. 212. ‘Catcher.’ ‘Quick-scented,’ from <span +class="greek" title="agra">ἄγÏα</span>, ‘hunting,’ or ‘the +chase.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_37" id="note3_37" href="#tag3_37">37.</a> +<i>Hylæus.</i>]—Ver. 213. ‘Woodger,’ or ‘Wood-ranger;’ the Greek +<span class="greek" title="hulê">ὕλη</span>, signifying ‘a +wood.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_38" id="note3_38" href="#tag3_38">38.</a> +<i>Nape.</i>]—Ver. 214. ‘Forester.’ A ‘forest,’ or ‘wood,’ being +in Greek, <span class="greek" title="napê">νάπη</span>.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_39" id="note3_39" href="#tag3_39">39.</a> +<i><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Parmenis’">PÅ“menis</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 215. ‘Shepherdess,’ From the +Greek <span class="greek" title="poimenis">ποίμενις</span>, ‘a +shepherdess.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_40" id="note3_40" href="#tag3_40">40.</a> +<i>Harpyia.</i>]—Ver. 215. ‘Ravener.’ From the Greek word <span +class="greek" title="harpuia">á¼…Ïπυια</span>, ‘a harpy,’ or ‘ravenous +bird.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_41" id="note3_41" href="#tag3_41">41.</a> +<i>Ladon.</i>]—Ver. 216. This dog takes its name from Ladon, +a river of Sicyon, a territory on the shores of the gulf of +Corinth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_42" id="note3_42" href="#tag3_42">42.</a> +<i>Dromas.</i>]—Ver. 217. ‘Runner.’ From the Greek <span class="greek" title="dromos">δÏόμος</span>, ‘a race.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_43" id="note3_43" href="#tag3_43">43.</a> +<i>Canace.</i>]—Ver. 217. ‘Barker.’ The word <span class="greek" +title="kanachê">καναχὴ</span>, signifies ‘a noise,’ or ‘din.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_44" id="note3_44" href="#tag3_44">44.</a> +<i>Sticte.</i>]—Ver. 217. ‘Spot.’ So called from the variety of +her colors, as <span class="greek" title="stiktos">στικτὸς</span>, +signifies ‘diversified with various spots,’ from <span class="greek" +title="stizô">στίζω</span>, ‘to vary with spots.’ ‘Tigris’ means +‘Tiger.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_45" id="note3_45" href="#tag3_45">45.</a> +<i>Alce.</i>]—Ver. 217. ‘Strong.’ From the Greek <span class="greek" title="alkê">ἀλκὴ</span> ‘strength.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_46" id="note3_46" href="#tag3_46">46.</a> +<i>Leucon.</i>]—Ver. 218. ‘White.’ From <span class="greek" +title="leukos">λευκὸς</span>, ‘white.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_47" id="note3_47" href="#tag3_47">47.</a> +<i>Asbolus.</i>]—Ver. 218. ‘Soot,’ or ‘Smut.’ From the Greek <span +class="greek" title="asbolos">ἄσβολος</span>, ‘soot.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_48" id="note3_48" href="#tag3_48">48.</a> +<i>Lacon.</i>]—Ver. 219. From his native country, Laconia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_49" id="note3_49" href="#tag3_49">49.</a> +<i>Aëllo.</i>]—Ver. 219. ‘Storm.’ From <span class="greek" title="aella">ἄελλα</span>, ‘a tempest.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_50" id="note3_50" href="#tag3_50">50.</a> +<i>Thoüs.</i>]—Ver. 220. ‘Swift.’ From <ins class="corr both" +title="both texts read θοὺς ‘thous’ for ‘thoos’">θοὸς</ins>, ‘swift.’ +Pliny the Elder states, that ‘thos’ was the name of a kind of wolf, of +larger make, and more active in springing than the common wolf. He says +that it is of inoffensive habits towards man; but that it lives by prey, +and is hairy in winter, but without hair in summer. It is supposed by +some that he alludes to the jackal. Perhaps, from this animal, the dog +here mentioned derived his name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_51" id="note3_51" href="#tag3_51">51.</a> +<i>Lycisca.</i>]—Ver. 220. ‘Wolf.’ From the diminutive of the +Greek word <span class="greek" title="lukos">λύκος</span>, ‘a wolf.’ +Virgil uses ‘Lycisca’ as the name of a dog, in his Eclogues.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_52" id="note3_52" href="#tag3_52">52.</a> +<i>Harpalus.</i>]—Ver. 222. ‘Snap.’ From <span class="greek" +title="harpazô">á¼Ïπάζω</span>, ‘to snatch,’ or ‘plunder.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_53" id="note3_53" href="#tag3_53">53.</a> +<i>Melaneus.</i>]—Ver. 222. ‘Black-coat.’ From the Greek, <span +class="greek" title="melas">μέλας</span>, ‘black.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_54" id="note3_54" href="#tag3_54">54.</a> +<i>Lachne.</i>]—Ver. 222. ‘Stickle.’ From the Greek work <span +class="greek" title="lachnê">λαχνὴ</span>, signifying ‘thickness of +the hair.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_55" id="note3_55" href="#tag3_55">55.</a> +<i>Labros.</i>]—Ver. 224. ‘Worrier.’ From the Greek <span class="greek" title="labros">λάβÏος</span>, ‘greedy.’ Dicte was a mountain +of Crete; whence the word ‘Dictæan’ is often employed to signify +‘Cretan.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_56" id="note3_56" href="#tag3_56">56.</a> +<i>Agriodos.</i>]—Ver. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘254’">224</ins>. ‘Wild-tooth.’ From <span class="greek" title="agrios">ἄγÏιος</span>, ‘wild,’ and <span class="greek" title="odous">ὀδοῦς</span>, ‘a tooth.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_57" id="note3_57" href="#tag3_57">57.</a> +<i>Hylactor.</i>]—Ver. 224. ‘Babbler.’ From the Greek word <span +class="greek" title="hulakteô">ὑλακτέω</span>, signifying ‘to +bark.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_58" id="note3_58" href="#tag3_58">58.</a> +<i>Melanchætes.</i>]—Ver. 232. ‘Black-hair.’ From the <span class="greek" title="melas">μέλας</span>, ‘black,’ and <span class="greek" title="chaitê">χαιτὴ</span>, ‘mane.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_59" id="note3_59" href="#tag3_59">59.</a> +<i>Theridamas.</i>]—Ver. 233. ‘Kilham.’ From <span class="greek" +title="thêr">θὴÏ</span>, ‘a wild beast,’ and <span class="greek" +title="damaô">δαμάω</span>, ‘to subdue.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_60" id="note3_60" href="#tag3_60">60.</a> +<i>Oresitrophus.</i>]—Ver. 223. ‘Rover.’ From <span class="greek" title="oros">ὄÏος</span> ‘a mountain,’ and <span class="greek" title="trephô">Ï„Ïέφω</span> ‘to nourish.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_61" id="note3_61" href="#tag3_61">61.</a> +<i>I will take care.</i>]—Ver. 271. ‘Faxo,’ ‘I will make,’ is +sometimes used by the best authors for ‘fecero;’ and ‘faxim’ for +‘faciam,’ or ‘fecerim.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_62" id="note3_62" href="#tag3_62">62.</a> +<i>Beroë.</i>]—Ver. 278. Iris, in the fifth book of the Æneid (l. +<ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘260’">620</ins>), +assumes the form of another Beroë; and a third person of that name is +mentioned in the fourth book of the Georgics, l. 34.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_63" id="note3_63" href="#tag3_63">63.</a> +<i>Epidaurian.</i>]—Ver. 278. Epidaurus was a famous city of +Argolis, in Peloponnesus, famous for its temple, dedicated to the +worship of Æsculapius, who was the tutelary Divinity of that city.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_64" id="note3_64" href="#tag3_64">64.</a> +<i>Could not endure.</i>]—Ver. 308. ‘Corpus mortale tumultus Non +tulit æthereos,’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘her mortal body could not bear +this æthereal bustle.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_65" id="note3_65" href="#tag3_65">65.</a> +<i>The Nyseian Nymphs.</i>]—Ver. 314. Nysa was the name of a city +and mountain of Arabia, or India. The tradition was, that there the +Nyseian Nymphs, whose names were Cysseis, Nysa, Erato, Eryphia, Bromia, +and Polyhymnia, brought up Bacchus. The cave where he was concealed from +the fury of Juno, was said to have had two entrances, from which +circumstance Bacchus received the epithet of Dithyrites. Servius, in his +commentary on the sixth Eclogue of Virgil (l. 15), says that Nysa was +the name of the female that nursed Bacchus. Hyginus also speaks of her +as being the daughter of Oceanus. From the name ‘Nysa,’ Bacchus +received, in part, his Greek name ‘Dionysus.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_66" id="note3_66" href="#tag3_66">66.</a> +<i>Twice born.</i>]—Ver. 318. Clarke thus translates and explains +this line—‘They tell you, that Jupiter well drenched;’ <i>i.e.</i> +‘fuddled with nectar,’ etc.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_67" id="note3_67" href="#tag3_67">67.</a> +<i>Aonia.</i>]—Ver. 339. Aonia was a mountainous district of +BÅ“otia, so called from Aon, the son of Neptune, who reigned there. The +name is often used to signify the whole of BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_68" id="note3_68" href="#tag3_68">68.</a> +<i>Liriope.</i>]—Ver. 342. She was the daughter of Oceanus and +Tethys, and was the mother of the youth Narcissus, by the river +Cephisus. Her name is derived from the Greek <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads Λείοιον ‘leioion’ for ‘leirion’">λείÏιον</ins>, ‘a +lily.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_69" id="note3_69" href="#tag3_69">69.</a> +<i>Many a youth.</i>]—Ver. 353. Clarke translates ‘multi juvenes,’ +‘many young fellows.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_70" id="note3_70" href="#tag3_70">70.</a> +<i>Used to detain.</i>]—Ver. 364. Clarke translates ‘Illa Deam +longo prudens sermone tenebat Dum fugerent Nymphæ,’ ‘She designedly +detained the Goddess with some long-winded discourse or other till the +Nymphs ran away.’ He translates ‘garrula,’ in line 360, ‘the prattling +hussy.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_71" id="note3_71" href="#tag3_71">71.</a> +<i>Narcissus.</i>]—Ver. 370. This name is from the Greek word +<span class="greek" title="narkân">ναÏκᾷν</span>, ‘to fade away,’ +which was characteristic of the youth’s career, and of the duration of +the flower.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_72" id="note3_72" href="#tag3_72">72.</a> +<i>Sulphur spread around.</i>]—Ver. 372. These lines show, that it +was the custom of the ancients to place sulphur on the ends of their +torches, to make them ignite the more readily, in the same manner as the +matches of the present day are tipped with that mineral.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_73" id="note3_73" href="#tag3_73">73.</a> +<i>Rushing from the woods.</i>]—Ver. 388. ‘Egressaque sylvis.’ +Clarke renders, ‘and bouncing out of the wood.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_74" id="note3_74" href="#tag3_74">74.</a> +<i>Rhamnusia.</i>]—Ver. 406. Nemesis, the Goddess of Retribution, +and the avenger of crime, was the daughter of Jupiter. She had a famous +temple at Rhamnus, one of the ‘pagi,’ or boroughs of Athens. Her statue +was there, carved by Phidias out of the marble which the Persians +brought into Greece for the purpose of making a statue of Victory out of +it, and which was thus appropriately devoted to the Goddess of +Retribution. This statue wore a crown, and had wings, and holding a +spear of ash in the right hand, it was seated on a stag.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_75" id="note3_75" href="#tag3_75">75.</a> +<i>Parian marble.</i>]—Ver. 419. Paros was an island in the Ægean +sea, one of the Cyclades; it was famous for the valuable quality of its +marble, which was especially used for the purpose of making statues of +the Gods.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_76" id="note3_76" href="#tag3_76">76.</a> +<i>Regard for food.</i>]—Ver. 437. ‘Cereris.’ The name of the +Goddess of corn is here used instead of bread itself.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_77" id="note3_77" href="#tag3_77">77.</a> +<i>Laid their hair.</i>]—Ver. 506. It was the custom among the +ancients for females, when lamenting the dead, not only to cut off their +hair, but to lay it on the body, when extended upon the funeral +pile.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_78" id="note3_78" href="#tag3_78">78.</a> +<i>Cities of Achaia.</i>]—Ver. 511. Achaia was properly the name +of a part of Peloponnesus, on the gulf of Corinth; but the name is very +frequently applied to the whole of Greece.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_79" id="note3_79" href="#tag3_79">79.</a> +<i>Pentheus.</i>]—Ver. 513. He was the son of Echion and Agave, +the daughter of Cadmus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_80" id="note3_80" href="#tag3_80">80.</a> +<i>Warlike men.</i>]—Ver. 531. ‘Mavortia.’ Mavors was a name of +Mars, frequently used by the poets. The Thebans were ‘proles Mavortia,’ +as being sprung from the teeth of the dragon, who was said to be a son +of Mars.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_81" id="note3_81" href="#tag3_81">81.</a> +<i>Tambourines.</i>]—Ver. 537. ‘Tympana.’ These instruments, among +the ancients, were of various kinds. Some resembled the modern +tambourine; while others presented a flat circular disk on the upper +surface, and swelled out beneath, like the kettle-drum of the present +day. They were covered with the hides of oxen, or of asses, and were +beaten either with a stick or the hand. They were especially used in the +rites of Bacchus, and of Cybele.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_82" id="note3_82" href="#tag3_82">82.</a> +<i>The thyrsus.</i>]—Ver. 542. The thyrsus was a long staff, +carried by Bacchus, and by the Satyrs and Bacchanalians engaged in the +worship of the God of the grape. It was sometimes terminated by the +apple of the pine, or fir-cone, the fir-tree being esteemed sacred to +Bacchus, from the turpentine flowing therefrom and its apples being used +in making wine. It is, however, frequently represented as terminating in +a knot of ivy, or vine leaves, with grapes or berries arranged in a +conical form. Sometimes, also, a white fillet was tied to the pole +just below the head. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, and Macrobius, that +Bacchus converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers into +weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. A wound +with its point was supposed to produce madness.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_83" id="note3_83" href="#tag3_83">83.</a> +<i>Engines of war.</i>]—Ver. 549. ‘Tormenta.’ These were the +larger engines of destruction used in ancient warfare. They were so +called from the verb ‘torqueo,’ ‘to twist,’ from their being formed by +the twisting of hair, fibre, or strips of leather. The different sorts +were called ‘balistæ’ and ‘catapultæ.’ The former were used to impel +stones; the latter, darts and arrows. In sieges, the ‘Aries,’ or +‘battering ram,’ which received its name from having an iron head +resembling that of a ram, was employed in destroying the lower part of +the wall, while the ‘balista’ was overthrowing the battlements, and the +‘catapulta’ was employed to shoot any of the besieged who appeared +between them. The ‘balistæ’ and ‘catapultæ’ were divided into the +‘greater’ and the ‘less.’ When New Carthage, the arsenal of the +Carthaginians, was taken, according to Livy (b. xxvi. c. 47), there were +found in it 120 large and 281 small catapultæ, and twenty-three large +and fifty-two small balistæ. The various kinds of ‘tormenta’ are said to +have been introduced about the time of Alexander the Great. If so, Ovid +must here be committing an anachronism, in making Pentheus speak of +‘tormenta,’ who lived so many ages before that time. To commit +anachronisms with impunity seems, however, to be the poet’s privilege, +from Ovid downwards to our Shakspere, where he makes Falstaff talk +familiarly of the West Indies. We find the dictionaries giving +‘tormentum’ as the Latin word for ‘cannon;’ so that in this case we may +say not that ‘necessity is the mother of invention,’ but rather that she +is ‘the parent of anachronism.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_84" id="note3_84" href="#tag3_84">84.</a> +<i>Acrisius.</i>]—Ver. 559. He was a king of Argos, the son of +Abas, and the father of Danaë. He refused, and probably with justice, to +admit Bacchus or his rites within the gates of his city.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_85" id="note3_85" href="#tag3_85">85.</a> +<i>His grandfather.</i>]—Ver. 563. Athamas was the son of Æolus, +and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus; who being +the father of Agave, the mother of Pentheus, is the grandfather +mentioned in the present line.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_86" id="note3_86" href="#tag3_86">86.</a> +<i>Mæonia.</i>]—Ver. 583. Colonists were said to have proceeded +from Lydia, or Mæonia, to the coasts of Etruria. Bacchus assumes the +name of AcÅ“tes, as corresponding to the Greek epithet <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads á¼Îºá½¹Î¹Ï„ης ‘hakoitês’ for ‘akoitês’">ἀκοίτης</ins>, ‘watchful,’ or ‘sleepless;’ which ought to be +the characteristic of the careful ‘pilot,’ or ‘helmsman.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_87" id="note3_87" href="#tag3_87">87.</a> +<i>Olenian she-goat.</i>]—Ver. 594. Amalthea, the goat that +suckled Jupiter, is called Olenian, either because she was reared in +Olenus, a city of BÅ“otia, or because she was placed as a +Constellation between the arms, <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ώλήναι ‘ôlênai’ for ‘ôlenai">ὠλέναι</ins>, of the +Constellation Auriga, or the Charioteer. The rising and setting of this +Constellation were supposed to produce showers.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_88" id="note3_88" href="#tag3_88">88.</a> +<i>Taygete.</i>]—Ver. 594. She was one of the Pleiades, the +daughters of Atlas, who were placed among the Constellations.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_89" id="note3_89" href="#tag3_89">89.</a> +<i>Hyades.</i>]—Ver. 594. These were the Dodonides, or nurses of +Bacchus, whom Jupiter, as a mark of his favor, placed in the number of +<ins class="corr mckay" title="‘the’ missing in McKay">the</ins> +Constellations. Their name is derived from <span class="greek" title="huein">ὕειν</span>, ‘to rain.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_90" id="note3_90" href="#tag3_90">90.</a> +<i>Dia.</i>]—Ver. 596. This was another name of the Isle of Naxos. +Gierig thinks that the reading here is neither ‘Diæ’ nor ‘Chiæ,’ which +are the two common readings; as the situation of neither the Isle of +Naxos nor that of Chios, would suit the course of the ship, as stated in +the text. He thinks that the Isle of Ceos, or Cea, is meant, which +Ptolemy calls <span class="greek" title="Kia">Κια</span>, and which +he thinks ought here to be written ‘Ciæ.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_91" id="note3_91" href="#tag3_91">91.</a> +<i>Epopeus.</i>]—Ver. 619. He was the <span class="greek" title="keleustês">κελεύστης</span>, ‘pausarius,’ or keeper of time for the +rowers.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_92" id="note3_92" href="#tag3_92">92.</a> +<i>A dreadful murder.</i>]—Ver. 626. They seem to have been +composed of much the same kind of lawless materials that formed the +daring crews of the <ins class="corr both" title="spelling unchanged">buccanier</ins> Morgan and Captain Kydd in more recent +times.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_93" id="note3_93" href="#tag3_93">93.</a> +<i>Naxos.</i>]—Ver. 636. This was the most famous island of the +group of the Cyclades.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_94" id="note3_94" href="#tag3_94">94.</a> +<i>Ivy impeded the oars.</i>]—Ver. 664. Hyginus tells us, that +Bacchus changed the oars into thyrsi, the sails into clusters of grapes, +and the rigging into ivy branches. In the Homeric hymn on this subject +we find the ship flowing with wine, vines growing on the sails, ivy +twining round the mast, and the benches wreathed with chaplets.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_95" id="note3_95" href="#tag3_95">95.</a> +<i>To a long story.</i>]—Ver. 692. Clarke renders this line, ‘We +have lent our ears to a long tale of a tub.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_96" id="note3_96" href="#tag3_96">96.</a> +<i>Cithæron.</i>]—Ver. 702. This was a mountain of BÅ“otia, famous +for the orgies of Bacchus there celebrated.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_97" id="note3_97" href="#tag3_97">97.</a> +<i>My two sisters.</i>]—Ver. 713. These were Ino and Autonoë.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note3_98" id="note3_98" href="#tag3_98">98.</a> +<i>Ghost of Actæon.</i>]—Ver. 720. He appeals to Autonoë, the +mother of Actæon, to remember the sad fate of her own son, and to show +him some mercy; but in vain: for, as one commentator on the passage +says, ‘Drunkenness had taken away both her reason and her memory.’</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Note (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note3_A" id="note3_A" href="#tag3_A">A.</a> +<i>grief is taking away</i>: Ovid III.469 “adÄmitâ€. Translating “has +taken†would require the metrically impossible variant “adÄ“mitâ€. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> <!--footnotes--> +</div> <!--maintext--> + +<h2><a name="bookIV-VII" id="bookIV-VII"></a>THE METAMORPHOSES Book IV-VII.</h2> + +<p> </p> + +<div class="contents"> + +<p><i>Fable descriptions are taken from the translator’s +Synopses.</i></p> + +<p><a href="#bookIV">Book IV</a><br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableI">Fable I</a>: The daughters of Minyas. Pyramus +and Thisbe.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableII">Fable II</a>: Mars and Venus. The Sun and +Leucothoë.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableIII">Fable III</a>: Clytie buried alive.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Daphnis; Scython; Celmus; +Crocus and Smilax; the Curetes.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableV">Fable V</a>: Salmacis and Hermaphroditus.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: The daughters of Minyas.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Athamas and Ino.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableVIII">Fable VIII</a>: Cadmus leaves Thebes.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableIX">Fable IX</a>: Perseus kills Medusa.<br /> +<a href="#bookIV_fableX">Fable X</a>: Perseus and Andromeda. Medusa’s +hair.</p> + +<p><a href="#bookV">Book V</a><br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableI">Fable I</a>: Perseus’s marriage feast.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableII">Fable II</a>: Minerva and the Muses.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableIII">Fable III</a>: The song of Calliope.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Pluto and Proserpina.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableV">Fable V</a>: Ceres searches for +Proserpina.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: Arethusa is changed into a +fountain.<br /> +<a href="#bookV_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Lyncus is changed into a +lynx; the Pierides are changed into magpies.</p> + +<p><a href="#bookVI">Book VI</a><br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableI">Fable I</a>: Arachne and Minerva.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableII">Fable II</a>: Niobe and her children.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableIII">Fable III</a>: Latona and the frogs.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Marsyas is flayed alive.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableV">Fable V</a>: Tereus, Progne and +Philomela.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: Progne’s son Itys.<br /> +<a href="#bookVI_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Boreas and Orithyïa.</p> + +<p><a href="#bookVII">Book VII</a><br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableI">Fable I</a>: Jason, the Golden Fleece and +Medea.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableII">Fable II</a>: Medea restores Æson to youth. +The daughters of Pelias.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableIII">Fable III</a>: Medea in Corinth.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableIV">Fable IV</a>: Hercules chains Cerberus. +Theseus and Medea.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableV">Fable V</a>: Minos at Ægina. Cephalus at +Ægina.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableVI">Fable VI</a>: The Myrmidons.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableVII">Fable VII</a>: Procris becomes a huntress. +Å’dipus and the Sphinx.<br /> +<a href="#bookVII_fableVIII">Fable VIII</a>: Cephalus accidentally +kills Procris.</p> + +</div> + +<div class="maintext"> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">135</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">118</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookIV" id="bookIV"></a> +BOOK THE FOURTH.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableI" id="bookIV_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> daughters of Minyas, instead of +celebrating the festival of Bacchus, apply themselves to other pursuits +during the ceremonies; and among several narratives which they relate to +pass away the time, they divert themselves with the story of the +adventures of Pyramus and Thisbe. These lovers having made an +appointment to meet without the walls of Babylon, Thisbe arrives first; +but at the sight of a lioness, she runs to hide herself in a cave, and +in her alarm, drops her veil. Pyramus, arriving soon after, finds the +veil of his mistress stained with blood; and believing her to be dead, +kills himself with his own sword. Thisbe returns from the cave; and +finding Pyramus weltering in his blood, she plunges the same fatal +weapon into her own breast.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> Alcithoë, the daughter of +Minyas,<a class="tag" name="tag4_1" id="tag4_1" href="#note4_1">1</a> does not think that the rites<a class="tag" name="tag4_2" id="tag4_2" href="#note4_2">2</a> of the God ought to be +received; but still, in her rashness, denies that Bacchus is the progeny +of Jupiter; and she has her sisters<a class="tag" name="tag4_3" id="tag4_3" href="#note4_3">3</a> as partners in her impiety.</p> + +<p>The priest had ordered both mistresses and maids, laying aside their +employments, to have their breasts +<span class="pagenum mckay">136</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 6-19</span> +covered with skins, and to loosen the fillets of their hair, and <i>to +put</i> garlands +<span class="pagenum bell">119</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 7-22</span> +on their locks, and to take the verdant thyrsi in their hands; and had +prophesied that severe would be the resentment of the Deity, <i>if</i> +affronted. Both matrons and new-married women obey, and lay aside their +webs and work-baskets,<a class="tag" name="tag4_4" id="tag4_4" +href="#note4_4">4</a> and their tasks unfinished; and offer +frankincense, and invoke both Bacchus and Bromius,<a class="tag" name="tag4_5" id="tag4_5" href="#note4_5">5</a> and Lyæus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_6" id="tag4_6" href="#note4_6">6</a> and the son +of the Flames, and the Twice-Born, and the only one that had two +mothers.<a class="tag" name="tag4_7" id="tag4_7" href="#note4_7">7</a> To these is added <i>the name of</i> Nyseus, and the +unshorn Thyoneus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_8" id="tag4_8" href="#note4_8">8</a> and with Lenæus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_9" id="tag4_9" href="#note4_9">9</a> the planter of the genial grape, and +Nyctelius,<a class="tag" name="tag4_10" id="tag4_10" href="#note4_10">10</a> and father Eleleus, and Iacchus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_11" id="tag4_11" href="#note4_11">11</a> and Evan,<a class="tag" name="tag4_12" id="tag4_12" href="#note4_12">12</a> and a +great many other names, which thou, Liber, hast besides, throughout the +nations of Greece. For thine is youth everlasting; thou art a boy to all +time, thou art beheld <i>as</i> the most beauteous <i>of all</i> in high +heaven; +<span class="pagenum mckay">137</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 20-42</span> +thou hast the features of a virgin, when thou standest without thy +horns. By thee the East was conquered, as far as where swarthy India is +bounded by the remote Ganges. Thou +<span class="pagenum bell">120</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 23-46</span> +<i>God</i>, worthy of our veneration, didst smite Pentheus, and the +axe-bearing Lycurgus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_13" id="tag4_13" +href="#note4_13">13</a> sacrilegious <i>mortals</i>; thou didst hurl +the bodies of the Etrurians into the sea. Thou controllest the neck of +the lynxes yoked to thy chariot, graced with the painted reins. The +Bacchanals and the Satyrs follow <i>thee</i>; the drunken old man, too, +<i>Silenus</i>, who supports his reeling limbs with a staff, and sticks +by no means very fast to his bending ass. And wherever thou goest, the +shouts of youths, and together the voices of women, and tambourines +beaten with the hands, and hollow cymbals resound, and the box-wood +<i>pipe</i>, with its long bore. The Ismenian matrons ask thee to show +thyself mild and propitious, and celebrate thy sacred rites as +prescribed.</p> + +<p>The daughters of Minyas alone, within doors, interrupting the +festival with unseasonable labor,<a class="tag" name="tag4_14" id="tag4_14" href="#note4_14">14</a> are either carding wool, or twirling +the threads with their fingers, or are plying at the web, and keeping +the handmaids to their work. One of them, <i>as she is</i> drawing the +thread with her smooth thumb, says, “While others are idling, and +thronging to <i>these</i> fanciful rites, let us, whom Pallas, +a better Deity, occupies, alleviate the useful toil of our hands +with varying discourse; and let us relate by turns to our disengaged +ears, for the general <i>amusement</i>, something each in our turn, that +will not permit the time to seem long.†They approve of what she says, +and her sisters bid her to be the first to tell her story.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum mckay">138</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 43-58</span> +She considers which of many she shall tell (for she knows many a one), +and she is in doubt whether she shall tell of thee, Babylonian +Dercetis,<a class="tag" name="tag4_15" id="tag4_15" href="#note4_15">15</a> whom the people of Palestine<a class="tag" name="tag4_16" id="tag4_16" href="#note4_16">16</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">121</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 46-66</span> +believe to inhabit the pools, with thy changed form, scales covering thy +limbs; or rather how her daughter, taking wings, passed her latter years +in whitened turrets; or how a Naiad,<a class="tag" name="tag4_17" id="tag4_17" href="#note4_17">17</a> by charms and too potent herbs, +changed the bodies of the young men into silent fishes, until she +suffered the same herself. Or how the tree which bore white fruit +<i>formerly</i>, now bears it of purple hue, from the contact of blood. +This <i>story</i> pleases her; this, because it was no common tale, she +began in manner such as this, while the wool followed the +thread:—</p> + +<p>“Pyramus and Thisbe, the one the most beauteous of youths,<a class="tag" name="tag4_18" id="tag4_18" href="#note4_18">18</a> the +other preferred before <i>all</i> the damsels that the East contained, +lived in adjoining houses; where Semiramis is said to have surrounded +her lofty city<a class="tag" name="tag4_19" id="tag4_19" href="#note4_19">19</a> with walls of brick.<a class="tag" name="tag4_20" id="tag4_20" href="#note4_20">20</a> The nearness caused their +<span class="pagenum mckay">139</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 59-88</span> +first acquaintance, and their first advances <i>in love</i>; with time +their affection increased. They would have united themselves, too, by +the tie of marriage, but their fathers forbade it. A thing which +they could not forbid, they were both inflamed, with minds equally +captivated. There is no one acquainted with it; by nods and signs, they +hold converse. And the more the fire is smothered, the more, when +<i>so</i> smothered, does it burn. The party-wall, common to the two +houses, was cleft by a small chink, which it had got formerly, when it +was +<span class="pagenum bell">122</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 66-99</span> +built. This defect, remarked by no one for so many ages, you lovers +(what does not love perceive?) first found one, and you made it a +passage for your voices, and the accents of love used to pass through it +in safety, with the gentlest murmur. Oftentimes, after they had taken +their stations, Thisbe on one side, <i>and</i> Pyramus on the other, and +the breath of their mouths had been <i>mutually</i> caught by turns, +they used to say, ‘Envious wall, why dost thou stand in the way of +lovers? what great matter were it, for thee to suffer us to be joined +with our entire bodies? Or if that is too much, that, at least, thou +shouldst open, for the exchange of kisses. Nor are we ungrateful; we +confess that we are indebted to thee, that a passage has been given for +our words to our loving ears<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.’</ins> Having said this much, in vain, on their +respective sides, about night they said, ‘Farewell’; and gave those +kisses each on their own side, which did not reach the other side.</p> + +<p>â€The following morning had removed the fires of the night, and the +Sun, with <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘his’">its</ins> rays, had dried the grass <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘went’">wet</ins> with rime, <i>when</i> they met +together at the wonted spot. Then, first complaining much in low +murmurs, they <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘determined’">determine</ins>, in the silent night, to try to deceive +their keepers, and to steal out of doors; and when they have left the +house, to quit the buildings of the city as well: but that they may not +have to wander, roaming in the open fields, to meet at the tomb of +Ninus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_21" id="tag4_21" href="#note4_21">21</a> and to +<span class="pagenum mckay">140</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 89-117</span> +conceal themselves beneath the shade of a tree. There was there a lofty +mulberry tree, very full of snow-white fruit, quite close to a cold +spring. The <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘arrangements’">arrangement</ins> suits them; and the light, seeming to +depart <i>but</i> slowly, is buried in the waters, and from the same +waters the night arises. The clever Thisbe, turning the hinge, gets out +in the dark, and deceives her <i>attendants</i>, and, having covered her +face, arrives at the tomb, and sits down under the tree agreed upon; +love made her bold. Lo! a lioness approaches, having her foaming +jaws besmeared with the recent slaughter of oxen, about to quench her +thirst with the water of the neighboring spring. The Babylonian +<span class="pagenum bell">123</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 99-130</span> +Thisbe sees her at a distance, by the rays of the moon, and with a +trembling foot she flies to a dark cave; and, while she flies, her veil +falling from her back, she leaves it behind. When the savage lioness has +quenched her thirst with plenteous water, as she is returning into the +woods, she tears the thin covering, found by chance without Thisbe +herself, with her blood-stained mouth.</p> + +<p>“Pyramus, going out later <i>than Thisbe</i>, saw the evident +footmarks of a wild beast, in the deep dust, and grew pale all over his +face. But, as soon as he found her veil, as well, dyed with blood, he +said: ‘One night will be the ruin of two lovers, of whom she was the +most deserving of a long life. My soul is guilty; ’tis I that have +destroyed thee, much to be lamented; who bade thee to come by night to +places full of terror, and came not hither first. O, whatever lions +are lurking beneath this rock, tear my body in pieces, and devour my +accursed entrails with ruthless jaws. But it is the part of a coward to +wish for death.’ He takes up the veil of Thisbe, and he takes it with +himself to the shade of the tree agreed on, and, after he has bestowed +tears on the well-known garment, he gives kisses <i>to the same</i>, +<span class="pagenum mckay">141</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 118-141</span> +and he says, ‘Receive, now, a draught of my blood as well!’ and then +plunges the sword, with which he is girt, into his bowels; and without +delay, as he is dying, he draws it out of the warm wound. As he falls on +his back upon the ground, the blood spurts forth on high, not otherwise +than as when a pipe is burst on the lead decaying,<ins class="corr +mckay" title="footnote marker missing in McKay"><a class="tag" name="tag4_22" id="tag4_22" href="#note4_22">22</a></ins> and shoots +out afar the liquid water from the hissing flaw, and cleaves the air +with its jet. The fruit of the tree, by the sprinkling of the blood, are +changed to a dark tint, and the root, soaked with the gore, tints the +hanging mulberries with a purple hue. Behold! not yet having banished +her fear, <i>Thisbe</i> returns, that she may not disappoint her lover, +and seeks for the youth both with her eyes and her affection, and longs +to tell him how great dangers +<span class="pagenum bell">124</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 130-160</span> +she has escaped. And when she observes the spot, and the altered +appearance of the tree, she doubts if it is the same, so uncertain does +the color of the fruit make her. While she is in doubt, she sees +palpitating limbs throbbing upon the bloody ground; she draws back her +foot, and having her face paler than box-wood,<a class="tag" name="tag4_23" id="tag4_23" href="#note4_23">23</a> she shudders like the +sea, which trembles<a class="tag" name="tag4_24" id="tag4_24" href="#note4_24">24</a> when its surface is skimmed by a gentle breeze. +But, after pausing a time, she had recognized her own lover, she smote +her arms, undeserving <i>of such usage</i>, and tearing her hair, and +embracing the much-loved body, she filled the gashes with her tears, and +mingled her <i>tokens of</i> sorrow +<span class="pagenum mckay">142</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 142-166</span> +with his blood; and imprinting kisses on his cold features, she +exclaimed, ‘Pyramus! what disaster has taken thee away from me? Pyramus! +answer me; ’tis thy own Thisbe, dearest, that calls thee; hear me, and +raise thy prostrate features.’</p> + +<p>“At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus raised his eyes, now heavy with +death, and, after he had seen her, he closed them again. After she had +perceived her own garment, and beheld, too, the ivory <i>sheath</i><a +class="tag" name="tag4_25" id="tag4_25" href="#note4_25">25</a> +without its sword, she said, ‘’Tis thy own hand, and love, that has +destroyed thee, ill-fated <i>youth</i>! I, too, have a hand bold +<i>enough</i> for this one purpose; I have love as well; this shall +give me strength for the wound. I will follow thee in thy death, +and I shall be called the most <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘anhappy’">unhappy</ins> cause and companion of thy fate, and thou +who, alas! couldst be torn from me by death alone, shalt not be able, +even by death, to be torn from me. And you, O most wretched parents +of mine and his, be but prevailed upon, in this one thing, by the +entreaties of us both, that you will not deny those whom their constant +love <i>and</i> whom their last moments have joined, to be buried in the +same tomb. But thou, O tree, which now with thy boughs +<span class="pagenum bell">125</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 160-166</span> +dost overshadow the luckless body of <i>but</i> one, art fated soon to +cover <i>those</i> of two. Retain a token of <i>this our</i> fate, and +ever bear fruit black and suited for mourning, as a memorial of the +blood of us two.’ <i>Thus</i> she said; and having fixed the point under +the lower part of her breast, she fell upon the sword, which still was +reeking with his blood.</p> + +<p>“Her prayers, however, moved the Gods, <i>and</i> moved their +parents. For the color of the fruit, when it has fully ripened, is +black;<a class="tag" name="tag4_26" id="tag4_26" href="#note4_26">26</a> and what was left of them, from the funeral pile, +reposed in the same urn.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">143</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is pretty clear, as we have already seen, that the establishment of +the worship of Bacchus in Greece met with great opposition, and that his +priests and devotees published several miracles and prodigies, the more +easily to influence the minds of their fellow-men. Thus, the daughters +of Minyas are said to have been changed into bats, solely because they +neglected to join in the orgies of that God; when, probably, the fact +was, that they were either secretly despatched, or were forced to fly +for their lives; and their absence was accounted for to the ignorant and +credulous, by the invention of this Fable. The story of Dercetis, as +related by Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and Herodotus, is, that having +offended Venus, that Goddess caused her to fall in love with a young +man, by whom she had a daughter. In despair at her misfortune, she +killed her lover, and exposed her child, and afterwards drowned herself. +The Syrians, lamenting her fate, built a temple near where she was +drowned, and honored her as a Goddess. They stated that she was turned +into a fish, and they there represented her under the figure of a woman +down to the waist, and of a fish thence downwards. They also abstained +from eating fish; though they offered them to her in sacrifice, and +suspended gilded ones in her temple. Selden, in his Treatise on the +Syrian Gods, suggests that the story of Dercetis, or Atergatis, was +founded on the figure and worship of Dagon, the God of the Philistines, +who was represented under the figure of a fish; and that the name of +Atergatis is a corruption of ‘Adir Dagon,’ ‘a great fish,’ which is not +at all improbable. The same author supposes that Dercetis was originally +the same Deity with Venus, Astarte, Minerva, Juno, Isis, and the Moon; +and that she was worshipped under the name of Mylitta by the Assyrians, +and as Alilac by the Arabians. Lucian tells us, that Dercetis was +reported to have been the mother of Semiramis.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Ovid and Hyginus are the only authors that make mention of the story of +Pyramus and Thisbe, and both agree in making Babylon the scene of it. It +seems to be rather intended as a moral tale, than to have been built +upon any actual circumstance. It affords a lesson to youth not to enter +rashly +<span class="pagenum bell">126</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 167-186</span> +into engagements: and to parents not to pursue, too rigorously, the +gratification of their own resentment, but rather to consult the +inclination of their children, when not likely to be productive of +unhappiness at a future period.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The reader cannot fail to call to mind the admirable travesty of this +story by Shakspere, in the ‘Midsummer Night’s Dream.’</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">144</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 167-186</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableII" id="bookIV_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Sun discovers to Vulcan the +intrigue <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘betwen’">between</ins> Mars and Venus, and then, himself, falls in love +with Leucothoë. Venus, in revenge for the discovery, resolves to make +his amours unfortunate.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Here</span> she ended; and there was +<i>but</i> a short time betwixt, and <i>then</i> Leuconoë began<a class="tag" name="tag4_27" id="tag4_27" href="#note4_27">27</a> to +speak. Her sisters held their peace. “Love has captivated even this Sun, +who rules all things by his æthereal light. I will relate the loves +of the Sun. This God is supposed to have been the first to see the +adultery of Venus with Mars; this God is the first to see everything. He +was grieved at what was done, and showed to the husband, the son of +Juno,<a class="tag" name="tag4_28" id="tag4_28" href="#note4_28">28</a> the wrong done to his bed, and the place of the +intrigue. Both his senses, and the work which his skilful right hand was +<i>then</i> holding, quitted him <i>on the instant</i>. Immediately, he +files out some slender chains of brass, and nets, and meshes, which can +escape the eye. The finest threads cannot surpass that work, nor yet the +cobweb that hangs from the top of the beam. He makes it so, too, as to +yield to a slight touch, and a gentle movement, and skilfully arranges +it drawn around the bed. When the wife and the gallant come into the +same bed, being both caught through the artifice of the husband, and +chains prepared by this new contrivance, they are held fast in the +<i>very</i> midst of their embraces.</p> + +<p>“The Lemnian <i>God</i> immediately threw open the folding doors<a +class="tag" name="tag4_29" id="tag4_29" href="#note4_29">29</a> +of ivory, and admitted the Deities. <i>There</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">145</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 186-207</span> +they lay +<span class="pagenum bell">127</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 186-210</span> +disgracefully bound. And yet many a one of the Gods, not the serious +ones, could fain wish thus to become disgraced. The Gods of heaven +laughed, and for a long time was this the most noted story in all +heaven. The Cytherean<a class="tag" name="tag4_30" id="tag4_30" +href="#note4_30">30</a> goddess exacts satisfaction of the Sun, in +remembrance of this betrayal; and, in her turn, disturbs him with the +like passion, who had disturbed her secret amours. What now, son of +Hyperion,<a class="tag" name="tag4_31" id="tag4_31" href="#note4_31">31</a> does thy beauty, thy heat, and thy radiant light +avail thee? For thou, who dost burn all lands with thy flames, art +<i>now</i> burnt with a new flame; and thou, who oughtst to be looking +at everything, art gazing on Leucothoë, and on one maiden art fixing +those eyes which thou oughtst <i>to be fixing</i> on the universe. At +one time thou art rising earlier in the Eastern sky; at another thou art +setting late in the waves; and in taking time to gaze <i>on her</i>, +thou art lengthening the hours of mid-winter. Sometimes thou art +eclipsed, and the trouble of thy mind affects thy light, and, darkened, +thou fillest with terror the breasts of mortals. Nor art thou pale, +because the form of the moon, nearer to the earth, stands in thy way. It +is that passion which occasions this complexion. Thou lovest her alone, +neither does Clymene, nor Rhodos,<a class="tag" name="tag4_32" id="tag4_32" href="#note4_32">32</a> nor the most beauteous mother<a +class="tag" name="tag4_33" id="tag4_33" href="#note4_33">33</a> +of the Ææan Circe engage thee, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘not’">nor</ins> <i>yet</i> Clytie, who, though despised, was +longing for thy embraces; at that very time thou wast suffering these +grievous +<span class="pagenum mckay">146</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 208-232</span> +pangs. Leucothoë occasioned the forgetting of many a damsel; she, whom +Eurynome, the most beauteous of the +<span class="pagenum bell">128</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 210-233</span> +perfume-bearing<a class="tag" name="tag4_34" id="tag4_34" href="#note4_34">34</a> nation produced.<a class="tag" name="tag4_35" id="tag4_35" href="#note4_35">35</a> But after her daughter grew up, as +much as the mother excelled all <i>other Nymphs</i>, so much did the +daughter <i>excel</i> the mother. Her father, Orchamus, ruled over the +Achæmenian<a class="tag" name="tag4_36" id="tag4_36" href="#note4_36">36</a> cities, and he is reckoned the seventh in descent +from the ancient Belus.<a class="tag" name="tag4_37" id="tag4_37" +href="#note4_37">37</a></p> + +<p>“The pastures of the horses of the Sun are under the Western sky; +instead of grass, they have ambrosia.<a class="tag" name="tag4_38" id="tag4_38" href="#note4_38">38</a> That nourishes their limbs +wearied with their daily service, and refits them for labor. And while +the coursers are there eating their heavenly food, and night is taking +her turn; the God enters the beloved chamber, changed into the shape of +her mother Eurynome, and beholds Leucothoë among twice six handmaids, +near the threshold, drawing out the smooth threads with twirling +spindle. When, therefore, as though her mother, he has given kisses to +her dear daughter, he says, “There is a secret matter, <i>which I have +to mention</i>; maids, withdraw, and take not from a mother the +privilege of speaking in private <i>with her daughter</i>.†They obey; +and the God being left in the chamber without any witness, he says, ‘I +am he, who measures out the long year, who beholds all things, +<i>and</i> through whom the earth sees all things; the eye, <i>in +fact</i>, of the universe. Believe me, thou art pleasing to me<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay has double close quote, single open quote">.’</ins> She is affrighted; and in her alarm, both her distaff +and her spindle fall from her relaxed fingers. Her very fear becomes +her; <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘and,’">and</ins> +he, no longer delaying, returns to his true shape, and his wonted +beauty. But the +<span class="pagenum mckay">147</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘I.’">IV.</ins> 233-237</span> +maiden, although startled at the unexpected sight, overcome by the +beauty of the God,<a class="tag" name="tag4_39" id="tag4_39" href="#note4_39">39</a> <i>and</i> dismissing <i>all</i> complaints, +submits to his embrace.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">129</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 234-244</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Plutarch, in his Treatise ‘How to read the Poets,’ suggests a curious +explanation of the discovery by the Sun of the intrigue of Mars and +Venus. He says that such persons as are born under the conjunction of +the planets Mars and Venus, are naturally of an amorous temperament; but +that if the Sun does not happen then to be at a distance, their +indiscretions will be very soon discovered.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Palæphatus gives a historical solution to the story. He says that +Helius, the son of Vulcan, king of Egypt, resolving to cause his +father’s laws against adultery to be strictly observed, and having been +informed that a lady of the court had an intrigue with one of the +courtiers, entered her apartment in the night, and obtaining ocular +proof of the courtier’s guilt, caused him to be severely punished. He +also tells us that the similarity of the name gave birth to the Fable +which Homer was the first to relate, with a small variation, and which +is here copied by Ovid. Libanius, deploring the burning of the Temple of +Apollo near Antioch, complains of the ingratitude of Vulcan to that God, +who had formerly discovered to him the infidelity of his wife; +a subject upon which St. Chrysostom seems to think that the +rhetorician would have done better to have been silent.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableIII" id="bookIV_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Clytie</span>, in a fit of revenge, discovers +the adventure of Leucothoë to her father, who orders her to be buried +alive. The Sun, grieved at her misfortune, changed her into the +frankincense tree; he also despises the informer, who pines away for +love of him, and is at last changed into the sunflower.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Clytie</span> envied her, (for the love of +the Sun<a class="tag" name="tag4_40" id="tag4_40" href="#note4_40">40</a> for her had not been moderate), and, urged on by +resentment at a rival, she published the intrigue, and, when spread +abroad, brought it to the notice of her father. He, fierce and +unrelenting, cruelly buried her alive deep in the ground, as she +entreated and stretched out her +<span class="pagenum mckay">148</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 238-267</span> +hands towards the light of the Sun, and cried, “’Twas he that offered +violence to me against my will;†and upon her he placed a heap of heavy +sand. The son of Hyperion scattered it with his rays, and gave a passage +to thee, by which thou mightst be able to put forth thy buried +features.</p> + +<p>But thou, Nymph, couldst not now raise thy head smothered with the +weight of the earth; and <i>there</i> thou didst lie, a lifeless +<span class="pagenum bell">130</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 244-270</span> +body. The governor of the winged steeds is said to have beheld nothing +more afflicting than that, since the lightnings that caused the death of +Phaëton. He, indeed, endeavors, if he can, to recall her cold limbs to +an enlivening heat, by the strength of his rays. But, since fate opposes +attempts so great, he sprinkles both her body and the place with +odoriferous nectar, and having first uttered many a complaint he says, +“Still shalt thou reach the skies.â€<a class="tag" name="tag4_41" id="tag4_41" href="#note4_41">41</a> Immediately, the body, steeped in +the heavenly nectar, dissolves, and moistens the earth with its +odoriferous juices; and a shoot of frankincense having taken root by +degrees through the clods, rises up and bursts the hillock with its +top.</p> + +<p>But the author of light came no more to Clytie (although love might +have excused her grief, and her grief the betrayal); and he put an end +to his intercourse with her. From that time she, who had made so mad a +use of her passion, pined away, loathing the <i>other</i> Nymphs; and in +the open air, night and day, she sat on the bare ground, with her hair +dishevelled and unadorned. And for nine days, without water or food, she +subsisted in her fast, merely on dew and her own tears; and she did not +raise herself from the ground. She only used to look towards the face of +the God as he moved along, and to turn her own features towards him. +They say that her limbs became rooted fast in the ground; and a livid +paleness turned part of her +<span class="pagenum mckay">149</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 268-277</span> +color into <i>that of</i> a bloodless plant. There is a redness in some +part; and a flower, very like a violet,<a class="tag" name="tag4_42" id="tag4_42" href="#note4_42">42</a> conceals her face. Though she +is held fast by a root, she turns towards the Sun, and <i>though</i> +changed, she <i>still</i> retains her passion.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +No ascertained historical fact can be found as the basis of the story of +Leucothoë being buried alive by her father Orchamus, or of her rival +<span class="pagenum bell">131</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 271-284</span> +Clytie being metamorphosed into a sunflower. The story seems to have +been most probably simply founded on principles of natural philosophy. +Leucothoë, it is not unreasonable to suppose, may have been styled the +daughter of Orchamus, king of Persia, for no other reason but because +that Prince was the first to introduce the frankincense tree, which was +called Leucothoë, into his kingdom; and it was added that she fell in +love with Apollo, because the tree produces an aromatic drug much used +in physic, of which that God was fabled to have been the inventor. The +jealousy of Clytie was, perhaps, founded upon a fact, stated by some +naturalists, that the sunflower is a plant which kills the frankincense +tree, when growing near it. Pliny, however, who ascribes several +properties to the sunflower, does not mention this among them.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Orchamus is nowhere mentioned by the ancient writers, except in the +present instance.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableIV" id="bookIV_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Daphnis</span> is turned into a stone. Scython +is changed from a man into a woman. Celmus is changed into adamant. +Crocus and Smilax are made into flowers. The Curetes are produced from a +shower.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps"><i>Thus</i></span> she spoke; and the +wondrous deed charms their ears. Some deny that it was possible to be +done, some say that real Gods can do all things; but Bacchus is not one +of them. When her sisters have become silent, Alcithoë is called upon; +who running with her shuttle through the warp of the hanging web, says, +“I keep silence upon the well-known amours of Daphnis, the +<span class="pagenum mckay">150</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 277-284</span> +shepherd of Ida,<a class="tag" name="tag4_43" id="tag4_43" href="#note4_43">43</a> whom the resentment of the Nymph, his paramour, +turned into a stone. Such mighty grief inflames those who are in love. +Nor do I relate how once Scython, the law of nature being altered, was +of both sexes first a man, then a woman. Thee too, I pass by, +O Celmus, now adamant, formerly most attached to Jupiter +<i>when</i> little; and the Curetes,<a class="tag" name="tag4_44" id="tag4_44" href="#note4_44">44</a> sprung from a plenteous shower of +rain; Crocus, too, changed, together with Smilax,<a class="tag" name="tag4_45" id="tag4_45" href="#note4_45">45</a> into little flowers; +and I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.â€</ins></p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">132</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 284-295</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Most probably, the story of the shepherd Daphnis being turned into a +stone, was no other than an allegorical method of expressing the +insensibility of an individual. Thalia was the name of the Nymph who was +thus affronted by Daphnis.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of Scython changing his sex, is perhaps based upon the fact, +that the country of Thrace, which took the name of Thracia from a famous +sorceress, was before called Scython; and that as it lost a name of the +masculine gender for one of the feminine, in after times it became +reported that Scython had changed sexes.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pliny tells us that Celmus was a young man of remarkable wisdom and +moderation, and that the passions making no impression on him, he was +changed into adamant. Some, however, assert that he was foster-father to +Jupiter, by whom he was enclosed in an impenetrable tower, for revealing +the immortality of the Gods.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +According to one account, Crocus and Smilax were a constant and happy +married couple, who for their chaste and innocent life were said to have +been changed into flowers; but another story is, that Crocus was a youth +beloved by <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell reads ‘Simlax’">Smilax</ins>, and that on his rejecting the Nymph’s advances, +they were both turned into flowers.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the Curetes being sprung from rain, is possibly founded on +the report that they were descended from Uranus and Tita, the Heaven and +the Earth. Some suppose them to have been +<span class="pagenum mckay">151</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 285-310</span> +the original inhabitants of the isle of Crete; and they are said to have +watched over the infancy of Jupiter, by whom they were afterwards slain, +for having concealed Epaphus from his wrath.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableV" id="bookIV_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Naiad Salmacis falls in love with +the youth Hermaphroditus, who rejects her advances. While he is bathing, +she leaps into the water, and seizing the youth in her arms, they become +one body, retaining their different sexes.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Learn</span> how Salmacis became infamous, +<i>and</i> why it enervates, with its enfeebling waters, and softens the +limbs bathed <i>in it</i>. The cause is unknown; <i>but</i> the +properties of the fountain are very well known. The Naiads nursed a boy, +born to Mercury of the Cytherean Goddess in the caves of Ida; whose face +was such that therein both mother and father could be discerned; he +likewise took his name from them. As soon as he had completed thrice +five years, he forsook his native mountains, and leaving Ida, the place +of his nursing, he loved to wander over +<span class="pagenum bell">133</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 295-326</span> +unknown spots, <i>and</i> to see unknown rivers, his curiosity lessening +the fatigue. He went, too, to the Lycian<a class="tag" name="tag4_46" id="tag4_46" href="#note4_46">46</a> cities, and the +Carians, that border upon Lycia. Here he sees a pool of water, clear to +the <i>very</i> ground at the bottom; here there are no fenny reeds, no +barren sedge, no rushes with their sharp points. The water is +translucent; but the edges of the pool are enclosed with green turf, and +with grass ever verdant. A Nymph dwells <i>there</i>; but one +neither skilled in hunting, nor accustomed to bend the bow, nor to +contend in speed; the only one, too, of <i>all</i> the Naiads not known +to the swift Diana. The report is, that her sisters often said to her, +“Salmacis, do take either the javelin, or the painted quiver, and unite +thy leisure with the toils of the chase.†She takes neither the javelin, +nor the painted quiver, nor does she unite her leisure with the toils of +the chase. But sometimes she is bathing her beauteous limbs in her own +spring; +<span class="pagenum mckay">152</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 311-333</span> +<i>and</i> often is she straitening her hair with a comb of Citorian +boxwood,<a class="tag" name="tag4_47" id="tag4_47" href="#note4_47">47</a> and consulting the waters, into which she looks, what +is befitting her. At other times, covering her body with a transparent +garment, she reposes either on the soft leaves or on the soft grass. +Ofttimes is she gathering flowers. And then, too, by chance was she +gathering them when she beheld the youth, and wished to possess him, +<i>thus</i> seen.</p> + +<p>But though she hastened to approach <i>the youth</i>, still she did +not approach him before she had put herself in order, and before she had +surveyed her garments, and put on her <i>best</i> looks, and deserved to +be thought beautiful. Then thus did she begin to speak: “O youth, +most worthy to be thought to be a God! if thou art a God, thou mayst +<i>well</i> be Cupid; but, if thou art a mortal, happy are they who +begot thee, and blessed is thy brother, and fortunate indeed thy sister, +if thou hast one, and the nurse <i>as well</i> who gave thee the breast. +But far, far more fortunate than all these <i>is she</i>; if thou hast +any wife, if thou shouldst vouchsafe any one <i>the honor of</i> +marriage. +<span class="pagenum bell">134</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 326-349</span> +And if any one is thy <i>wife, then</i> let my pleasure be stolen; but, +if thou hast none, let me be <i>thy wife</i>, and let us unite in one +tie.†After these things <i>said</i>, the Naiad is silent; a blush +tinges the face of the youth: he knows not what love is, but even to +blush becomes him. Such is the color of apples, hanging on a tree +exposed to the sun, or of painted ivory, or of the moon blushing beneath +her brightness when the aiding <i>cymbals</i><a class="tag" name="tag4_48" id="tag4_48" href="#note4_48">48</a> <i>of</i> brass are +resounding in +<span class="pagenum mckay">153</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 334-349</span> +vain. Upon the Nymph desiring, without ceasing, such kisses at least as +he might give to his sister, and now laying her hands upon his neck, +white as ivory, he says, “Wilt thou desist, or am I to fly, and to leave +this place, together with thee?â€</p> + +<p>Salmacis is affrighted, and says, “I freely give up this spot to +thee, stranger,†and, with a retiring step, she pretends to go away. But +then looking back, and hid in a covert of shrubs, she lies concealed, +and puts her bended knees down to the ground. But he, just like a boy, +and as though unobserved on the retired sward, goes here and there, and +in the sportive waves dips the soles of his feet, and <i>then</i> his +feet as far as his ankles. Nor is there any delay; being charmed with +the temperature of the pleasant waters, he throws off his soft garments +from his tender body. Then, indeed, Salmacis is astonished, and burns +with desire for his naked beauty. The eyes, too, of the Nymph are on +fire, no otherwise than as when the Sun,<a class="tag" name="tag4_49" id="tag4_49" href="#note4_49">49</a> most brilliant +<span class="pagenum mckay">154</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 349-375</span> +with his clear orb, is reflected +<span class="pagenum bell">135</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 349-371</span> +from the opposite image of a mirror. With difficulty does she endure +delay; hardly does she now defer her joy. Now she longs to embrace him; +and now, distracted, she can hardly contain herself. He, clapping his +body with his hollow palms, swiftly leaps into the stream, and throwing +out his arms alternately, shines in the limpid water, as if any one were +to cover statues of ivory, or white lilies, with clear glass.</p> + +<p>“I have gained my point,†says the Naiad; “see, he is mine!†and, all +her garments thrown aside, she plunges in the midst of the waters, and +seizes him resisting her, and snatches reluctant kisses, and thrusts +down her hands, and touches his breast against his will, and clings +about the youth, now one way, and now another. Finally, as he is +struggling against her, and desiring to escape, she entwines herself +about him, like a serpent which the royal bird takes up and is bearing +aloft; and as it hangs, it holds fast his head and feet, and enfolds his +spreading wings with its tail. Or, as the ivy is wont to wind itself +along the tall trunks <i>of trees</i>; and as the polypus<a class="tag" name="tag4_50" id="tag4_50" href="#note4_50">50</a> holds +fast its enemy, caught beneath the waves, by letting down his suckers on +all sides; <i>so</i> does the descendant of Atlas<a class="tag" name="tag4_51" id="tag4_51" href="#note4_51">51</a> <i>still</i> persist, +and deny the Nymph the hoped-for joy. She presses him hard; and clinging +to him with every limb, as she holds fast, she says, “Struggle as thou +mayst, perverse one, still thou shalt not escape. So ordain it, ye Gods, +and let no time +<span class="pagenum bell">136</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 371-390</span> +separate him from me, nor me from him.†Her prayers find propitious +Deities, for the mingled bodies of the two are united,<a class="tag" +name="tag4_52" id="tag4_52" href="#note4_52">52</a> and one human +shape is put upon them; just as if any one should see +<span class="pagenum mckay">155</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 376-391</span> +branches beneath a common bark join in growing, and spring up together. +So, when their bodies meet together in the firm embrace, they are no +more two, and their form is twofold, so that they can neither be styled +woman nor boy; they seem <i>to be</i> neither and both.</p> + +<p>Therefore, when Hermaphroditus sees that the limpid waters, into +which he had descended as a man, have made him but half a male, and that +his limbs are softened in them, holding up his hands, he says, but now +no longer with the voice of a male, “O, both father and mother, +grant this favor to your son, who has the name of you both, that whoever +enters these streams a man, may go out thence <i>but</i> half a man, and +that he may suddenly become effeminate in the waters when touched.†Both +parents, moved, give their assent to the words of their two-shaped son, +and taint the fountain with drugs of ambiguous quality.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The only probable solution of this story seems to have been the fact +that there was in Caria, near the town of Halicarnassus, as we read in +Vitruvius, a fountain which was instrumental in civilizing certain +barbarians who had been driven from that neighborhood by the Argive +colony established there. These men being obliged to repair to the +fountain for water, and meeting the Greek colonists there, their +intercourse not only polished them, but in course of time corrupted +them, by the introduction of the luxurious manners of Greece. Hence the +fountain had the reputation of changing men into women.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Possibly the water of that fountain, by some peculiar chemical quality, +made those who drank of it become soft and effeminate, as waters are to +be occasionally found with extraordinary qualities. Lylius Gyraldus +suggests, that several disgraceful adventures happened near this +fountain (which was enclosed by walls), which in time gave it a bad +name.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableVI" id="bookIV_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Bacchus</span>, to punish the daughters of +Minyas for their contempt of his worship, changes them into bats, and +their work into ivy and vine leaves.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">There</span> was <i>now</i> an end of their +stories; and still do the daughters +<span class="pagenum bell">137</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 390-417</span> +of Minyas go on with their work, and despise the God, and desecrate his +festival; when, on a sudden, tambourines unseen resound with their +jarring +<span class="pagenum mckay">156</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 392-417</span> +noise; the pipe, too, with the crooked horn, and the tinkling brass, +re-echo; myrrh and saffron shed their fragrant odors; and, a thing +past all belief, their webs begin to grow green, and the cloth hanging +<i>in the loom</i> to put forth foliage like ivy. Part changes into +vines, and what were threads before, are <i>now</i> turned into vine +shoots. Vine branches spring from the warp, and the purple lends its +splendor to the tinted grapes.</p> + +<p>And now the day was past, and the time came on, which you could +neither call darkness nor light, but yet the <i>very</i> commencement of +the dubious night along with the light. The house seemed suddenly to +shake, and unctuous torches to burn, and the building to shine with +glowing fires, and the fictitious phantoms of savage wild beasts to +howl. Presently, the sisters are hiding themselves throughout the +smoking house, and in different places are avoiding the fires and the +light. While they are seeking a hiding-place, a membrane is +stretched over their small limbs, and covers their arms with light +wings; nor does the darkness suffer them to know by what means they have +lost their former shape. No feathers bear them up; yet they support +themselves on pellucid wings; and, endeavoring to speak, they utter a +voice very diminutive <i>even</i> in proportion to their bodies, and +express their low complaints with a squeaking sound. They frequent +houses, not woods; and, abhorring the light, they fly <i>abroad</i> by +night. And from the late evening do they derive their name.<a class="tag" name="tag4_53" id="tag4_53" href="#note4_53">53</a></p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableVII" id="bookIV_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Tisiphone</span>, being sent by Juno to the +Palace of Athamas, causes him to become mad; on which he dashes his son +Learchus to pieces against a wall. He then pursues his wife Ino, who +throws herself headlong from the top of a rock into the sea, with her +other son Melicerta in her arms: when Neptune, at the intercession of +Venus, changes them into Sea Deities. The attendants of Ino, who have +followed her in her flight, are changed, some into stone, and others +into birds, as they are about to throw themselves into the sea after +their mistress.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> then the Divine power of Bacchus +is famed +<span class="pagenum mckay">157</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 417-441</span> +throughout all +<span class="pagenum bell">138</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 417-444</span> +Thebes; and his aunt is everywhere telling of the great might of the new +Divinity; she alone,<a class="tag" name="tag4_54" id="tag4_54" +href="#note4_54">54</a> out of so many sisters, is free from sorrow, +except that which her sisters have occasioned. Juno beholds her, having +her soul elevated with her <i>children</i>, and her alliance with +Athamas, and the God her foster-child. She cannot brook this, and says +to herself, “Was the child of a concubine able to transform the Mæonian +sailors, and to overwhelm them in the sea, and to give the entrails of +the son to be torn to pieces by his mother, and to cover the three +daughters of Minyas with newly formed <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘wings!’">wings?</ins> Shall Juno be able to do nothing but +lament these griefs unrevenged? And is that sufficient for me? Is this +my only power? He himself instructs me what to do. It is right to be +taught even by an enemy. And what madness <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘man can do’">can do</ins>,<a class="tag" name="tag4_A" id="tag4_A" href="#note4_A">A</a> he shows enough, and more +than enough, by the slaughter of Pentheus. Why should not Ino, +<i>too</i>, be goaded by madness, and submit to an example kindred to +those of her sisters?â€</p> + +<p>There is a shelving path, shaded with dismal yew, which leads through +profound silence to the infernal abodes. <i>Here</i> languid Styx +exhales vapors; and the new-made ghosts descend this way, and phantoms +when they have enjoyed<a class="tag" name="tag4_55" id="tag4_55" +href="#note4_55">55</a> funeral rites. Horror and winter possess these +dreary regions far and wide, and the ghosts newly arrived know not where +the way is that leads to the Stygian city, <i>or</i> where is the dismal +palace of the black Pluto. The wide city has a thousand passages, and +gates open on every side. And as the sea <i>receives</i> the rivers for +the whole earth, so does that spot<a class="tag" name="tag4_56" id="tag4_56" href="#note4_56">56</a> receive +<span class="pagenum mckay">158</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 442-459</span> +all the souls; nor is it <i>too</i> little for any <i>amount of</i> +people, +<span class="pagenum bell">139</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 444-461</span> +nor does it perceive the crowd to increase. The shades wander about, +bloodless, without body and bones; and some throng the place of +judgment; some the abode of the infernal prince. Some pursue various +callings, in imitation of their former life; their own punishment +confines others.</p> + +<p>Juno, the daughter of Saturn, leaving her celestial habitation, +submits to go thither, so much does she give way to hatred and to anger. +Soon as she has entered there, and the threshold groans, pressed by her +sacred body, Cerberus raises his threefold mouth, and utters triple +barkings at the same moment. She summons the Sisters,<a class="tag" +name="tag4_57" id="tag4_57" href="#note4_57">57</a> begotten of +Night, terrible and implacable Goddesses. They are sitting before the +doors of the prison shut close with adamant, and are combing black +vipers from their hair. Soon as they recognize her amid the shades of +darkness, <i>these</i> Deities arise. This place is called “the +accursed.†Tityus<a class="tag" name="tag4_58" id="tag4_58" href="#note4_58">58</a> is giving his entrails to be mangled, and is +stretched over nine acres. By thee, Tantalus,<a class="tag" name="tag4_59" id="tag4_59" href="#note4_59">59</a> no waters are +reached, and the tree which overhangs thee, starts away. Sisyphus,<a +class="tag" name="tag4_60" id="tag4_60" href="#note4_60">60</a> +thou +<span class="pagenum mckay">159</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 460-481</span> +art either catching or thou art pushing on the stone destined to fall +again. Ixion<a class="tag" name="tag4_61" id="tag4_61" href="#note4_61">61</a> is whirled +<span class="pagenum bell">140</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 461-496</span> +round, and both follows and flies from himself. The granddaughters, too, +of Belus, who dared to plot the destruction of their cousins, are +everlastingly taking up the water which they lose. After the daughter of +Saturn has beheld all these with a stern look, and Ixion before all; +again, after him, looking upon Sisyphus, she says,</p> + +<p>“Why does he alone, of <i>all</i> the brothers, suffer eternal +punishment? and why does a rich palace contain the proud Athamas, who, +with his wife, has ever despised me?†And <i>then</i> she explains the +cause of her hatred and of her coming, and what it is she desires. What +she desires is, that the palace of Cadmus shall not stand, and that the +Sister <i>Furies</i> shall involve Athamas in crime. She mingles +together promises, commands, and entreaties, and solicits the Goddesses. +When Juno has thus spoken, Tisiphone, with her locks dishevelled as they +are, shakes them, and throws back from her face the snakes crawling over +it; and thus she says: “There is no need of a long preamble; whatever +thou commandest, consider it as done: leave these hateful realms, and +betake thyself to the air of a better heaven.â€</p> + +<p>Juno returns, overjoyed; and, preparing to enter heaven, Iris,<a +class="tag" name="tag4_62" id="tag4_62" href="#note4_62">62</a> +the daughter of Thaumas, purifies her by sprinkling water. Nor is there +any delay; the persecuting Tisiphone<a class="tag" name="tag4_63" id="tag4_63" href="#note4_63">63</a> takes a torch reeking with gore, +and puts on a cloak red with fluid blood, and is girt +<span class="pagenum mckay">160</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 482-511</span> +with twisted snakes, and <i>then</i> goes forth from her abode. Mourning +attends her as she goes, and Fright, and Terror, and Madness with +quivering features. She <i>now</i> reaches the threshold; the Æolian +door-posts are said to have shaken, and paleness tints the maple door; +the Sun, too, flies from the place. His wife is terrified at these +prodigies; Athamas, <i>too</i>, is alarmed, and they are <i>both</i> +preparing to leave the house. The baneful Erinnys stands in the way, and +blocks up the passage; and extending her arms twisted round with folds +of vipers, she shakes her locks; the snakes <i>thus</i> moved, emit a +sound. Some lying about her shoulders, some gliding around her temples, +send forth hissings and +<span class="pagenum bell">141</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 496-523</span> +vomit forth corruption, and dart forth their tongues. Then she tears +away two snakes from the middle of her hair, which, with pestilential +hand, she throws against them. But these creep along the breasts of Ino +and Athamas, and inspire them with direful intent. Nor do they inflict +any wounds upon their limbs; it is the mind that feels the direful +stroke. She had brought, too, with her a monstrous composition of liquid +poison, the foam of the mouth of Cerberus, and the venom of Echidna;<a +class="tag" name="tag4_64" id="tag4_64" href="#note4_64">64</a> +and purposeless aberrations, and the forgetfulness of a darkened +understanding, and crime, and tears, and rage, and the love of murder. +All these were blended together; and, mingled with fresh blood she had +boiled them in a hollow vessel of brass, stirred about with <i>a stalk +of</i> green hemlock. And while they are trembling, she throws the +maddening poison into the breasts of them both, and moves their inmost +vitals. Then repeatedly waving her torch in the same circle, she swiftly +follows up the flames <i>thus</i> excited with <i>fresh</i> flames. Thus +triumphant, and having executed her commands, she returns to the empty +realms of the great Pluto; and she ungirds the snakes which she had put +on. +<span class="pagenum mckay">161</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 512-533</span> +Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst +of his palace, “Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here +a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones.†And, in his +madness, he follows the footsteps of his wife, as though of a wild +beast; and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little +arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him +round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces<a +class="tag" name="tag4_65" id="tag4_65" href="#note4_65">65</a> +the bones of the infant against the hard stones. Then, at last, the +mother being roused (whether it was grief that caused it, or whether the +power of the poison spread <i>over her</i>), yells aloud, and runs away +distracted, with dishevelled hair; and carrying thee, Melicerta, +a little <i>child</i>, in +<span class="pagenum bell">142</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 523-542</span> +her bare arms, she cries aloud “Evoë, Bacche.†At the name of Bacchus, +Juno smiles, and says, “May thy foster-child<a class="tag" name="tag4_66" id="tag4_66" href="#note4_66">66</a> do thee this +service.â€</p> + +<p>There is a rock<a class="tag" name="tag4_67" id="tag4_67" href="#note4_67">67</a> that hangs over the sea; the lowest part is worn +hollow by the waves, and defends the waters covered <i>thereby</i> from +the rain. The summit is rugged, and stretches out its brow over the open +sea. This Ino climbs (madness gives her strength), and, restrained by no +fear, she casts herself and her burden<a class="tag" name="tag4_68" id="tag4_68" href="#note4_68">68</a> into the deep; the water, +struck <i>by her fall</i>, is white with foam. But Venus, pitying the +misfortunes of her guiltless granddaughter,<a class="tag" name="tag4_69" id="tag4_69" href="#note4_69">69</a> in soothing words +thus addresses her uncle: “O Neptune, thou God of the waters, +<span class="pagenum mckay">162</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 534-556</span> +to whom fell a power next after the <i>empire of</i> heaven, great +things indeed do I request; but do thou take compassion on my kindred, +whom thou seest being tossed upon the boundless Ionian sea;<a class="tag" name="tag4_70" id="tag4_70" href="#note4_70">70</a> and add +them to thy Deities. I have <i>surely</i> some interest with the +sea, if, indeed, I once was foam formed in the <ins class="corr +bell" title="Bell translates ‘hallowed’">hollowed</ins><a class="tag" name="tag4_B" id="tag4_B" href="#note4_B">B</a> deep, and my +Grecian name is derived<a class="tag" name="tag4_71" id="tag4_71" +href="#note4_71">71</a> from that.†Neptune yields to her request; and +takes away from them <i>all</i> that is mortal, and gives them a +venerable majesty; and alters both their name and their shape, and +<span class="pagenum bell">143</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 542-562</span> +calls Palæmon a Divinity,<a class="tag" name="tag4_72" id="tag4_72" href="#note4_72">72</a> together with his mother +Leucothoë.</p> + +<p>Her Sidonian attendants,<a class="tag" name="tag4_73" id="tag4_73" href="#note4_73">73</a> so far as they could, tracing the +prints of their feet, saw the last of them on the edge of the rock; and +thinking that there was no doubt of their death, they lamented the house +of Cadmus, with their hands tearing their hair and their garments; and +they threw the odium on the Goddess, as being unjust and too severe +against the concubine. Juno could not endure their reproaches, and said, +“I will make you yourselves tremendous memorials of my +displeasure.†Confirmation followed her words. For the one who had been +especially attached, said, “I will follow the queen into the sea;†+and about to give the leap, she could not be moved any way, and adhering +to the rock, <i>there</i> she stuck fast. Another, while she was +attempting to beat her breast with the accustomed blows, perceived in +the attempt that her arms had become stiff. One, as by chance she had +extended her +<span class="pagenum mckay">163</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 556-562</span> +hands over the waters of the sea, becoming a rock, held out her hands in +those same waters. You might see the fingers of another suddenly +hardened in her hair, as she was tearing her locks seized on the top of +her head. In whatever posture each was found <i>at the beginning of the +change</i>, in the same she remained. Some became birds; which, sprung +from Ismenus, skim along the surface of the waves in those seas, with +the wings which they have assumed.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of Ino, Athamas, and Melicerta appears to have been based upon +historical facts, as we are informed by Herodotus, Diodorus Siculus, and +Pausanias.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Athamas, the son of Æolus, and great-grandson of Deucalion, having, on +the death of Themisto, his first wife, married Ino, the daughter of +Cadmus, divorced her soon afterwards, to marry Nephele, by whom he had +Helle and <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Phrysus’">Phryxus</ins>. She having been divorced in her turn, he took +Ino back again, and by her had Learchus and <ins class="corr bell" +title="Bell reads ‘Melacerta’">Melicerta</ins>. Ino, not being able to +endure the presence of the children of Nephele, endeavored to destroy +them. The city of Thebes being at that time afflicted with famine, +<span class="pagenum bell">144</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 563-571</span> +which was said to have been caused by Ino, who ordered the seed to be +parched before it was sown, Athamas ordered the oracle of Delphi to be +consulted. The priests, either having been bribed, or the messengers +having been corrupted, word was brought, that, to remove this +affliction, the children of Nephele must be sacrificed.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Phryxus being warned of the designs of his stepmother, embarked in a +ship, with his sister Helle, and sailed for Colchis, where he met with a +kind reception from his kinsman Æetes. The young princess, however, +either becoming sea-sick, and leaning over the bulwarks of the vessel, +fell overboard and was drowned, or died a natural death in the passage +of the Hellespont, to which she gave its name from that circumstance. +Athamas, having discovered the deceitful conduct of Ino, in his rage +killed her son Learchus, and sought her, for the purpose of sacrificing +her to his vengeance. To avoid his fury, she fled with her son +Melicerta, and, being pursued, threw herself from a rock into the sea. +To console her relatives, the story was probably invented, that the Gods +had changed Ino and Melicerta into Sea Deities, under the names of +Leucothoë and Palæmon. Melicerta was afterwards worshipped in the Isle +of Tenedos, where children were offered to him in sacrifice. In his +honor, Glaucus established the Isthmian games, which were celebrated for +many ages at Corinth; and, being interrupted for a time, were revived by +Theseus, in honor of Neptune. Leucothoë was also worshipped at Rome, and +the Roman women used to offer up their vows to her for their brothers’ +children, not daring to supplicate the Goddess for their own, because +she had been unfortunate in hers. This Ovid tells us in the Sixth Book +of the Fasti. The Romans gave the name of Matuta to Ino, and Melicerta, +or Palæmon, was called Portunus.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">164</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 565-587</span> +<p class="explanation"> +The circumstance mentioned by Ovid, that some of Ino’s attendants were +changed into birds, and others into rocks, is, perhaps, only a poetical +method of saying that some of her attendants escaped, while others +perished with her.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableVIII" id="bookIV_fableVIII"> +FABLE VIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> misfortunes of his family oblige +Cadmus to leave Thebes, and to retire with his wife Hermione to Illyria, +where they are changed into serpents.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> son of Agenor knows not that his +daughter and his little grandson are <i>now</i> Deities of the sea. +Forced by sorrow, and a succession of calamities, and the prodigies +which, many in number, he had beheld, the founder flies from his city, +as though the <i>ill</i>-luck of the spot, and not his own, pressed +<i>hard</i> upon him, and driven, in a long series of wandering, he +reaches the coast of Illyria, with his exiled wife. And now, loaded with +woes and with years, while they are reflecting on the first disasters of +their house, and in their discourse are recounting their misfortunes, +Cadmus says, “Was that dragon a sacred one, that was pierced +<span class="pagenum bell">145</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 572-603</span> +by my spear, at the time when, setting out from Sidon, I sowed the +teeth of the dragon in the ground, a seed <i>till then</i> unknown? +If the care of the Gods avenges this with resentment so unerring, +I pray that I myself, as a serpent, may be lengthened out into an +extended belly.†<i>Thus</i> he says; and, as a serpent, he is +lengthened out into an extended belly, and perceives scales growing on +his hardened skin, and his black body become speckled with azure spots; +and he falls flat on his breast, and his legs, joined into one, taper +out by degrees into a thin round point. His arms are still remaining; +those arms which remain he stretches out; and, as the tears are flowing +down his face, still that of a man, he says, “Come hither, wife, come +hither, most unhappy one, and, while something of me yet remains, touch +me; and take my hand, while it is <i>still</i> a hand, <i>and</i> while +I am not a serpent all over.†He, indeed, desires to say more, but, on a +sudden, his tongue is divided into two parts. Nor are words in his power +when he offers <i>to</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">165</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 588-603</span> +<i>speak</i>; and as often as he attempts to utter any complaints, he +makes a hissing: this is the voice that Nature leaves him. His wife, +smiting her naked breast with her hand, cries aloud, “Stay, Cadmus! and +deliver thyself, unhappy one, from this monstrous form. Cadmus, what +means this? Where are thy feet? where are both thy shoulders and thy +hands? where is thy color and thy form, and, while I speak, <i>where</i> +all else <i>besides</i>? Why do ye not, celestial Gods, turn me as well +into a similar serpent?†<i>Thus</i> she spoke; he licked the face of +his wife, and crept into her dear bosom, as though he recognized her; +and gave her embraces, and reached her well-known neck.</p> + +<p>Whoever is by, (some attendants are present), is alarmed; but the +crested snakes soothe them with their slippery necks, and suddenly they +are two <i>serpents</i>, and in joined folds they creep along, until +they enter the covert of an adjacent grove. Now, too, do they neither +shun mankind, nor hurt them with wounds, and the gentle serpents keep in +mind what once they were.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +After Cadmus had reigned at Thebes many years, a conspiracy was +formed against him. Being driven from the throne, and his grandson +Pentheus assuming the crown, he and his wife Hermione retired into +Illyria, where, as Apollodorus says, he commanded the Illyrian army, and +at length was chosen king: on his death, the story here related by Ovid +was +<span class="pagenum bell">146</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 604-608</span> +invented. It is possible that it may have been based on the following +grounds:—</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The PhÅ“nicians were anciently called ‘Achivi,’ which name they still +retained after their establishment in Greece. ‘Chiva’ being also the +Hebrew, and perhaps PhÅ“nician word for ‘a serpent,’ the Greeks, probably +in reference to the PhÅ“nician origin of Cadmus, reported after his +death, that he and his wife were serpents; and in time, that +transformation may have been stated to have happened at the end of his +life. According to Aulus Gellius, the ancient inhabitants of Illyria had +two eyelids to each eye, and with their looks, when angered, they were +able to kill those whom they beheld <ins class="corr both" title="spelling unchanged">stedfastly</ins>. The Greeks hence called them +serpents and basilisks; and, it is not unlikely, that when Cadmus +retired among them, they said that he had become one of the Illyrians, +otherwise a dragon, or a serpent. All the ancient writers who mention +his history agree that Cadmus really did retire into Illyria, where he +first assisted the Enchelians in their war against the Illyrians. The +latter were defeated, and, to obtain a peace from the Enchelians, they +gave the crown to Cadmus; to which, on his death, his son Illyrus +succeeded. The historian Christodorus, quoted by Pausanias, +<span class="pagenum mckay">166</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 604-617</span> +says that he built the city of Nygnis, in the country of the +Enchelians.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Some writers have supposed, upon the authority of Euhemerus as quoted by +Eusebius that Cadmus was not the son of Agenor, but was one of his +officers, who eloped thence with Hermione, a singing girl. Others +suppose that Cadmus is not really a proper name, but that it signifies a +‘leader,’ or ‘conductor;’ and that he received the name from leading a +colony into Greece. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Bochard’; final ‘t’ invisible in Bell">Bochart</ins> says that he was +called Cadmus, because he came from the eastern part of PhÅ“nicia, which +is called in Scripture ‘Cadmonia,’ or ‘oriental;’ and that Hermione +probably received her name from Mount Hermon.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableIX" id="bookIV_fableIX"> +FABLE IX.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Perseus</span>, the son of Jupiter and Danaë, +having killed Medusa, carries her head into Africa, where the blood that +runs from it produces serpents. Atlas, king of that country, terrified +at the remembrance of an oracle, which had foretold that his golden +fruit should be taken by one of the sons of Jupiter, not only orders him +to depart, but even resorts to violence to drive him away, on which +Perseus shows him the Gorgon’s head, and changes him into a +mountain.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> yet their grandson, +<i>Bacchus</i> gave them both a great consolation, under this change of +form; whom India, subdued <i>by him</i>, worshipped <i>as a</i> God, +<i>and</i> whom Achaia honored with erected temples. Acrisius the son of +Abas,<a class="tag" name="tag4_74" id="tag4_74" href="#note4_74">74</a> descended +<span class="pagenum bell">147</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 608-644</span> +of the same race,<a class="tag" name="tag4_75" id="tag4_75" href="#note4_75">75</a> alone remained, to drive him from the walls of the +Argive city, and to bear arms against the God, and to believe him not to +be the offspring of Jove. Neither did he think Perseus to be the +offspring of Jupiter, whom Danaë had conceived in a shower of gold; but +soon (so great is the power of truth) Acrisius was sorry, both that he +had insulted the God, and that he had not acknowledged his grandson. The +one was now placed in heaven, while the other, bearing the memorable +spoil of the viperous monster, cut the yielding air with hissing wings; +and while the conqueror was hovering over the +<span class="pagenum mckay">167</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 617-652</span> +Libyan sands, bloody drops, from the Gorgon’s head, fell down, upon +receiving <i>which, the</i> ground quickened them into various serpents. +For this cause, that region is filled and infested with snakes.</p> + +<p>Carried thence, by the fitful winds, through boundless space, he is +borne now here, now there, just like a watery cloud, and, from the lofty +sky, looks down upon the earth, removed afar; and he flies over the +whole world. Three times he saw the cold Bears, thrice did he see the +claws of the Crab; ofttimes he was borne to the West, many a time to the +East. And now, the day declining, afraid to trust himself to the night, +he stopped in the Western part of the world, in the kingdom of Atlas; +and <i>there</i> he sought a little rest, until Lucifer should usher +forth the fires of Aurora, Aurora, the chariot of the day. Here was +Atlas, the son of Iapetus, surpassing all men in the vastness of his +body. Under this king was the extremity of the earth, and the sea which +holds its waters under the panting horses of the Sun, and receives the +wearied chariot. For him, a thousand flocks, and as many herds, +wandered over the pastures, and no neighboring places disturbed the +land. Leaves of the trees, shining with radiant gold, covered branches +of gold, <i>and</i> apples of gold. “My friend,†said Perseus to him, +“if the glory of a noble race influences thee, Jupiter is the author of +my descent; or if thou art an admirer of exploits, thou wilt admire +mine. I beg of thee hospitality, and a resting place.†The other +was mindful of an ancient oracle. The Parnassian Themis had given this +response: “A time will come, +<span class="pagenum bell">148</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 644-662</span> +Atlas, when thy tree shall be stripped of its gold, and a son of Jove +shall have the honor of the prize.†Dreading this, Atlas had enclosed +his orchard with solid walls, and had given it to be kept by a huge +dragon;<a class="tag" name="tag4_76" id="tag4_76" href="#note4_76">76</a> and expelled all strangers from his territories. +<i>To Perseus</i>, too, he says, “Far hence begone, lest the glory of +the exploits, to which thou falsely pretendest, and Jupiter as well, be +far from protecting thee.†He adds violence as well to his threats, and +tries to drive him from his doors, as he hesitates and mingles resolute +words with +<span class="pagenum mckay">168</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 653-662</span> +persuasive ones. Inferior in strength (for who could be a match for +Atlas in strength?), he says “Since my friendship is of so little value +to thee, accept <i>this</i> present;†and then, turning his face away, +he exposes on the left side the horrible features of Medusa. Atlas, +great as he is, becomes a mountain. Now his beard and his hair are +changed into woods; his shoulders and his hands become mountain ridges, +and what was formerly his head, is the summit on the top of the +mountain. His bones become stones; then, enlarged on every side, he +grows to an immense height (so you willed it, ye Gods), and the whole +heaven, with so many stars, rests upon him.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the seduction of Danaë, the mother of Perseus, by Jupiter, +in the form of a shower of gold, has been thus explained by some of the +ancient writers. Acrisius, hearing of a prediction that Danaë, his +daughter, should bring forth a child that would kill him, caused her to +be shut in a tower with brazen gates, or, according to some, in a +subterraneous chamber, covered with plates of that metal; which place, +according to Pausanias, remained till the time of Perilaus, the king of +Argos, by whom it was destroyed. The precautions of Acrisius were, +however, made unavailing by his brother PrÅ“tus; who, falling in love +with his niece, corrupted the guards with gold, and gained admission +into the tower. Danaë, being delivered of Perseus, her father caused +them to be exposed in a boat to the mercy of the waves. Being cast on +shore near Seriphus, the king, Polydectes, gave them a hospitable +reception, and took care of the education of Perseus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Diodorus Siculus says that the Gorgons were female warriors, who +inhabited the neighborhood of Lake Tritonis, in Libya. Pausanias +explains the story of Medusa, by saying that she ruled the people in +that neighborhood, and laid waste the lands of the nations in her +vicinity. Perseus, having fled, with some companions, from Peloponnesus, +surprised her by night, and killed her, together with her escort. The +next morning, the beauty of her face appeared so remarkable that he cut +it off, and afterwards +<span class="pagenum bell">149</span> +took it with him to Greece, to show it to the people, who could not look +on it without being struck with astonishment. On this explanation we may +remark, that if it is true, Perseus must have had more skill than the +surgeons of our day, in being able to preserve the beauty of the +features so long after death.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Again, many of the ancient historians, with Pliny, Athenæus, and +Solinus, think that the Gorgons were wild women of a savage nature, +living in caves and forests, who, falling on wayfarers, committed +dreadful atrocities. Palæphatus and Fulgentius think that the Gorgons +really were three young women, possessed of great wealth, which they +employed in a very careful manner; Phorcus, +<span class="pagenum mckay">169</span> +their father, having left them three islands, and a golden statue of +Minerva, which they placed in their common treasury. They had one +minister in common for the management of their affairs, who used to go +for that purpose from one island to another, whence arose the story that +they had but one eye, and that they lent it to one another alternately. +Perseus, a fugitive from Argos, hearing of the golden statue, +determined to obtain it; and with that view, seized their minister, or, +in the allegorical language of the poets, took their eye away from them. +He then sent them word, that if they would give him the statue, he would +deliver up his captive, and threatened, in case of refusal, to put him +to death. Stheno and Euryale consented to this; but Medusa resisting, +she was killed by Perseus. Upon his obtaining the statue, which was +called the Gorgon, or Gorgonian, he broke it in pieces, and placed the +head on the prow of his ship. As the sight of this, and the fame of the +exploits of Perseus, spread terror everywhere, and caused passive +submission to him, the fable originated, that with Medusa’s head he +turned his enemies into stone. Landing in the Isle of Seriphus, the king +fled, with all his subjects; and, on entering the chief city, finding +nothing but the bare stones there, he caused the report to be spread, +that he had petrified the inhabitants.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Servius, in his Commentary on the Æneid, quotes an opinion of Ammonius +Serenus, that the Gorgons were young women of such beauty as to make a +great impression on all that saw them; for which reason they were said +to turn them into statues. Le Clerc thinks that the story bears +reference to a voyage which the PhÅ“nicians had made in ancient times to +the coast of Africa, whence they brought a great number of horses; and +that the name ‘Perseus’ comes from the PhÅ“nician word ‘pharscha,’ ‘a +horseman;’ while the horse Pegasus was so called from the PhÅ“nician +‘pagsous,’ ‘a bridled horse,’ according to the conjecture of Bochart. +Alexander of Myndus, a historian quoted by Athenæus, says that +Libya had an animal which the natives called ‘gorgon;’ that it resembled +a sheep, and with its breath killed all those who approached it; that a +tuft of hair fell over its eyes, which was so heavy as to be removed +with difficulty, for the purpose of seeing the objects around it; but +that when it was removed, by its looks it struck dead any person whom it +gazed upon. He says, that in the war with Jugurtha, some of the soldiers +of Marius were thus slain by it, and that it was at last killed by means +of arrows discharged from a great distance.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Gorgons are said to have inhabited the Gorgades, islands in the +<span class="pagenum bell">150</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 663-670</span> +Æthiopian Sea, the chief of which was called Cerna, according to +Diodorus and Palæphatus. It is not improbable that the Cape Verde +Islands were called by this name. The fable of the transformation of +Atlas into the mountain of that name may possibly have been based upon +the simple fact, that Perseus killed him in the neighborhood of that +range, from which circumstance it derived the name which it has borne +ever since. The golden apples, which Atlas guarded with so much care, +were probably either gold mines, which Atlas had discovered in the +mountains of his country, and had secured with armed men and watchful +dogs; or sheep, whose fleeces were extremely valuable for their +fineness; or else oranges and lemons, and other fruits peculiar to very +hot climates, +<span class="pagenum mckay">170</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 663-673</span> +for the production of which the poets especially remarked the country of +Tingitana (the modern Tangier), as being very celebrated.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookIV_fableX" id="bookIV_fableX"> +FABLE X.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Perseus</span>, after his victory over Atlas, +and his change into a mountain, arrives in Æthiopia, at the time when +Andromeda is exposed to be devoured by a monster. He kills it, and hides +the Gorgon’s head under the sand, covered with sea-weed and plants; +which are immediately turned into coral. He then renders thanks to the +Gods for his victory, and marries Andromeda. At the marriage feast he +relates the manner in which he had killed Medusa; and the reason why +Minerva had changed her hair into serpents.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> grandson of Hippotas<a class="tag" name="tag4_77" id="tag4_77" href="#note4_77">77</a> had shut +up the winds in their eternal prison; and Lucifer, who reminds +<i>men</i> of their work, was risen in the lofty sky, in all his +splendor. Resuming his wings, <i>Perseus</i> binds his feet with them on +either side, and is girt with his crooked weapon, and cleaves the liquid +air with his winged ankles. Nations innumerable being left behind, +around and below, he beholds the people of the Æthiopians and the lands +of Cepheus. There the unjust Ammon<a class="tag" name="tag4_78" id="tag4_78" href="#note4_78">78</a> had ordered the innocent Andromeda +to suffer punishment for her mother’s tongue.<a class="tag" name="tag4_79" id="tag4_79" href="#note4_79">79</a></p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">151</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 671-700</span> + +<p><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘So soon as’; wording regularized for consistency">Soon as</ins> the descendant of Abas beheld +her, with her arms bound to the hard rock, but that the light breeze was +moving her hair, and her eyes were running +<span class="pagenum mckay">171</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 674-700</span> +with warm<a class="tag" name="tag4_80" id="tag4_80" href="#note4_80">80</a> tears, he would have thought her to be a work of +marble. Unconsciously he takes fire, and is astonished; captivated with +the appearance of her beauty, <i>thus</i> beheld, he almost forgets to +wave his wings in the air. When he has lighted <ins class="corr mckay" +title="not italicized in McKay"><i>on the ground</i></ins>, he says, +“O thou, undeserving of these chains, but <i>rather</i> of those by +which anxious lovers are mutually united, disclose to me, inquiring both +the name of this land and of thyself, and why thou wearest <i>these</i> +chains.†At first she is silent, and, a virgin, she does not dare +address<a class="tag" name="tag4_81" id="tag4_81" href="#note4_81">81</a> a man; and with her hands she would have concealed +her blushing features, if she had not been bound; her eyes, ’twas +<i>all</i> she could do, she filled with gushing tears. Upon his often +urging her, lest she should seem unwilling to confess her offence, she +told the name both <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘of the country and of herself’">of her country and herself</ins>, and how +great had been the confidence of her mother in her beauty. All not yet +being told, the waves roared, and a monster approaching,<a class="tag" +name="tag4_82" id="tag4_82" href="#note4_82">82</a> appeared with +its head raised out of the boundless ocean, and covered the wide expanse +with its breast. The virgin shrieks aloud; her mournful father, and her +distracted mother, are there, both wretched, but the latter more justly +so. Nor do they bring her any help with them, but tears suitable to the +occasion, and lamentations, and they cling round her body, bound <i>to +the rock</i>.</p> + +<p>Then thus the stranger says: “Plenty of time will be left for your +tears <i>hereafter</i>, the season for giving aid is <i>but</i> short. +If I were to demand her <i>in marriage</i>, I, Perseus, the son of +Jove, and of her whom, in prison, Jove embraced in the impregnating +<i>shower of</i> gold, Perseus, the conqueror of the Gorgon with her +serpent +<span class="pagenum mckay">172</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 700-726</span> +locks, and who has dared, on waving +<span class="pagenum bell">152</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 700-729</span> +wings, to move through the ætherial air, I should surely be +preferred before all as your son-in-law. To so many recommendations I +endeavor to add merit (if only the Deities favor me). I <i>only</i> +stipulate that she may be mine, <i>if</i> preserved by my valor<ins +class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.â€</ins> +Her parents embrace the condition, (for who could hesitate?) and they +entreat <i>his aid</i>, and promise as well, the kingdom as a dowry. +Behold! as a ship onward speeding, with the beak fixed <i>in its +prow</i>, plows the waters, impelled by the perspiring arms<a class="tag" name="tag4_83" id="tag4_83" href="#note4_83">83</a> of +youths; so the monster, moving the waves by the impulse of its breast, +was as far distant from the rocks, as <i>that distance</i> in the mid +space of air, which a Balearic string can pass with the whirled plummet +of lead; when suddenly the youth, spurning the earth with his feet, rose +on high into the clouds. As the shadow of the hero was seen on the +surface of the sea, the monster vented its fury on the shadow <i>so</i> +beheld. And as the bird of Jupiter,<a class="tag" name="tag4_84" id="tag4_84" href="#note4_84">84</a> when he has espied on the <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘salient’; Ovid IV.714 is ‘vacuo’">silent</ins> plain a serpent exposing its livid back to the +sun, seizes it behind; and lest it should turn upon him its raging +mouth, fixes his greedy talons in its scaly neck; so did the winged +<i>hero</i>, in his rapid flight through the yielding <i>air</i>, press +the back of the monster, and the descendant of Inachus thrust his sword +up to the very hilt in its right shoulder, as it roared aloud.</p> + +<p>Tortured by the grievous wound, it sometimes raises itself aloft in +the air, sometimes it plunges beneath the waves, sometimes it wheels +about, just like a savage boar, which a pack of hounds in full cry +around him affrights. With swift wings he avoids the eager bites<a class="tag" name="tag4_85" id="tag4_85" href="#note4_85">85</a> <i>of +the monster</i>, and, with his crooked sword, one while wounds its back +covered with hollow shells, where it is exposed, at another time the +ribs of its sides, and now, +<span class="pagenum mckay">173</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 726-756</span> +where its tapering tail terminates in <i>that of</i> a fish. The monster +vomits forth from its mouth streams mingled with red blood; its wings, +<i>made</i> heavy <i>by it</i>, are wet with the +<span class="pagenum bell">153</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 729-762</span> +spray. Perseus, not daring any longer to trust himself on his dripping +pinions,<a class="tag" name="tag4_86" id="tag4_86" href="#note4_86">86</a> beholds a rock, which with its highest top projects +from the waters <i>when</i> becalmed, <i>but is now</i> covered by the +troubled sea. Resting on that, and clinging to the upper ridge<a class="tag" name="tag4_87" id="tag4_87" href="#note4_87">87</a> of the +rock with his left hand, three or four times he thrusts his sword +through its entrails aimed at <i>by him</i>. A shout, with +applause, fills the shores and the lofty abodes of the Gods. Cassiope +and Cepheus, the father, rejoice, and salute him as their son-in-law, +and confess that he is the support and the preserver of their house.</p> + +<p>Released from her chains, the virgin walks along, both the reward and +the cause of his labors. He himself washes his victorious hands in water +taken <i>from the sea</i>; and that it may not injure the snake-bearing +head with the bare sand, he softens the ground with leaves; and strews +some weeds produced beneath the sea, and lays upon them the face of +Medusa, the daughter of Phorcys. The fresh weeds, being still alive, +imbibed the poison of the monster in their spongy pith, and hardened by +its touch; and felt an unwonted stiffness in their branches and their +leaves. But the Nymphs of the sea attempt the wondrous feat on many +<i>other</i> weeds, and are pleased at the same result; and raise seed +again from them scattered on the waves. Even now the same nature remains +in the coral, that it receives hardness from contact with the air; and +what was a plant in the sea, out of the sea becomes stone.</p> + +<p>To three Deities he erects as many altars of turf; the left one to +Mercury; the right to thee, warlike Virgin; the altar of Jove is in the +middle. A cow is sacrificed to Minerva; a calf to the +wing-footed <i>God, and</i> a bull to thee, greatest of the Deities. +Forthwith he takes +<span class="pagenum mckay">174</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 757-783</span> +Andromeda, and the reward of an achievement so great, without any dowry. +Hymenæus and Cupid wave their torches before them; the fires are heaped +with abundant perfumes. Garlands, too, are hanging from the houses: +flageolets and lyres, and pipes, and songs resound, the happy tokens of +a joyous mind. The folding-doors thrown open, +<span class="pagenum bell">154</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 762-787</span> +the entire gilded halls are displayed, and the nobles of king Cepheus +sit down at a feast furnished with splendid preparations. After they +have done the feast, and have cheered their minds with the gifts of the +generous Bacchus, the grandson of Abas inquires the customs and habits +of the country. Immediately one <i>of them</i>, Lyncides, tells him, on +his inquiring, the manners and habits of the inhabitants. Soon as he had +told him these things, he said, “Now, most valiant Perseus, tell us, +I beseech thee, with how great valor and by what arts thou didst +cut off the head all hairy with serpents.†The descendant of Abas tells +them that there is a spot situate beneath cold Atlas, safe in its +bulwark of a solid mass; that, in the entrance of this, dwelt the two +sisters, the daughters of Phorcys, who shared the use of a single eye; +that he stealthily, by sly craft, while it was being handed over,<a +class="tag" name="tag4_88" id="tag4_88" href="#note4_88">88</a> +obtained possession of this by putting his hand in the way; and that +through rocks far remote, and pathless, and bristling with woods on +their craggy sides, he had arrived at the abodes of the Gorgons, and saw +everywhere, along the fields and the roads, statues of men and wild +beasts turned into stone, from their <i>natural form</i>, at the sight +of Medusa; yet that he himself, from the reflection on the brass of the +shield<a class="tag" name="tag4_89" id="tag4_89" href="#note4_89">89</a> which his left hand bore, beheld +<span class="pagenum mckay">175</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">IV. 783-803</span> +the visage of the horrible Medusa; and that, while a sound sleep held +her and her serpents <i>entranced</i>, he took the head from off the +neck; and that Pegasus and his brother,<a class="tag" name="tag4_90" id="tag4_90" href="#note4_90">90</a> fleet with wings, were produced +from the blood of <i>her</i>, their mother. He added, too, the dangers +of his lengthened +<span class="pagenum bell">155</span> +<span class="linenum bell">IV. 787-803</span> +journey, <i>themselves</i> no fiction;<a class="tag" name="tag4_91" id="tag4_91" href="#note4_91">91</a> what seas, what lands he had +seen beneath him from on high, and what stars he had reached with his +waving wings.</p> + +<p>Yet, before it was expected,<a class="tag" name="tag4_92" id="tag4_92" href="#note4_92">92</a> he was silent; <i>whereupon</i> one +of the nobles rejoined, inquiring why she alone, of the sisters, wore +snakes mingled alternately with her hair. “Stranger,†said he, “since +thou inquirest on a matter worthy to be related, hear the cause of the +thing thou inquirest after. She was the most famed for her beauty, and +the coveted hope of many wooers; nor, in the whole of her person, was +any part more worthy of notice than her hair: I have met <i>with +some</i> who said they had seen it. The sovereign of the sea is said to +have deflowered her in the Temple of Minerva. The daughter of Jove +turned away, and covered her chaste eyes with her shield. And that this +might not be unpunished, she changed the hair of the Gorgon into hideous +snakes. Now, too, that she may alarm her surprised foes with terror, she +bears in front upon her breast, those snakes which she <i>thus</i> +produced<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.â€</ins></p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">176</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is extremely difficult to surmise what may have given rise to many of +the fabulous circumstances here narrated. It has been conjectured by +some, that Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor, the two horses produced +from the blood of Medusa, were really two ships in the harbor of the +island where that princess was residing at the time when she was slain +by Perseus; and that, on that event, they were seized by him. Perhaps +they had the figure of a winged horse on the prow; from which +circumstance the fable had its origin. Possibly, the story of the +production of coral from the blood of Medusa may have originated in the +fact, that on the defeat of the Gorgons, navigation became more safe, +and, consequently, the fishing for coral more common that it had been +before.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the exposure of Andromeda may be founded on the fact, that +she was contracted by her parents against her will to some fierce, +piratical prince, who infested the adjacent seas with his depredations; +and that the betrothal was made, on condition that he should +<span class="pagenum bell">156</span> +allow the realms of her father, Cepheus, to be free and undisturbed; +Perseus, being informed of this, slew the pirate, and Phineus having +been kept in a state of inactivity through dread of the valor of +Perseus, it was fabled that he had been changed into a stone. This +interpretation of the story is the one suggested by Vossius.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Some writers think, that Phineus, the uncle of Andromeda, was the enemy +from which she was rescued by Perseus, and who is here represented under +the form of a monster; while others suggest that this monster was the +name of the ship in which the pirate before mentioned was to have +carried away Andromeda.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note4_1" id="note4_1" href="#tag4_1">1.</a> +<i>Minyas.</i>]—Ver. 1. Alcithoë was the daughter of Minyas, who, +according to some, was the son of Orchomenus, according to others, his +father. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Pausanius’">Pausanias</ins> says that the BÅ“otians, over whom he +reigned, were called ‘Minyæ’ from him; but he makes no allusion to the +females who are here mentioned by Ovid.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_2" id="note4_2" href="#tag4_2">2.</a> +<i>Rites.</i>]—Ver. 1. ‘Orgia:’ this was the original name of the +Dionysia, or festival of Bacchus; but in time the word came to be +applied to any occasion of festivity.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_3" id="note4_3" href="#tag4_3">3.</a> +<i>Her sisters.</i>]—Ver. 3. The names of the sisters of Alcithoë, +according to Plutarch, were Aristippe and Leucippe. The names of the +three, according to Ælian, were <ins class="corr both" title="text unchanged: error for ‘Alcithoë’?">Alcathoë</ins>, Leucippe, and +Aristippe, who is sometimes called Arsinoë. The latter author says, that +the truth of the case was, that they were decent women, fond of their +husbands and families, who preferred staying at home, and attending to +their domestic concerns, to running after the new rites; on which it was +said, by their enemies, that Bacchus had punished them.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_4" id="note4_4" href="#tag4_4">4.</a> +<i>Work-baskets.</i>]—Ver. 10. The ‘calathus,’ which was called by +the Greeks <span class="greek" title="kalathos, kalathiskos">κάλαθος, καλαθίσκος</span>, and <span class="greek" title="talaros">τάλαÏος</span>, generally signifies the basket in which +women placed their work, and especially the materials used for spinning. +They were generally made of osiers and reeds, but sometimes of more +valuable materials, such as silver, perhaps in filagree work. ‘Calathi’ +were also used for carrying fruits and flowers. Virgil (Ecl. v. l. 71) +speaks of cups for holding wine, under the name of ‘Calathi.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_5" id="note4_5" href="#tag4_5">5.</a> +<i>Bromius.</i>]—Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Bromius, from <span +class="greek" title="bremô">βÏέμω</span>, ‘to cry out,’ or ‘shout,’ +from the yells and noise made by his worshippers, whose peculiar cries +were, <span class="greek" title="Euoi Bakche, ô Iakche, Iô Bakche, Euoi saboi">Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, Ιώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– σαβοῖ</span>.<a name="tag4_C" id="tag4_C" href="#note4_C">C</a> ‘Evoë, Bacche! +O, Iacche! Io, Bacche! Evoë sabæ!’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_6" id="note4_6" href="#tag4_6">6.</a> +<i>Lyæus.</i>]—Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Lyæus, from the Greek +word, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads κύειν ‘kuein’ for ‘luein’">λύειν</ins>, ‘to loosen,’ or ‘relax,’ because wine dispels +care.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_7" id="note4_7" href="#tag4_7">7.</a> +<i>That had two mothers.</i>]—Ver. 12. The word ‘bimater’ seems to +have been fancied by Ovid as an appropriate epithet for Bacchus, Jupiter +having undertaken the duties of a mother for him, in the latter months +of gestation.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_8" id="note4_8" href="#tag4_8">8.</a> +<i><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Phyoneus’">Thyoneus</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 13. Bacchus was called +Thyoneus, either from Semele, his mother, one of whose names was Thyone, +or from the Greek, <span class="greek" title="thuein">θύειν</span>, +‘to be frantic,’ from which origin the Bacchanals also received their +name of Thyades.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_9" id="note4_9" href="#tag4_9">9.</a> +<i>Lenæus.</i>]—Ver. 14. From the Greek word <span class="greek" +title="lênos">λῆνος</span>, ‘a wine-press.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_10" id="note4_10" href="#tag4_10">10.</a> +<i>Nyctelius.</i>]—Ver. 15. From the Greek word <span class="greek" title="nux">νὺξ</span>, ‘night,’ because his orgies were +celebrated by night. Eleleus is from the shout, or ‘huzza’ of the +Greeks, which was <span class="greek" title="eleleu">ελελεῦ</span>.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_11" id="note4_11" href="#tag4_11">11.</a> +<i>Iacchus.</i>]—Ver. 15. From the Greek <span class="greek" +title="iachê">ἰαχὴ</span>, ‘clamor,’ or ‘noise.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_12" id="note4_12" href="#tag4_12">12.</a> +<i>Evan.</i>]—Ver. 15. From the exclamation, <span class="greek" +title="Euoi">Εá½Î¿á¿–</span>, or ‘Evoë’ which the Bacchanals used in +performing his orgies.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_13" id="note4_13" href="#tag4_13">13.</a> +<i>Lycurgus.</i>]—Ver. 22. He was a king of Thrace, who having +slighted the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with madness, and hewed +off his own legs with a hatchet, and, according to Apollodorus, +mistaking his own son Dryas for a vine, destroyed him with the same +weapon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_14" id="note4_14" href="#tag4_14">14.</a> +<i>Unseasonable labor.</i>]—Ver. 32. ‘Minerva;’ the name of the +Goddess Minerva is here used for the exercise of the art of spinning, of +which she was the patroness. The term ‘intempestiva’ is appropriately +applied, as the arts of industry and frugality, which were first +invented by Minerva, but ill accorded with the idle and vicious mode of +celebrating the festival of Bacchus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_15" id="note4_15" href="#tag4_15">15.</a> +<i>Dercetis.</i>]—Ver. 45. Lucian, speaking of Dercetis, or +Derceto, says, ‘I have seen in PhÅ“nicia a statue of this goddess, of a +very singular kind. From the middle upwards, it represents a woman, but +below it terminates in a fish. The statue of her, which is shown at +Hieropolis, represents her wholly as a woman.’ He further says, that the +temple of this last city was thought by some to have been built by +Semiramis, who consecrated it not to Juno, as is generally believed, but +to her own mother, Derceto. Atergatis was another name of this Goddess. +She was said, by an illicit amour, to have been the mother of Semiramis, +and in despair, to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on +which she was changed into a fish.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_16" id="note4_16" href="#tag4_16">16.</a> +<i>Palestine.</i>]—Ver. 46. Palæstina, or Philistia, in which +Ascalon was situate, was a part of Syria, lying in its south-western +extremity.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_17" id="note4_17" href="#tag4_17">17.</a> +<i>How a Naiad.</i>]—Ver. 49. The Naiad here mentioned is supposed +to have been a Nymph of the Island of the Sun, called also Nosola, +between Taprobana (the modern Ceylon) and the coast of Carmania (perhaps +Coromandel), who was in the habit of changing such youths as fell into +her hands into fishes. As a reward for her cruelty, she herself was +changed into a fish by the Sun.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_18" id="note4_18" href="#tag4_18">18.</a> +<i>Most beauteous of youths.</i>]—Ver. 55. Clarke translates +‘juvenum pulcherrimus alter,’ ‘one of the most handsome of all the young +fellows.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_19" id="note4_19" href="#tag4_19">19.</a> +<i>Her lofty city.</i>]—Ver. 57. The magnificence of ancient +Babylon has been remarked by many ancient writers, from Herodotus +downwards. Its walls are said to have been 60 miles in compass, 87 feet +in thickness, and 350 feet in height.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_20" id="note4_20" href="#tag4_20">20.</a> +<i>Walls of brick.</i>]—Ver. 58. The walls were built by Semiramis +of bricks dried in the sun, cemented together with layers of +bitumen.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_21" id="note4_21" href="#tag4_21">21.</a> +<i>The tomb of Ninus.</i>]—Ver. 88. According to Diodorus Siculus, +the sepulchre of Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was ten stadia in +length, and nine in depth; it had the appearance of a vast citadel, and +was at a considerable distance from the city of Babylon. Commentators +have expressed some surprise that Ovid here uses the word ‘busta,’ for +‘tomb,’ as the place of meeting for these chaste lovers, as the +prostitutes of Rome used to haunt the ‘busta,’ or ‘tombs;’ whence they +obtained the epithet of ‘bustuariæ.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_22" id="note4_22" href="#tag4_22">22.</a> +<i>The lead decaying.</i>]—Ver. 122. ‘Fistula’ here means ‘a +water-pipe.’ Vitruvius speaks of three methods of conveying water; by +channels of masonry, earthen pipes, and leaden pipes. The latter were +smaller, and more generally used; to them reference is here made. They +were formed by bending plates of lead into a form, not cylindrical, but +the section of which was oblong, and tapering towards the top like a +pear. The description here given, though somewhat homely, is extremely +natural, and, as frequent experience shows us, depicts the results when +the soldering of a water-pipe has become decayed.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_23" id="note4_23" href="#tag4_23">23.</a> +<i>Paler than box-wood.</i>]—Ver. 134. From the light color of +boxwood, the words ‘buxo pallidiora,’ ‘paler than boxwood,’ became a +proverbial expression among the Romans.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_24" id="note4_24" href="#tag4_24">24.</a> +<i>The sea which trembles.</i>]—Ver. 136. The ripple, or shudder, +which runs along the surface of the sea, when a breath of wind is +stirring in a calm, is very beautifully described here, and is worthy of +notice.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_25" id="note4_25" href="#tag4_25">25.</a> +<i>The ivory sheath.</i>]—Ver. 148. The ‘vagina,’ or ‘sheath’ of +the sword, was often highly decorated; and we learn from Homer and +Virgil, as well as Ovid, that ivory was much used for that purpose. The +sheath was worn by the Greeks and Romans on the left side of the body, +so as to enable them to draw the sword from it, by passing the right +hand in front of the body, to take hold of the hilt, with the thumb next +to the blade.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_26" id="note4_26" href="#tag4_26">26.</a> +<i>Is black.</i>]—Ver. 165. He thus accounts for the deep purple +hue of the mulberry which, before the event mentioned here, he says was +white.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_27" id="note4_27" href="#tag4_27">27.</a> +<i>Leuconoë began.</i>]—Ver. 168. It is worthy of remark, how +strongly the affecting tale of Pyramus and Thisbe contrasts with the +loose story of the loves of Mars and Venus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_28" id="note4_28" href="#tag4_28">28.</a> +<i>The son of Juno.</i>]—Ver. 173. Vulcan is called ‘Junonigena,’ +because, according to some, he was the son of Juno alone. Other writers, +however, say that he was the only son of Jupiter and Juno.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_29" id="note4_29" href="#tag4_29">29.</a> +<i>The folding doors.</i>]—Ver. 185. The plural word ‘valvæ’ is +often used to signify a door, or entrance, because among the ancients +each doorway generally contained two doors folding together. The +internal doors even of private houses were bivalve; hence, as in the +present case, we often read of the folding doors of a bed-chamber. Each +of these doors or valves was usually wide enough to permit persons to +pass each other in egress and ingress without opening the other door as +well. Sometimes each valve was double, folding like our +window-shutters.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_30" id="note4_30" href="#tag4_30">30.</a> +<i>Cytherean.</i>]—Ver. 190. Cythera was an island on the southern +coast of Laconia; where Venus was supposed to have landed, after she had +risen from the sea. It was dedicated to her worship.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_31" id="note4_31" href="#tag4_31">31.</a> +<i>Hyperion.</i>]—Ver. 192. He was the son of CÅ“lus, or Uranus, +and the father of the Sun. The name of Hyperion is, however, often given +by the poets to the Sun himself.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_32" id="note4_32" href="#tag4_32">32.</a> +<i>Rhodos.</i>]—Ver. 204. She was a damsel of the Isle of Rhodes, +the daughter of Neptune, and, according to some, of Venus. She was +greatly beloved by Apollo, to whom she bore seven children.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_33" id="note4_33" href="#tag4_33">33.</a> +<i>Beauteous mother.</i>]—Ver. 205. This was Persa, the daughter +of Oceanus, and the mother of the enchantress Circe, who is here called +‘Ææa,’ from Ææa, a city and peninsula of Colchis. Circe is referred +to more at length in the 14th Book of the Metamorphoses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_34" id="note4_34" href="#tag4_34">34.</a> +<i>Perfume-bearing.</i>]—Ver. 209. Being born in Arabia, the +producer of all kinds of spices and perfumes, which were much in request +among the ancients, for the purposes of sacrifice.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_35" id="note4_35" href="#tag4_35">35.</a> +<i>Produced.</i>]—Ver. 210. Eurynome was the wife of Orchamus, and +was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_36" id="note4_36" href="#tag4_36">36.</a> +<i>Achæmenian.</i>]—Ver. 212. Persia is called Achæmenian, from +Achæmenes, one of its former kings.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_37" id="note4_37" href="#tag4_37">37.</a> +<i>Ancient Belus.</i>]—Ver. 213. The order of descent is thus +reckoned from Belus; Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘Persus’">Perseus</ins>, Bachæmon, Achæmenes, and +Orchamus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_38" id="note4_38" href="#tag4_38">38.</a> +<i>Ambrosia.</i>]—Ver. 215. Ambrosia was said to be the food of +the Deities, and nectar their drink.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_39" id="note4_39" href="#tag4_39">39.</a> +<i>Beauty of the God.</i>]—Ver. 233. Clarke translates, ‘Virgo +victa <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘uitore’">nitore</ins> Dei.’ ‘The young lady—charmed with the +spruceness of the God.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_40" id="note4_40" href="#tag4_40">40.</a> +<i>For the love of the Sun.</i>]—Ver. 234. This remark is added, +to show that the God had not been sufficiently cautious in his courtship +of her sister to conceal it from the observation of Clytie.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_41" id="note4_41" href="#tag4_41">41.</a> +<i>Reach the skies.</i>]—Ver. 251. That is to say, ‘You shall +arise from the earth as a tree bearing frankincense: the gums of which, +burnt in sacrifice to the Gods, shall reach the heavens with their sweet +odors.’ Persia and Arabia have been celebrated by the poets, ancient and +modern, for their great fertility in frankincense and other aromatic +plants.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_42" id="note4_42" href="#tag4_42">42.</a> +<i>Like a violet.</i>]—Ver. 268. This cannot mean the large yellow +plant which is called the sunflower. The small aromatic flower which we +call heliotrope, with its violet hue and delightful perfume, more nearly +answers the description. The larger flower probably derived its name +from the resemblance which it bears to the sun, surrounded with rays, as +depicted by the ancient painters.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_43" id="note4_43" href="#tag4_43">43.</a> +<i>Shepherd of Ida.</i>]—Ver. 277. This may mean either Daphnis of +Crete, or of Phrygia; for in both those countries there was a mountain +named Ida.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_44" id="note4_44" href="#tag4_44">44.</a> +<i>The Curetes.</i>]—Ver. 282. According to Dionysius of +Halicarnassus, the Curetes were the ancient inhabitants of Crete. We may +here remark, that the story of their springing from the earth after a +shower of rain, seems to have no other foundation than the fact of their +having been of the race of the Titans; that is, they were descended from +Uranus, or CÅ“lus and Tita, by which names were meant the heaven and the +earth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_45" id="note4_45" href="#tag4_45">45.</a> +<i>Smilax.</i>]—Ver. 283. The dictionary meanings given for this +word are—1. Withwind, a kind of herb. 2. The yew +tree. 3. A kind of oak. The Nymph was probably supposed to +have been changed into the first.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_46" id="note4_46" href="#tag4_46">46.</a> +<i>Lycian.</i>]—Ver. 296. Lycia was a province of Asia Minor, on +the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Caria was another province, +adjoining to Lycia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_47" id="note4_47" href="#tag4_47">47.</a> +<i>Citorian boxwood.</i>]—Ver. 311. Citorus, or Cythorus, was a +mountain of Paphlagonia, famous for the excellence of the wood of the +box trees that grow there. The Greeks and Romans made their combs of it. +The Egyptians used them made of ivory and wood, and toothed on one side +only; those of the Greeks had teeth on both sides. Great care was +usually taken of the hair; to go with it uncombed was a sign of +affliction.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_48" id="note4_48" href="#tag4_48">48.</a> +<i>The aiding cymbals.</i>]—Ver. 333. The witches and magicians, +in ancient times, and especially those of Thessaly, professed to be +able, with their charms and incantations, to bring the moon down from +heaven. The truth of these assertions being commonly believed, at the +period of an eclipse it was supposed by the multitude that the moon was +being subjected to the spells of these magicians, and that she was +struggling (<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘laborat’">laborabat</ins>) against them, on which the sound of drums, +trumpets, and cymbals was resorted to, to distract the attention of the +moon, and to drown the charms repeated by the enchanters, for which +reason, the instruments employed for the purpose were styled ‘<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘auxiliaries’">auxiliares</ins>.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_49" id="note4_49" href="#tag4_49">49.</a> +<i>As when the Sun.</i>]—Ver. 349. Bailey gives this explanation +of the passage,— ‘The eyes of the Nymph seemed to sparkle and +shine, just as the rays of the sun in a clear sky when a looking-glass +is placed against them, for then they seem most splendid, and contract +the fire.’ From the mention of the eyes of the Nymph burning ‘flagrant,’ +we might be almost justified in concluding that ‘speculum’ means here +not a mirror, but a burning-glass. The ‘specula,’ or looking-glasses, of +the ancients were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and +copper, or silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the silver. +Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now called, the +Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. Nero is said to have +used emeralds for mirrors. Pliny the Elder says that mirrors were made +in the glass-houses of Sidon, which consisted of glass plates, with +leaves of metal at the back; they were probably of an inferior +character. Those of copper and tin were made chiefly at Brundisium. The +white metal formed from this mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge +with powdered pumice stone was usually fastened to the mirrors made of +that composition. They were generally small, of a round or oval shape, +and having a handle; and female slaves usually held them, while their +mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes they were +fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the length of a +person’s body. Venus was supposed often to use the mirror; but Minerva +repudiated the use of it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_50" id="note4_50" href="#tag4_50">50.</a> +<i>Polypus.</i>]—Ver. 366. This is a fish which entangles its +prey, mostly consisting of shell fish, in its great number of feet or +feelers. Ovid here calls them ‘flagella;’ but in the Halieuticon he +styles them ‘brachia’ and ‘crines.’ Pliny the Elder calls them ‘crines’ +and ‘cirri.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_51" id="note4_51" href="#tag4_51">51.</a> +<i>Descendant of Atlas.</i>]—Ver. 368. Hermaphroditus was the +great-grandson of Atlas; as the latter was the father of Maia, the +mother of Mercury, who begot Hermaphroditus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_52" id="note4_52" href="#tag4_52">52.</a> +<i>The two are united.</i>]—Ver. 374. Clarke translates, ‘nam +mixta duorum corpora junguntur,’ ‘for the bodies of both, being jumbled +together, are united.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_53" id="note4_53" href="#tag4_53">53.</a> +<i>Derive their name.</i>]—Ver. 415. In Greek they are called +<span class="greek" title="nukterides">νυκτεÏίδες</span>, from <span +class="greek" title="nux">νυξ</span>, ‘night;’ and in Latin, +‘vespertiliones,’ from ‘vesper,’ ‘evening,’ on account of their +habits.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_54" id="note4_54" href="#tag4_54">54.</a> +<i>She alone.</i>]—Ver. 419. This was Ino, whose only sorrows +hitherto had been caused by the calamities which befell her sisters and +their offspring: Semele having died a shocking death, Autonoë having +seen her son Actæon changed into a stag, and then devoured by his dogs, +and Agave having assisted in tearing to pieces her own son Pentheus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_55" id="note4_55" href="#tag4_55">55.</a> +<i>When they have enjoyed.</i>]—Ver. 435. The spirits whose bodies +had not received the rites of burial, we learn from Homer and Virgil, +were not allowed to pass the river Styx, but wandered on its banks for a +hundred years.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_56" id="note4_56" href="#tag4_56">56.</a> +<i>So does that spot.</i>]—Ver. 441. That is to say, whatever +number of ghosts arrives there, it receives them all with ease, and is +not sensible of the increase of number; either because the place itself +is of such immense extent, or because the souls of the dead do not +occupy space.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_57" id="note4_57" href="#tag4_57">57.</a> +<i>The Sisters.</i>]—Ver. 450. These were the <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘furies’">Furies</ins>, fabled to be the +daughters of Night and Acheron. They were three in number, Tisiphone, +Alecto, and Megæra, and were supposed to be the avengers of crime and +wickedness.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_58" id="note4_58" href="#tag4_58">58.</a> +<i>Tityus.</i>]—Ver. 456. Tityus was the son of Jupiter and Elara. +On account of his enormous size, the poets sometimes style him a son of +the earth. Attempting to commit violence upon Latona, he was slain by +the arrows of Apollo, and precipitated to the infernal regions, where he +was condemned to have his liver constantly devoured by a vulture, and +then renewed, to perpetuate his torments.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_59" id="note4_59" href="#tag4_59">59.</a> +<i>Tantalus.</i>]—Ver. 457. He was the son of Jupiter, by the +Nymph Plote. The crime for which he was punished is differently related +by the poets. Some say, that he divulged the secrets of the Gods, that +had been entrusted to him; while others relate, that at an entertainment +which he gave to the Deities, he caused his own son, Pelops, to be +served up, on which Ceres inadvertently ate his shoulder. He was doomed +to suffer intense hunger and thirst, amid provisions of all kinds within +his reach, which perpetually receded from him.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_60" id="note4_60" href="#tag4_60">60.</a> +<i>Sisyphus.</i>]—Ver. 459. Sisyphus, the son of Æolus, was a +daring robber, who infested Attica. He was slain by Theseus; and being +sent to the infernal regions, was condemned to the punishment of rolling +a great stone to the top of a mountain, which it had no sooner reached +than it fell down again, and renewed his labor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_61" id="note4_61" href="#tag4_61">61.</a> +<i>Ixion.</i>]—Ver. 461. Being advanced by Jupiter to heaven, he +presumed to make an attempt on Juno. Jupiter, to deceive him, formed a +cloud in her shape, on which Ixion begot the Centaurs. He was cast into +Tartarus, and was there fastened to a wheel, which turned round +incessantly.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_62" id="note4_62" href="#tag4_62">62.</a> +<i>Iris.</i>]—Ver. 480. Iris was the daughter of Thaumas and +Electra, and the messenger of Juno. She was the Goddess of the +Rainbow.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_63" id="note4_63" href="#tag4_63">63.</a> +<i>Tisiphone.</i>]—Ver. 481. Clarke translates ‘Tisiphone <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘importune’">importuna</ins>,’ +‘the plaguy Tisiphone.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_64" id="note4_64" href="#tag4_64">64.</a> +<i>Echidna.</i>]—Ver. 501. This word properly means, +‘a female viper;’ but it here refers to the Hydra, or dragon of the +marsh of Lerna, which Hercules slew. It was fabled to be partly a woman, +and partly a serpent, and to have been begotten by Typhon. According to +some accounts, this monster had seven heads.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_65" id="note4_65" href="#tag4_65">65.</a> +<i>Dashes in pieces.</i>]—Ver. 519. Euripides and Hyginus relate, +that Athamas slew his son while hunting; and Apollodorus says, that he +mistook him for a stag.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_66" id="note4_66" href="#tag4_66">66.</a> +<i>Thy foster-child.</i>]—Ver. 524. Bacchus was the foster-child +of Ino, who was the sister of his mother Semele. The remaining portion +of the story of Ino and Melicerta is again related by Ovid in the sixth +book of the Fasti.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_67" id="note4_67" href="#tag4_67">67.</a> +<i>There is a rock.</i>]—Ver. 525. Pausanias calls this the +Molarian rock, and says, that it was one of the Scironian rocks, near +Megara, in Attica. It was a branch of the Geranian mountain.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_68" id="note4_68" href="#tag4_68">68.</a> +<i>And her burden.</i>]—Ver. 530. This was her son Melicerta, who, +according to Pausanias, was received by dolphins, and was landed by them +on the isthmus of Corinth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_69" id="note4_69" href="#tag4_69">69.</a> +<i>Guiltless <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read +‘grand-daughter’ with anomalous hyphen">granddaughter</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 531. Venus was the +grandmother of Ino, inasmuch as Hermione, or Harmonia, the wife of +Cadmus, was the daughter of Mars and Venus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_70" id="note4_70" href="#tag4_70">70.</a> +<i>Boundless Ionian sea.</i>]—Ver. 535. The Ionian sea must be +merely mentioned here as a general name for the broad expanse of waters, +of which the Saronic gulf, into which the Molarian rock projected, +formed part. Ovid may, however, mean to say that Ino threw herself from +some rock in the Ionian sea, and not from the Molarian rock; following, +probably, the account of some other writer, whose works are lost.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_71" id="note4_71" href="#tag4_71">71.</a> +<i>Grecian name is derived.</i>]—Ver. 538. Venus was called +Aphrodite, by the Greeks, from <span class="greek" title="aphros">ἄφÏος</span>, ‘the foam of the sea,’ from which she was said to +have sprung.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_72" id="note4_72" href="#tag4_72">72.</a> +<i>A Divinity.</i>]—Ver. 542. Ino and Melicerta were worshipped as +Divinities both in Greece and at Rome.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_73" id="note4_73" href="#tag4_73">73.</a> +<i>Sidonian attendants.</i>]—Ver. 543. The Theban matrons are +meant, who had married the companions of Cadmus that accompanied him +from PhÅ“nices.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_74" id="note4_74" href="#tag4_74">74.</a> +<i>Son of Abas.</i>]—Ver. 608. Acrisius was the son of Abas, king +of Argos. He was the father of Danaë, by whom Jupiter was the father of +Perseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_75" id="note4_75" href="#tag4_75">75.</a> +<i>Of the same race.</i>]—Ver. 607. Some suppose that by this it +is meant that as Belus, the father of Abas, and grandfather of Acrisius, +was the son of Jupiter, who was also the father of Bacchus, the latter +and Acrisius were consequently related.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_76" id="note4_76" href="#tag4_76">76.</a> +<i>A huge dragon.</i>]—Ver. 647. The name of the dragon was +Ladon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_77" id="note4_77" href="#tag4_77">77.</a> +<i>Hippotas.</i>]—Ver. 663. Æolus, the God of the Winds, was the +son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_78" id="note4_78" href="#tag4_78">78.</a> +<i>Ammon.</i>]—Ver. 671. Jupiter, with the surname of Ammon, had a +temple in the deserts of Libya, where he was worshipped under the shape +of a ram; a form which he was supposed to have assumed, when, in +common with the other Deities, he fled from the attacks of the Giants. +The oracle of Jupiter Ammon being consulted relative to the sea monster, +which Neptune, at the request of the Nereids, had sent against the +Ethiopians, answered that Andromeda must be exposed to be devoured by +it; which Ovid here, not without reason, calls an unjust demand.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_79" id="note4_79" href="#tag4_79">79.</a> +<i>Mother’s tongue.</i>]—Ver. 670. Cassiope, the mother of +Andromeda, had dared to compare her own beauty with that of the Nereids. +Cepheus, the son of PhÅ“nix, was the father of Andromeda.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_80" id="note4_80" href="#tag4_80">80.</a> +<i>Warm.</i>]—Ver. 674. ‘Tepido,’ ‘warm,’ is decidedly preferable +here to ‘trepido,’ ‘trembling.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_81" id="note4_81" href="#tag4_81">81.</a> +<i>Dare address.</i>]—Ver. 682. Heinsius thinks that ‘appellare’ +here is not the correct reading; and suggests ‘aspectare,’ which seems +to be more consistent with the sense of the passage, which would then +be, ‘and does not dare to look down upon the hero.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_82" id="note4_82" href="#tag4_82">82.</a> +<i>Monster approaching.</i>]—Ver. 689. Pliny the Elder and Solinus +tell us that the bones of this monster were afterwards brought from +Joppa, a seaport of Judæa, to Rome, and that the skeleton was forty +feet in length, and the spinal bone was six feet in circumference.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_83" id="note4_83" href="#tag4_83">83.</a> +<i>The perspiring arms.</i>]—Ver. 707. ‘Juvenum sudantibus acta +lacertis’ is translated by Clarke, ‘forced forward by the arms of +sweating young fellows.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_84" id="note4_84" href="#tag4_84">84.</a> +<i>Bird of Jupiter.</i>]—Ver. 714. The eagle was the bird sacred +to Jove. The larger kinds of birds which afforded auguries from their +mode of flight, were called ‘<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘præptes’">præpetes</ins>.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_85" id="note4_85" href="#tag4_85">85.</a> +<i>Avoids the eager bites.</i>]—Ver. 723. Clarke translates this +line, ‘He avoids the monster’s eager snaps with his swift wings.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_86" id="note4_86" href="#tag4_86">86.</a> +<i>His dripping pinions.</i>]—Ver. 730. ‘Talaria’ were either +wings fitted to the ankles, or shoes having such wings fastened to them; +they were supposed to be usually worn by Mercury.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_87" id="note4_87" href="#tag4_87">87.</a> +<i>Clinging to the upper ridge.</i>]—Ver. 733. ‘Tenens juga prima +sinistra’ is rendered by Clarke, ‘seizing the tip-top of it with his +left hand.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_88" id="note4_88" href="#tag4_88">88.</a> +<i>Being handed over.</i>]—Ver. 766. Of course, as they had but +one eye between them, they must have both been blind while it was +passing from one hand to another, so that Perseus could have had but +little difficulty in effecting the theft here mentioned.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_89" id="note4_89" href="#tag4_89">89.</a> +<i>Brass of the shield.</i>]—Ver. 783. This reflecting shield +Perseus is said to have received from Minerva, and by virtue of it he +was enabled to see without being seen. Lucian says that Minerva herself +held this reflecting shield before him, and by that means afforded him +the opportunity of seeing the reflection of Medusa’s figure; and that +Perseus, seizing her by the hair with his left hand, and keeping his eye +fixed on the image reflected in the shield, took his sword in his right, +and cut off her head, and then, by the aid of his wings, flew away +before the other Gorgon sisters were aware of what he had done.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_90" id="note4_90" href="#tag4_90">90.</a> +<i>Pegasus and his brother.</i>]—Ver. 786. Pegasus and Chrysaor +were two winged horses, which were fabled to have sprung up from the +blood of Medusa, when slain by Perseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_91" id="note4_91" href="#tag4_91">91.</a> +<i>Themselves no fiction.</i>]—Ver. 787. His dangers were not +false or imaginary, inasmuch as he was pursued by Sthenyo and Euryale, +the sisters of Medusa, who were fabled to have wings, and claws of iron +on their hands. Ovid deals a sly hit in the words ‘non falsa pericula +cursus,’ at the tales of travellers, who, even in his day, seem to have +commenced dealing in the marvellous; as, indeed, we may learn for +ourselves, on turning to the pages of Herodotus, who seems to have been +often imposed upon.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_92" id="note4_92" href="#tag4_92">92.</a> +<i>Before it was expected.</i>]—Ver. 790. Showing thereby how +delighted his audience was with his narrative.</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Notes (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note4_A" id="note4_A" href="#tag4_A">A.</a> +<i>what madness can do</i>: “madness†is the grammatical subject. Ovid +IV.429 “quidque furor valeatâ€. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_B" id="note4_B" href="#tag4_B">B.</a> +<i>the hollowed deep</i>: Ovid IV.537 is variously read as “in medio ... +profundoâ€, “immenso ... profundo†and “in dÄ«o ... profundoâ€. The Bell +text “the hallowed deep†can only be based on the rare “dio†reading. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note4_C" id="note4_C" href="#tag4_C">C.</a> +<span class="greek" title="Euoi Bakche, ô Iakche, Iô Bakche, Euoi saboi">Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, ὦ Ἰακχε, Ιώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– σαβοῖ</span>: Text given as +printed. The exact form (with consistent capitalization) is probably +Εá½Î¿á¿– Βάκχε, á½® Ἴακχε, Ἰώ Βάκχε, Εá½Î¿á¿– <span class="greek" title="sabai">σαβαῖ</span>. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">177</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">157</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookV" id="bookV"></a> +BOOK THE FIFTH.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableI" id="bookV_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">While</span> Perseus is continuing the +relation of the adventures of Medusa, Phineus, to whom Andromeda has +been previously promised in marriage, rushes into the palace, with his +adherents, and attacks his rival. A furious combat is the +consequence, in which Perseus gives signal proofs of his valor. At +length, perceiving himself likely to be overpowered by the number of his +enemies, he shows them the head of the Gorgon; on which Phineus and his +followers are turned into statues of stone. After this victory, he takes +Andromeda with him to Argos, his native city, where he turns the usurper +PrÅ“tus into stone, and re-establishes his grandfather Acrisius on the +throne.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> while the hero, the son of +Danaë, is relating these things in the midst of the company of the +subjects of Cepheus, the royal courts are filled with a raging +multitude; nor is the clamor such as celebrates a marriage-feast, but +one which portends dreadful warfare. You might compare the banquet, +changed into a sudden tumult, to the sea, which, when calm, the +boisterous rage of the winds disturbs by raising its waves.</p> + +<p>Foremost among these, Phineus,<a class="tag" name="tag5_1" id="tag5_1" href="#note5_1">1</a> the rash projector of the onslaught, +shaking an ashen spear with a brazen point, cries, “Behold! <i>now</i>, +behold! I am come, the avenger of my wife, ravished from me; +neither shall thy wings nor Jupiter turned into fictitious gold, deliver +thee from me.†As he is endeavoring to hurl <i>his lance</i>, Cepheus +cries out, “What art thou doing? What fancy, my brother, impels thee, in +thy madness, to this crime? Is this the due acknowledgment to return +<span class="pagenum mckay">178</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 14-39</span> +for deserts so great? Dost thou repay the life of her <i>thus</i> +preserved, with this reward? ’Twas not Perseus, if thou wouldst know the +truth, that took her away from thee; but the incensed +<span class="pagenum bell">158</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 16-45</span> +majesty of the Nereids, and horned Ammon, and the monster of the sea, +which came to be glutted with my bowels. She was snatched from thee at +that moment, at which she was to have perished; unless it is that thou +dost, in thy cruelty, insist upon that very thing, that she should +perish, and wilt be appeased only by my affliction. It is not enough, +forsooth, that in thy presence she was bound and that <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘though,’">thou,</ins> both her uncle and +her betrothed, didst give no assistance; wilt thou be grieving, besides, +that she was saved by another, and wilt thou deprive him of his reward? +If this appears great to thee, thou shouldst have recovered it from the +rock to which it was fastened. Now, let him who has recovered it, +through whom my old age is not childless, have what he stipulated for, +both by <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘its’">his</ins> +merits and his words; and know that he was preferred not before thee, +but before certain death.â€</p> + +<p><i>Phineus said</i> nothing, on the other hand; but viewing both him +and Perseus, with alternate looks, he was uncertain whether he should +<i>first</i> attack the one or the other; and, having paused a short +time, he vainly threw his spear, hurled with all the force that rage +afforded. As it stood fixed in the cushion,<a class="tag" name="tag5_2" id="tag5_2" href="#note5_2">2</a> then, at length, Perseus +leapt off from the couch, and in his rage would have pierced the breast +of his enemy with the weapon, thrown back, had not Phineus gone behind +an altar, and <i>thus</i> (how unworthily!) an altar<a class="tag" +name="tag5_3" id="tag5_3" href="#note5_3">3</a> protected a +miscreant. However, the spear, not thrown in vain, stuck in the forehead +of RhÅ“tus; who, after he fell, and the steel was wrenched from the +skull, he +<span class="pagenum mckay">179</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 40-68</span> +<i>still</i> struggled, and besprinkled the laid tables with his blood. +But then does the multitude burst forth into ungovernable rage, and hurl +their weapons. Some there are, who say that Cepheus ought to die with +his son-in-law; but Cepheus has gone out by the entrance of the house, +calling right and good faith to witness, and the Gods of hospitality,<a +class="tag" name="tag5_4" id="tag5_4" href="#note5_4">4</a> that +this disturbance is +<span class="pagenum bell">159</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 45-77</span> +made contrary to his will. The warlike Pallas comes; and with her shield +protects her brother <i>Perseus</i>, and gives him courage. There was an +Indian, Athis <i>by name</i>,<a class="tag" name="tag5_5" id="tag5_5" href="#note5_5">5</a> whom Limnate, the daughter of the river +Ganges, is believed to have brought forth beneath the glassy waters; +excelling in beauty, which he improved by his rich dress; in his prime, +as yet but twice eight years of age, dressed in a purple tunic, which a +golden fringe bordered; a gilded necklace graced his neck, and a +curved hair-pin his hair wet with myrrh. He, indeed, had been taught to +hit things, although at a distance, with his hurled javelin, but <i>he +was</i> more skilled at bending the bow. <i>Perseus</i> struck him even +then, as he was bending with his hands the flexible horns <i>of a +bow</i>, with a billet, which, placed in the middle of the altar, was +smoking, and he crushed his face into his broken skull.</p> + +<p>When the Assyrian Lycabas, who was a most attached friend of his, and +no concealer of his real affection, saw him rolling his features, the +objects of such praises, in his blood; after he had bewailed Athis, +breathing forth his life from this cruel wound, he seized the bow which +he had bent, and said, “And <i>now</i> let the contest against thee be +with me; not long shalt thou exult in the fate of the youth, by which +thou acquirest more hatred than praise.†All this he had not yet said, +<i>when</i> the piercing weapon darted from the string, and +<i>though</i> avoided, still it hung in the folds of his garment. The +grandson of Acrisius turned against +<span class="pagenum mckay">180</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 69-94</span> +him his falchion,<a class="tag" name="tag5_6" id="tag5_6" href="#note5_6">6</a> <i>already</i> proved in the slaughter of Medusa, and +thrust it into his breast. But he, now dying, with his eyes swimming in +black night, looked around for Athis, and sank upon him, and carried to +the shades the consolation of a united death. Lo! Phorbas of Syene,<a +class="tag" name="tag5_7" id="tag5_7" href="#note5_7">7</a> the +son of Methion, and Amphimedon, the Libyan, eager to engage in the +fight, fell down, slipping in the blood with which the earth was warm, +soaked on every side; as they +<span class="pagenum bell">160</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 77-107</span> +arose the sword met them, being thrust in the ribs of the one, +<i>and</i> in the throat of Phorbas. But Perseus does not attack +Erithus, the son of Actor, whose weapon is a broad battle-axe, by using +his sword, but he takes up, with both hands, a huge bowl,<a class="tag" name="tag5_8" id="tag5_8" href="#note5_8">8</a> standing out +with figures deeply embossed, and of vast mass in its weight, and hurls +it against the man. The other vomits forth red blood, and, falling on +his back, beats the ground with his dying head. Then he slays Polydæmon, +sprung from the blood of Semiramis, and the Caucasian Abaris, and +Lycetus, the son of Sperchius,<a class="tag" name="tag5_9" id="tag5_9" href="#note5_9">9</a> and Elyces, with unshorn locks, and +Phlegias, and Clytus; and he tramples upon the heaps of the dying, which +he has piled up.</p> + +<p>But Phineus, not daring to engage hand to hand with his enemy, hurls +his javelin, which accident carries against Idas, who, in vain, has +declined the warfare<a class="tag" name="tag5_10" id="tag5_10" +href="#note5_10">10</a> and has followed the arms of neither. He, +looking at the cruel Phineus with stern eyes, says, “Since I am +<i>thus</i> forced to take a side, take the enemy, Phineus, that thou +hast made, and make amends for my wound with this wound.†And now, just +about to return the +<span class="pagenum mckay">181</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" +title="text reads ‘IV.’">V.</ins> 95-123</span> +dart drawn from his body, he falls sinking down upon his limbs void of +blood. Here, too, Odytes, the next in rank among the followers of +Cepheus, after the king, lies prostrate under the sword of Clymenus; +Hypseus kills Protenor, <i>and</i> Lyncides Hypseus. There is, too, +among them the aged Emathion, an observer of justice, and a fearer of +the Gods; as his years prevent him from fighting, he engages by talking, +and he condemns and utters imprecations against their accursed arms. As +he clings to the altars<a class="tag" name="tag5_11" id="tag5_11" +href="#note5_11">11</a> with trembling hands, Chromis cuts off his +head with his sword, which straightway falls upon the altar, and there, +with his dying tongue he utters words of execration, and breathes forth +his soul in the midst of the fires. Upon this, two brothers, Broteas and +<span class="pagenum bell">161</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 107-138</span> +Ammon invincible at boxing, if swords could only be conquered by boxing, +fell by the hand of Phineus; Ampycus, too, the priest of Ceres, having +his temples wreathed with a white fillet. Thou too, son of Iapetus, not +to be employed for these services; but one who tuned the lyre, the work +of peace, to thy voice, hadst been ordered to attend the banquet and +festival with thy music. As thou art standing afar, and holding the +unwarlike plectrum, Pettalus says, laughing, “Go sing the rest to the +Stygian ghosts,†and fixes the point of the sword in his left temple. He +falls, and with his dying fingers he touches once again the strings of +the lyre; and in his fall he plays a mournful dirge.<a class="tag" +name="tag5_12" id="tag5_12" href="#note5_12">12</a> The fierce +Lycormas does not suffer him to fall unpunished; and tearing away a +massive bar from the doorpost on the right, he dashes it against the +bones of the middle of the neck <i>of <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Pattalus’">Pettalus</ins></i>; struck, he falls to the +ground, just like a slaughtered bullock.</p> + +<p>The Cinyphian<a class="tag" name="tag5_13" id="tag5_13" href="#note5_13">13</a> Pelates, too, was trying to tear away the oaken bar +of the doorpost on the left; as he was +<span class="pagenum mckay">182</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" +title="text reads ‘IV.’">V.</ins> 123-151</span> +trying, his right hand was fastened <i>thereto</i> by the spear of +Corythus, the son of Marmarus, and it stood riveted to the wood. +<i>Thus</i> riveted, Abas pierced his side; he did not fall, however, +but dying, hung from the post, which still held fast his hand. Melaneus, +too, was slain, who had followed the camp of Perseus, and Dorylas, very +rich in Nasamonian land.<a class="tag" name="tag5_14" id="tag5_14" +href="#note5_14">14</a> Dorylas, rich in land, than whom no one +possessed it of wider extent, or received <i>thence</i> so many heaps of +corn. The hurled steel stood fixed obliquely in his groin; the hurt was +mortal. When the Bactrian<a class="tag" name="tag5_15" id="tag5_15" href="#note5_15">15</a> Halcyoneus, the author of the wound, +beheld him sobbing forth his soul, and rolling his eyes, he said, “Take +<i>for thine own</i> this <i>spot</i> of earth which thou dost press, +out of so many fields,†and he left his lifeless body. The descendant of +Abas, as his avenger, hurls against <i>Halcyoneus</i> the spear torn +from his wound <i>yet</i> warm, which, received in the middle of the +nostrils, +<span class="pagenum bell">162</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 139-167</span> +pierced through his neck, and projected on both sides. And while fortune +is aiding his hand, he slays, with different wounds, Clytius and Clanis, +born of one mother. For an ashen spear poised with a strong arm is +driven through both the thighs of Clytius; with his mouth does Clanis +bite the javelin. Celadon, the Mendesian,<a class="tag" name="tag5_16" id="tag5_16" href="#note5_16">16</a> falls, too; Astreus +falls, born of a mother of Palestine, <i>but</i> of an uncertain father. +Æthion, too, once sagacious at foreseeing things to come, <i>but</i> now +deceived<ins class="corr bell" title="footnote marker missing in Bell"><a class="tag" name="tag5_17" id="tag5_17" href="#note5_17">17</a></ins> by a false omen; and Thoactes, the armor-bearer +of the king, and Agyrtes, infamous for slaying his father.</p> + +<p>More work still remains, than what is <i>already</i> done; for it is +the intention of all to overwhelm one. The conspiring troops fight on +all sides, for a cause that +<span class="pagenum mckay">183</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 151-176</span> +attacks both merit and good faith. The one side, the father-in-law, +attached in vain, and the new-made wife, together with her mother, +encourage; and <i>these</i> fill the halls with their shrieks. But the +din of arms, and the groans of those that fall, prevail; and for once, +Bellona<a class="tag" name="tag5_18" id="tag5_18" href="#note5_18">18</a> is deluging the household Gods polluted with +plenteous blood, and is kindling the combat anew. Phineus, and a +thousand that follow Phineus, surround Perseus <i>alone</i>; darts are +flying thicker than the hail of winter, on both his sides, past his +eyes, and past his ears. On this, he places his shoulders against the +stone of a large pillar, and, having his back secure, and facing the +adverse throng, he withstands their attack. Chaonian<a class="tag" +name="tag5_19" id="tag5_19" href="#note5_19">19</a> Molpeus +presses on the left, Nabathæan Ethemon on the right. As a tiger, urged +on by hunger, when it hears the lowings of two herds, in different +valleys, knows not on which side in preference to rush out, and +<i>yet</i> is eager to rush out on both; so Perseus, being in doubt +whether to bear onward to the right +<span class="pagenum bell">163</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 167-203</span> +or to the left, repulses Molpeus by a wound in the leg, which he runs +through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does Ethemon +give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to inflict a +wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with incautious +force; and against the extremity of a column which he has struck, the +blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its owner; yet that +blow has not power sufficient to <i>effect</i> his death. Perseus stabs +him with his Cyllenian<a class="tag" name="tag5_20" id="tag5_20" +href="#note5_20">20</a> falchion, trembling, and vainly extending his +unarmed hands.</p> + +<p>But when Perseus saw his valor <i>likely</i> to yield to such +<span class="pagenum mckay">184</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 177-209</span> +numbers, he said, “Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will +seek assistance from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my +friends are here;†and <i>then</i> he produced the head of the Gorgon. +“<i>Go</i>, seek some one else,†said Thescelus, “for thy miracles to +affect;†and, as he was preparing to hurl his deadly javelin with his +hand, he stood fast in that posture, a statue of marble. Ampyx, +being next him, made a pass with his sword at the breast of Lyncidas, +full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his right hand became +stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But Nileus, who had +falsely boasted that he was begotten by the seven-mouthed Nile, and who +had engraved on his shield its seven channels, partly in silver, partly +in gold, said, “Behold, Perseus, the origin of my race; thou shalt carry +to the silent shades a great consolation for thy death, that thou wast +killed by one so great.†The last part of his address was suppressed in +the midst of the utterance; and you would think his half-open mouth was +attempting to speak, but it gave no passage for his words. Eryx rebuked +them,<a class="tag" name="tag5_21" id="tag5_21" href="#note5_21">21</a> and said, “Ye are benumbed by the cowardice of your +minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon; rush on with me, and strike to +the ground <i>this</i> youth that wields his magic arms.†He was about +to rush on, <i>when</i> the earth arrested his steps, and he remained an +immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all these met with the +punishment they had deserved: there was one man, however, Aconteus <i>by +name</i>, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was fighting, on +beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon him. Astyages, +<span class="pagenum bell">164</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 203-239</span> +thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword; the sword +resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in amazement, he +took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in surprise +remained on his marble features. It is a tedious task to recount the +names of the men of the lower rank. Two hundred bodies were <i>yet</i> +remaining for the fight: two hundred bodies, on beholding the Gorgon, +grew stiff.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum mckay">185</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 210-240</span> +Now at length Phineus repents of this unjust warfare. But what can he +do? He sees statues varying in form, and he recognizes his friends, and +demands help of them each, called by name; and not <i>yet</i> persuaded, +he touches the bodies next him; they are marble. He turns away <i>his +eyes</i>; and thus suppliant, and stretching forth his hands, that +confessed <i>his fault</i>, and his arms obliquely extended, he says, +“Perseus, thou hast conquered; remove the direful monster, and take away +that stone-making face of thy Medusa, whatever she may be; take it away, +I pray. It is not hatred, or the desire of a kingdom, that has +urged me to war: for a wife I wielded arms. Thy cause was the better in +point of merit, mine in point of time. I am not sorry to yield. +Grant me nothing, most valiant man, beyond this life; the rest be +thine.†Upon his saying such things, and not daring to look upon him, +whom he is entreating with his voice, <i>Perseus</i> says, “What am I +able to give thee, most cowardly Phineus, and, a great boon to a +craven, that will I give; lay aside thy fears; thou shalt be hurt by no +weapon. Moreover, I will give thee a monument to last forever, and +in the house of my father-in-law thou shalt always be seen, that my wife +may comfort herself with the form of her betrothed.†<i>Thus</i> he +said, and he turned the daughter of Phorcys to that side, towards which +Phineus had turned himself with trembling face. Then, even as he +endeavored to turn away his eyes, his neck grew stiff, and the moisture +of his eyes hardened in stone. But yet his timid features, and his +suppliant countenance, and his hands hanging down, and his guilty +attitude, still remained.</p> + +<p>The descendant of Abas, together with his wife, enters the walls of +his native city; and as the defender and avenger of his innocent mother, +he attacks PrÅ“tus.<a class="tag" name="tag5_22" id="tag5_22" href="#note5_22">22</a> For, his brother being expelled by force of arms, +PrÅ“tus had taken possession +<span class="pagenum bell">165</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 239-243</span> +of the citadel of Acrisius; but neither by the help of arms, nor the +citadel which he +<span class="pagenum mckay">186</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 240-242</span> +had unjustly seized, did he prevail against the stern eyes of the +snake-bearing monster.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The scene of this story is supposed by some to have been in Æthiopia, +but it is more probably on the coast of Africa. Josephus and Strabo +assert that this event happened near the city of Joppa, or Jaffa: +indeed, Josephus says that the marks of the chains with which Andromeda +was fastened, were remaining on the rock in his time. Pomponius Mela +says, that Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, was king of Joppa, and that +the memory of that prince and of his brother Phineus was honored there +with religious services. He says, too, that the inhabitants used to show +the bones of the monster which was to have devoured Andromeda. Pliny +tells us the same, and that Scaurus carried these bones with him to +Rome. He calls the monster ‘a Goddess,’ ‘Dea Cete.’ Vossius believes +that he means the God Dagon, worshipped among the Syrians under the +figure of a fish, or sea-monster. Some authors have suggested that the +story of the creature which was to have devoured Andromeda, was a +confused version of that of the prophet Jonah.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The alleged power of Perseus, to turn his enemies into stone, was +probably, a metaphorical mode of describing his heroism, and the +terror which everywhere followed the fame of his victory over the +Gorgons. This probably caused such consternation, that it was reported +that he petrified his enemies by showing them the head of Medusa. +Bochart supposes that the rocky nature of the island of Seriphus, where +Polydectes reigned, was the ground of the various stories of the alleged +metamorphoses into stone, effected by means of the Gorgon’s head.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableII" id="bookV_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Polydectes</span> continues his hatred against +Perseus, and treats his victories and triumphs over Medusa as mere +fictions, on which Perseus turns him into stone. Minerva leaves her +brother, and goes to Mount Helicon to visit the Muses, who show the +Goddess the beauties of their habitation, and entertain her with their +adventure at the court of Pyreneus, and the death of that prince. They +also repeat to her the song of the Pierides, who challenged them to +sing.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Yet</span>, O Polydectes,<a class="tag" +name="tag5_23" id="tag5_23" href="#note5_23">23</a> the ruler of +little Seriphus, +<span class="pagenum mckay">187</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 243-264</span> +neither the +<span class="pagenum bell">166</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 243-266</span> +valor of the youth proved by so many toils, nor his sorrows have +softened thee; but thou obstinately dost exert an inexorable hatred, nor +is there any limit to thy unjust resentment. Thou also detractest from +his praises, and dost allege that the death of Medusa is <i>but</i> a +fiction. “We will give thee a proof of the truth,†says Perseus; “have a +regard for your eyes, <i>all besides</i>;†and he makes the face of the +king <i>become</i> stone, without blood, by means of the face of +Medusa.</p> + +<p>Hitherto Tritonia had presented herself as a companion to her +brother,<a class="tag" name="tag5_24" id="tag5_24" href="#note5_24">24</a> begotten in the golden shower. Now, enwrapped in an +encircling cloud, she abandons Seriphus, Cythnus and Gyarus<a class="tag" name="tag5_25" id="tag5_25" href="#note5_25">25</a> being +left on the right. And where the way seems the shortest over the sea, +she makes for Thebes and Helicon, frequented by the virgin <i>Muses</i>; +having reached which mountain she stops, and thus addresses the learned +sisters: “The fame of the new fountain<a class="tag" name="tag5_26" id="tag5_26" href="#note5_26">26</a> has reached my ears, which the +hard hoof of the winged steed sprung from the blood of Medusa has +opened. That is the cause of my coming. I wished to see this +wondrous prodigy; I saw him spring from the blood of his mother.†+Urania<a class="tag" name="tag5_27" id="tag5_27" href="#note5_27">27</a> replies, “Whatever, Goddess, is the cause of thy +visiting these abodes, thou art most acceptable to our feelings. +However, the report is true, and Pegasus is the originator of this +spring;†and <i>then</i> she conducts Pallas to the sacred +<span class="pagenum mckay">188</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 265-290</span> +streams. She, long admiring the waters produced by the stroke of his +foot, looks around upon the groves of the ancient wood, and the caves +and the grass +<span class="pagenum bell">167</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 266-295</span> +studded with flowers innumerable; and she pronounces the Mnemonian<a +class="tag" name="tag5_28" id="tag5_28" href="#note5_28">28</a> +maids happy both in their pursuits and in their retreat; when one of the +sisters <i>thus</i> addresses her:</p> + +<p>“O Tritonia, thou who wouldst have come to make one of our number, +had not thy valor inclined thee to greater deeds, thou sayest the truth, +and with justice thou dost approve both our pursuits and our retreat; +and if we are but safe, happy do we reckon our lot. But (to such a +degree is no denial borne by <ins class="corr both" title="spelling unchanged">villany</ins>) all things affright our virgin minds, and the +dreadful Pyreneus is placed before our eyes; and not yet have I wholly +recovered my presence of mind. He, in his insolence, had taken the +Daulian and Phocean<a class="tag" name="tag5_29" id="tag5_29" href="#note5_29">29</a> land with his Thracian troops, and unjustly held +the government. We were making for the temple of Parnassus; he beheld us +going, and adoring our Divinities<a class="tag" name="tag5_30" id="tag5_30" href="#note5_30">30</a> in a feigned worship he said (for he +had recognized us), ‘O Mnemonian maids, stop, and do not scruple, +I pray, under my roof to avoid the bad weather and the showers (for +it was raining); oft have the Gods above entered more humble +cottages<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.’</ins> Moved by his invitation and the weather, we assented to +the man, and entered the front part of his house. The rain had +<i>now</i> ceased, and the South Wind <i>now</i> subdued by the North, +the black clouds were flying from the cleared sky. It was our wish to +depart. Pyreneus closed his house, and prepared for violence, which we +escaped by taking wing. He himself stood aloft on the top <i>of his +abode</i>, as though about to follow us, and said ‘Wherever there is a +way for you, by the same road there will be <i>one</i> for me.’ +<span class="pagenum mckay">189</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 292-312</span> +And then, in his insanity, he threw himself from the height of the +summit of the tower, and fell upon his face, and with the bones of his +skull thus broken, he struck the ground stained with his accursed +blood.â€</p> + +<p><i>Thus</i> spoke the Muse. Wings resounded through the air, and a +voice of some saluting them<a class="tag" name="tag5_31" id="tag5_31" href="#note5_31">31</a> came from the lofty +<span class="pagenum bell">168</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 293-321</span> +boughs. The daughter of Jupiter looked up, and asked whence tongues that +speak so distinctly made that noise, and thought that a human being had +spoken. They were birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting +their fate, they stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the +Goddess wondered, thus did the Goddess <i>Urania</i> commence: “Lately, +too, did these being overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the +birds. Pierus, rich in the lands of Pella,<a class="tag" name="tag5_32" id="tag5_32" href="#note5_32">32</a> begot them; the +Pæonian<a class="tag" name="tag5_33" id="tag5_33" href="#note5_33">33</a> Evippe<a class="tag" name="tag5_34" id="tag5_34" href="#note5_34">34</a> was their mother. Nine times did she +invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times in labor. This set of +foolish sisters were proud of their number, and came hither through so +many cities of Hæmonia, <i>and</i> through so many of Achaia,<a class="tag" name="tag5_35" id="tag5_35" href="#note5_35">35</a> and +engaged in a contest in words such as these: “Cease imposing upon the +vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any confidence <i>in your +skill</i>, ye Thespian Goddesses, contend with us; we will not be +outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number. Either, if +vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of Medusa, and +the Hyantean Aganippe,<a class="tag" name="tag5_36" id="tag5_36" +href="#note5_36">36</a> or we +<span class="pagenum mckay">190</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 313-339</span> +will retire from the Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Pæonians. Let +the Nymphs decide the contest<ins class="corr both" title="both texts missing close quote">.â€</ins> It was, indeed, disgraceful to +engage, but to yield seemed <i>even</i> more disgraceful. The Nymphs +that are chosen swear by the rivers, and they sit on seats made out of +the natural rock. Then, without casting lots, she who had been the first +to propose the contest, sings the wars of the Gods above, and gives the +Giants honor not their due, and detracts from the actions of the great +Divinities; and <i>sings</i> how that TyphÅ“us, sent forth from the +lowest realms of +<span class="pagenum bell">169</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 321-340</span> +the earth, had struck terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and +<i>how</i> they had all turned their backs in flight, until the land of +Egypt had received them in their weariness, and the Nile, divided into +its seven mouths. She tells, how that TyphÅ“us had come there, too, and +the Gods above had concealed themselves under assumed shapes; and +‘Jupiter,’ she says, ‘becomes the leader of the flock, whence, even at +the present day, the Libyan Ammon is figured with horns. <i>Apollo</i>, +the Delian <i>God</i>, lies concealed as a crow, the son of Semele as a +he-goat, the sister of PhÅ“bus as a cat, <i>Juno</i>, the daughter of +Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a fish,<a class="tag" name="tag5_37" id="tag5_37" href="#note5_37">37</a> <i>Mercury</i>, the +Cyllenian <i>God</i>, beneath the wings of an Ibis.’<a class="tag" +name="tag5_38" id="tag5_38" href="#note5_38">38</a></p> + +<p>“Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to <i>the sound of</i> the +lyre; we of Aonia<a class="tag" name="tag5_39" id="tag5_39" href="#note5_39">39</a> were <i>then</i> called upon; but perhaps thou hast +not the leisure, nor the time to lend an ear to our strains.†Pallas +says, “Do not hesitate, and repeat your song to me in its order;†and +she takes her seat under the pleasant shade of the grove. The Muse +<i>then</i> tells her story. “We assigned the management of the contest +to one <i>of our number</i>. Calliope rises, and, having her long hair +gathered up with ivy, tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and +<i>then</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">191</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 340-350</span> +sings these lines in concert with the strings when struck.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +According to Plutarch, the adventure of the Muses with Pyreneus, and of +their asking wings of the Gods to save themselves, is a metaphor, which +shows that he, when reigning in Phocis, was no friend to learning. As he +had caused all the institutions in which it was taught to be destroyed, +it was currently reported, that he had offered violence to the Muses, +and that he lost his life in pursuing them. Ovid is the only writer that +mentions him by name.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The challenge given by the Pierides to the Muses is not mentioned by any +writer before the time of Ovid. By way of explaining it, it is said, +that Pierus was a very bad poet, whose works were full of stories +injurious to the credit of the Gods. Hence, in time, it became +circulated, that his +<span class="pagenum bell">170</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 341-358</span> +daughters, otherwise his works, were changed into magpies, thereby +meaning that they were full of idle narratives, tiresome and unmeaning. +It is not improbable that the story of TyphÅ“us, who forces the Gods to +conceal themselves in Egypt, under the forms of various animals, was a +poem which Pierus composed on the war of the Gods with the Giants.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableIII" id="bookV_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">One</span> of the Muses repeats to Minerva the +song of Calliope, in answer to the Pierides; in which she describes the +defeat of the Giant TyphÅ“us, and Pluto viewing the mountains of Sicily, +where Venus persuades her son Cupid to pierce his heart with one of his +arrows.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Ceres</span> was the first to turn up the +clods with the crooked plough; she first gave corn and wholesome food to +the earth; she first gave laws; everything is the gift of Ceres. She is +to be sung by me; I only wish that I could utter verses worthy of +the Goddess, <i>for</i> doubtless she is a Goddess worthy of my song. +The vast island of Trinacria<a class="tag" name="tag5_40" id="tag5_40" href="#note5_40">40</a> is heaped up on the limbs of the +Giant, and keeps down TyphÅ“us, that dared to hope for the abodes of +Heaven, placed beneath its heavy mass. He, indeed, struggles, and +attempts often to rise, but his right hand is placed beneath the +Ausonian +<span class="pagenum mckay">192</span> +<span class="linenum mckay"><ins class="corr mckay" title="text reads ‘IV.’">V.</ins> 350-373</span> +Pelorus,<a class="tag" name="tag5_41" id="tag5_41" href="#note5_41">41</a> his left under thee, Pachynus;<a class="tag" name="tag5_42" id="tag5_42" href="#note5_42">42</a> his legs are pressed +down by LilybÅ“um;<a class="tag" name="tag5_43" id="tag5_43" href="#note5_43">43</a> Ætna bears down his head; under it TyphÅ“us, on his +back, casts forth sand, and vomits flame from his raging mouth; often +does he struggle to throw off the load of earth, and to roll away cities +and huge mountains from his body. Then does the earth tremble, and the +King of the shades himself is in dread, lest it may open, and the ground +be parted with a wide chasm, and, the day being let in, may affright the +trembling ghosts.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">171</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 359-384</span> + +<p>“Fearing this ruin, the Ruler had gone out from his dark abode; and, +carried in his chariot by black horses, he cautiously surveyed the +foundations of the Sicilian land. After it was sufficiently ascertained +that no place was insecure, and fear was laid aside, Erycina,<a class="tag" name="tag5_44" id="tag5_44" href="#note5_44">44</a> sitting +down upon her mountain, saw him wandering; and, embracing her winged +son, she said, Cupid, my son, my arms, my hands, and my might, take up +those darts by which thou conquerest all, and direct the swift arrows +against the breast of the God, to whom fell the last lot of the triple +kingdom.<a class="tag" name="tag5_45" id="tag5_45" href="#note5_45">45</a> Thou subduest the Gods above, and Jupiter himself; +thou <i>subduest</i> the conquered Deities of the deep, and him who +rules over the Deities of the deep. Why is Tartarus exempt? Why dost +thou not extend the Empire of thy mother and thine own? A third +part of the world is <i>now</i> at stake. And yet so great power is +despised even in our own heaven, and, together with myself, the +influence +<span class="pagenum mckay">193</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 374-385</span> +of Love becomes but a trifling matter. Dost thou not see how that +Pallas, and Diana, who throws the javelin, have renounced me? The +daughter of Ceres, too, will be a virgin, if we shall permit it, for she +inclines to similar hopes. But do thou join the Goddess to her uncle, if +I have any interest with thee in favor of our joint sway.</p> + +<p>“Venus <i>thus</i> spoke. He opened his quiver, and, by the direction +of his mother, set apart one out of his thousand arrows; but one, than +which there is not any more sharp or less unerring, or which is more +true to the bow. And he bent the flexible horn, by pressing his knee +against it, and struck Pluto in the breast with the barbed arrow.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The ancients frequently accounted for natural phænomena on fabulous +grounds: and whatever they found difficult to explain, from their +ignorance of the principles of natural philosophy, they immediately +attributed to the agency of a supernatural cause. Ætna was often seen to +emit flames, and the earth was subjected to violent shocks from the +forces of its internal +<span class="pagenum bell">172</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 385-390</span> +fires when struggling for a vent. Instead of looking for the source of +these eruptions in the sulphur and bituminous matter in which the +mountain abounds, they fabled, that the Gods, having vanquished the +Giant TyphÅ“us, or, according to some authors, Enceladus, threw Mount +Ætna on his body; and that the attempts he made to free himself from the +superincumbent weight were the cause of those fires and earthquakes.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableIV" id="bookV_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Pluto</span> surprises Proserpina in the +fields of Henna, and carries her away by force. The Nymph Cyane +endeavors, in vain, to stop him in his passage, and through grief and +anguish, dissolves into a fountain. Ceres goes everywhere in search of +her daughter, and, in her journey, turns the boy Stellio into a +newt.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Not</span> far from the walls of Henna<a +class="tag" name="tag5_46" id="tag5_46" href="#note5_46">46</a> +there is a lake +<span class="pagenum mckay">194</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 386-400</span> +of deep water, Pergus by name; Cayster does not hear more songs of +swans, in his running streams, than that. A wood skirts the lake, +surrounding it on every side, and with its foliage, as though with an +awning, keeps out the rays of the sun. The boughs produce a coolness, +the moist ground flowers of Tyrian +<span class="pagenum bell">173</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 390-407</span> +hue. <i>There</i> the spring is perpetual. In this grove, while +Proserpina is amusing herself, and is plucking either violets or white +lilies, and while, with childlike eagerness, she is filling her baskets +and her bosom, and is striving to outdo <i>her companions</i> of the +same age in gathering, almost at the same instant she is beheld, +beloved, and seized by Pluto;<a class="tag" name="tag5_47" id="tag5_47" href="#note5_47">47</a> in such great haste is love. The +Goddess, affrighted, with lamenting lips calls both her mother and <ins +class="corr mckay" title="‘her’ missing in McKay’">her</ins> +companions,<a class="tag" name="tag5_48" id="tag5_48" href="#note5_48">48</a> but more frequently her mother;<a class="tag" name="tag5_49" id="tag5_49" href="#note5_49">49</a> and as she has torn +her garment from the upper edge, the collected flowers fall from her +loosened robes. So great, too, is the innocence of her +<span class="pagenum mckay">195</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 400-414</span> +childish years, this loss excites the maiden’s grief as well. The +ravisher drives on his chariot, and encourages his horses, called, each +by his name, along whose necks and manes he shakes the reins, dyed with +swarthy rust. He is borne through deep lakes, and the pools of the +Palici,<a class="tag" name="tag5_50" id="tag5_50" href="#note5_50">50</a> smelling strong of sulphur, <i>and</i> boiling fresh +from out of the burst earth; and where the Bacchiadæ,<a class="tag" +name="tag5_51" id="tag5_51" href="#note5_51">51</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">174</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 407-432</span> +a race sprung from Corinth, with its two seas,<a class="tag" name="tag5_52" id="tag5_52" href="#note5_52">52</a> built a city<a class="tag" name="tag5_53" id="tag5_53" href="#note5_53">53</a> +between unequal harbors.</p> + +<p>“There is a stream in the middle, between Cyane and the Pisæan +Arethusa, which is confined within itself, being enclosed by mountain +ridges at a short distance <i>from each other</i>. Here was Cyane,<a +class="tag" name="tag5_54" id="tag5_54" href="#note5_54">54</a> +the most celebrated among the Sicilian Nymphs, from whose name the pool +also was called, who stood up from out of the midst of the water, as far +as the higher part of her stomach, and recognized the God, and said, ‘No +further +<span class="pagenum mckay">196</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 415-444</span> +shall you go. Thou mayst not be the son-in-law of Ceres against her +will. <i>The girl</i> should have been asked <i>of her mother</i>, not +carried away. But if I may be allowed to compare little matters with +great ones, Anapis<a class="tag" name="tag5_55" id="tag5_55" href="#note5_55">55</a> also loved me. Yet I married him, courted, and not +frightened <i>into it</i>, like her.’ She <i>thus</i> said, and +stretching her arms on different sides, she stood in his way. The son of +Saturn no longer restrained his rage; and encouraging his terrible +steeds, he threw his royal sceptre, hurled with a strong arm, into the +lowest depths of the stream. The earth, <i>thus</i> struck, made a way +down to Tartarus, and received the descending chariot in the middle of +the yawning space. But Cyane, lamenting both the ravished Goddess, and +the slighted privileges of her spring, carries in her silent mind an +inconsolable wound, and is entirely dissolved into tears, and melts away +into those waters, of which she had been but lately the great guardian +Divinity. You might see her limbs soften, her bones become subjected to +bending, her nails lay aside their hardness: each, too, of the smaller +extremities of the whole of her body melts away; both her azure hair, +her fingers, her +<span class="pagenum bell">175</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 432-460</span> +legs, and her feet; for easy is the change of those small members into a +cold stream. After that, her back, her shoulders, her side, and her +breast dissolve, vanishing into thin rivulets. Lastly, pure water, +instead of live blood, enters her corrupted veins, and nothing remains +which you can grasp <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘{in your hands}’"><i>in your hand</i></ins>.</p> + +<p>“In the mean time, throughout all lands and in every sea, the +daughter is sought in vain by her anxious mother. Aurora, coming with +her ruddy locks does not behold her taking any rest, neither does +Hesperus. She, with her two hands, sets light to some pines at the +flaming Ætna, and giving herself no rest, bears them through the frosty +darkness. Again, when the genial day has dulled the light of the stars, +she +<span class="pagenum mckay">197</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 444-461</span> +seeks her daughter from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. +Fatigued by the labor, she has <i>now</i> contracted thirst, and no +streams have washed her mouth, when by chance she beholds a cottage +covered with thatch, and knocks at its humble door, upon which an old +woman<a class="tag" name="tag5_56" id="tag5_56" href="#note5_56">56</a> comes out and sees the Goddess, and gives her, asking +for water, a sweet drink which she has lately distilled<a class="tag" name="tag5_57" id="tag5_57" href="#note5_57">57</a> from +parched pearled barley. While she is drinking it <i>thus</i> presented, +a boy<a class="tag" name="tag5_58" id="tag5_58" href="#note5_58">58</a> of impudent countenance and bold, stands before the +Goddess, and laughs, and calls her greedy. She is offended; and a part +being not yet quaffed, the Goddess sprinkles him, as he is <i>thus</i> +talking, with the barley mixed with the liquor.</p> + +<p>“His face contracts the stains, and he bears legs where just now he +was bearing arms; a tail is added to his changed limbs; and he is +contracted into a diminutive form, that no great power of doing injury +may exist; his size is less than <i>that of</i> a small lizard. He flies +from the old woman, astounded and weeping, and trying to touch the +monstrosity; and +<span class="pagenum bell">176</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 460-461</span> +he seeks a lurking place, and has a name suited to his color, having his +body speckled with various spots.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of the rape of Proserpine has caused much inquiry among +writers, both ancient and modern, as to the facts on which it was +founded. Some have grounded it on principles of natural philosophy; +while others have supposed it to contain some portion of ancient +history, defaced and blemished in lapse of time.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The antiquarian Pezeron is of opinion, that in the partition of +<span class="pagenum mckay">198</span> +the world among the Titan kings, Pluto had the west for his share; and +that he carried a colony to the further end of Spain, where he caused +the gold and silver mines of that region to be worked. The situation of +his kingdom, which lay very low, comparatively with Greece, and which +the ancients believed to be covered with eternal darkness, gave rise to +the fable, that Pluto had got Hell for his share; and this notion was +much encouraged by the subterranean nature of the mines which he caused +to be worked. He thinks that the river Tartarus, so famed in the realms +of Pluto, was no other than the Tartessa, or Guadalquivir of the present +day, which runs through the centre of Spain. Lethe, too, he thinks to +have been the Guadalaviar, in the same country. Pluto, he suggests, had +heard of the beauty of Proserpine, the daughter of Ceres, queen of +Sicily, and carried her thence, which gave rise to the tradition that +she had been carried to the Infernal Regions.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Le Clerc, on the other hand, thinks that it was not Pluto that carried +away Proserpine, but Aidoneus, king of Epirus, or Orcus king of the +Molossians. Aidoneus is supposed to have wrought mines in his kingdom, +and, as the entrance into it was over a river called Acheron, that +prince has often been confounded with Pluto; Epirus too, which was +situate very low, may have been figuratively described as the Infernal +Regions; for which reason, the journeys of Theseus and Hercules into +Epirus may have been spoken of as descents into the Stygian abodes. +Le Clerc supposes that Ceres was reigning in Sicily at the time +when Aidoneus was king of Epirus, and that she took great care to +instruct her subjects in the art of tilling the ground and sowing corn, +and established laws for regulating civil government and the +preservation of private property; for which reasons she was afterward +deemed to be the Goddess of the Earth, and of Corn. Cicero and Diodorus +Siculus tell us that Ceres made her residence at Enna, or Henna, in +Sicily, which name, according to Bochart, signifies ‘agreeable +fountain.’ Cicero and Strabo agree with Ovid in telling us that +Proserpine, the only daughter of Ceres, whom other writers name +Pherephata, was walking in the adjacent meadows, and gathering flowers +with her companions; upon which, certain pirates seized her, and, +placing her in a chariot, carried her to the seaside, whence they +embarked for Epirus. As Pausanias tells us, it was immediately spread +abroad, that Aidoneus, or Pluto, as he was called, had done it, the act +having been really committed by others, according to his orders. As +those who carried her off concealed themselves in the caverns of Mount +Ætna, awaiting their opportunity to escape, it was afterwards fabled +that Pluto came out of the Infernal Regions at that +<span class="pagenum bell">177</span> +place; as that mountain, from its nature, was always deemed one of the +outlets of Hell. Upon this, Ceres went to Greece, in search of her +daughter; and, resting at Eleusis, in Attica, she heard that the ship in +which her daughter was carried away had sailed westward. On this, she +complained to Jupiter, one of the Titan kings, but could obtain no +further satisfaction than that her daughter should be permitted to visit +her occasionally, whereby, at length, her grief was mitigated.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Banier does not agree with these suggestions of Pezeron and +Le Clerc, and thinks that Ceres is no other personage than the Isis +of <ins class="corr mckay" title="‘the’ missing in McKay">the</ins> +Egyptians, supposing that the story is founded on the following +<span class="pagenum mckay">199</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 462-463</span> +circumstance:—<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘circumstances’">Greece</ins>, he says, was afflicted with famine in the +reign of Erectheus, who was obliged to send to Egypt for corn, when +those who went for it brought back the worship of the Deity who presided +over agriculture. The evils which the Athenians had suffered by the +famine, and the dread of again incurring the same calamity, made them +willingly embrace the rites of a Goddess whom they believed able to +protect them from it. Triptolemus established her worship in Eleusis, +and there instituted the mysteries which he had brought over from Egypt. +These had been previously introduced into Sicily, which was the reason +why it was said that Ceres came from Sicily to Athens. Her daughter was +said to have been taken away, because corn and fruit had not been +produced in sufficient quantities, for some time, to furnish food for +the people. Pluto was said to have carried her to the Infernal regions, +because the grain and seeds at that time remained buried, as it were, at +the very center of the earth. Jupiter was said to have decided the +difference between Ceres and Pluto, because the earth again became +covered with crops.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +This appears to be an ingenious allegorical explanation of the story; +but it is not at all improbable that it may have been founded upon +actual facts, and that, having lost her daughter, and going to Attica to +seek her, Ceres taught Triptolemus the mysteries of Isis; and that, in +process of time, Ceres, having become enrolled among the Divinities of +Greece, her worship became confounded with that of Isis.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is very possible that the story of the transformation of Stellio into +a newt may have had no other foundation than the Poet’s fancy.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableV" id="bookV_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Ceres</span> proceeds in <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘the’">a</ins> fruitless search for her +daughter over the whole earth, until the Nymph Arethusa acquaints her +with the place of her ravisher’s abode. The Goddess makes her complaint +to Jupiter, and obtains his consent for her daughter’s return to the +upper world, provided she has not eaten anything since her arrival in +Pluto’s dominions. Ascalaphus, however, having informed that she has +eaten some seeds of a pomegranate, Ceres is disappointed, and +Proserpine, in her wrath, metamorphoses the informer into an owl. The +Sirens have <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘rings’">wings</ins> given them by the Gods, to enable them to be more +expeditious in seeking for Proserpine. +<span class="pagenum bell">178</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 462-479</span> +Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss, decides that her daughter shall +remain six months each year with her mother upon earth, and the other +six with her husband, in the Infernal Regions.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">It</span> were a tedious task<a class="tag" name="tag5_59" id="tag5_59" href="#note5_59">59</a> to +relate through what lands and what seas the Goddess wandered; for her +search the world was too limited. She returns to +<span class="pagenum mckay">200</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 464-483</span> +Sicily; and while, in her passage, she views all <i>places</i>, she +comes, too, to Cyane; she, had she not been transformed, would have told +her everything. But both mouth and tongue were wanting to her, +<i>thus</i> desirous to tell, and she had no means whereby to speak. +Still, she gave unmistakable tokens, and pointed out, on the top of the +water, the girdle<a class="tag" name="tag5_60" id="tag5_60" href="#note5_60">60</a> of Proserpine, well known to her parent, which by +chance had fallen off in that place into the sacred stream.</p> + +<p>“Soon as she recognized this, as if then, at last, she fully +understood that her daughter had been carried away<a class="tag" name="tag5_61" id="tag5_61" href="#note5_61">61</a> the Goddess tore +her unadorned hair, and struck her breast again and again with her +hands. Not as yet does she know where she is, yet she exclaims against +all countries, and calls them ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of +corn; <i>and</i> Trinacria before <i>all</i> others, in which she has +found the proofs of her loss. Wherefore, with vengeful hand, she there +broke the ploughs that were turning up the clods, and, in her anger, +consigned to a similar death both the husbandmen and the oxen that +cultivated the +<span class="pagenum bell">179</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 479-508</span> +fields, and ordered the land to deny a return of what had been deposited +<i>therein</i>, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the +soil, famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the +early blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the +<span class="pagenum mckay">201</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 483-508</span> +sun, sometimes excessive showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and +the winds injure it, and the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is +sown; darnel, and thistles, and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of +wheat.</p> + +<p>“Then the Alpheian Nymph<a class="tag" name="tag5_62" id="tag5_62" href="#note5_62">62</a> raised her head from out of the +Elean waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her +ears, and said, “O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole +world, and of the crops <i>as well</i>, cease <i>at length</i> thy +boundless toil, and in thy wrath be not angered with a region that is +faithful to thee. This land does not deserve it; and against its will it +gave a path for <i>the commission of</i> the outrage. Nor am I +<i>now</i> a suppliant for <i>my own</i> country; a stranger I am +come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from Elis do I derive my +birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this land is more pleasing +to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have this for my abode, +this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly <i>Goddess</i>, +preserve. Why I have been removed from my <i>native</i> place, and have +been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious, +a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be +eased of thy cares, and <i>wilt be</i> of more cheerful aspect. The +pervious earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest +caverns, here I lift my head <i>again</i>, and behold the stars which I +have not been used <i>to see</i>. While, then, I was running under +the earth, along the Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by +my eyes.<a class="tag" name="tag5_63" id="tag5_63" href="#note5_63">63</a> <i>She</i> indeed <i>was</i> sad, and not as yet +without alarm in her countenance, but still <i>she is</i> a queen, and +the most ennobled <i>female</i> in the world of darkness; still, too, is +she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">180</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 509-538</span> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">202</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 509-534</span> + +<p>“The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she +<i>had been made</i> of stone, and for a long time was like one +stupefied; and when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight +of her grief, she departed in her chariot into the ætherial air, and +there, with her countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much +to his discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, “I have come, +Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for +thine. If thou hast no respect for the mother, <i>still</i> let the +daughter move her father; and I pray thee not to have the less regard +for her, because she was brought forth by my travail. Lo! my daughter, +so long sought for, has been found by me at last; if you call it +finding<a class="tag" name="tag5_64" id="tag5_64" href="#note5_64">64</a> to be more certain of one’s loss; or if you call it +finding, to know where she is. I will endure <i>the fact</i>, that +she has been carried off, if he will only restore her. For, indeed, +a daughter of thine is not deserving of a ravisher for a husband, +if now my own daughter is.†Jupiter replied, “Thy daughter is a pledge +and charge, in common to me and thee; but, should it please thee only to +give right names to things, this deed is not an injury, but it is <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘a {mark of}’"><i>a mark +of</i></ins> affection, nor will he, as a son-in-law, be any disgrace to +us, if thou only, Goddess, shouldst give thy consent. Although other +<i>recommendations</i> were wanting, how great a thing is it to be the +brother of Jupiter! and besides, is it not because other points are not +wanting, and because he is not my inferior, except by the accident <i>of +his allotment of the Stygian abodes</i>? But if thy eagerness is so +great for their separation, let Proserpine return to heaven; still upon +this fixed condition, if she has touched no food there with her lips; +for thus has it been provided by the law of the Destinies.â€</p> + +<p>“<i>Thus</i> he spoke; still Ceres is <i>now</i> resolved to fetch +away her daughter; but not so do the Fates permit. For the damsel had +broke her fast; and, while in her +<span class="pagenum mckay">203</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 535-551</span> +innocence she was walking about the finely-cultivated garden, she had +plucked a pomegranate<a class="tag" name="tag5_65" id="tag5_65" +href="#note5_65">65</a> from the bending tree, and had chewed in her +<span class="pagenum bell">181</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 538-557</span> +mouth seven grains<a class="tag" name="tag5_66" id="tag5_66" href="#note5_66">66</a> taken from the pale rind. Ascalaphus<a class="tag" name="tag5_67" id="tag5_67" href="#note5_67">67</a> alone, +of all persons, had seen this, whom Orphne, by no means the most obscure +among the Nymphs of Avernus,<a class="tag" name="tag5_68" id="tag5_68" href="#note5_68">68</a> is said once to have borne to her +own Acheron within <i>his</i> dusky caves. He beheld <i>this</i>, and +cruelly prevented her return by his discovery. The Queen of Erebus +grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird, and turned his +head, sprinkled with the waters of Phlegethon,<a class="tag" name="tag5_69" id="tag5_69" href="#note5_69">69</a> into a beak, and +feathers, and great eyes. He, <i>thus</i> robbed of his own +<i>shape</i>, is clothed with tawny wings, his head becomes larger, his +long nails bend inwards, and with difficulty can he move the wings that +spring through his sluggish arms. He becomes an obscene bird, the +foreboder of approaching woe, a lazy owl, a direful omen to +mortals.</p> + +<p>“But he, by his discovery, and his talkativeness, may seem to have +merited punishment. Whence have +<span class="pagenum mckay">204</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 552-563</span> +you, daughters of Acheloüs,<a class="tag" name="tag5_70" id="tag5_70" href="#note5_70">70</a> feathers and the feet of birds, +since you have the faces of maidens? Is it because, when Proserpine was +gathering the flowers of spring, you were mingled in the number of her +companions? After you had sought her in vain throughout the whole world, +immediately, that the waters might be +<span class="pagenum bell">182</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 557-563</span> +sensible of your concern, you wished to be able, on the support of your +wings, to hover over the waves, and you found the Gods propitious, and +saw your limbs grow yellow with feathers suddenly formed. But lest the +sweetness of your voice, formed for charming the ear, and so great +endowments of speech, should lose the gift of a tongue, your virgin +countenance and your human voice <i>still</i> remained.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Apollodorus says, that the terms of the treaty respecting Proserpine +were, that she should stay on earth nine months with Ceres, and three +with Pluto, in the Infernal Regions. Other writers divide the time +equally; six months to Ceres, and six to Pluto. They also tell us that +the story of Ascalaphus is founded on the fact, that he was one of the +courtiers of Pluto, who, having advised his master to carry away +Proserpine, did all that lay in his power to obstruct the endeavors of +Ceres, and hinder the restoration of her daughter, on which Proserpine +had him privately destroyed; to screen which deed the Fable was +invented; the pernicious counsels which he gave his master being +signified by the seeds of the pomegranate. It has also been suggested +that the story of his change into an owl was based on the circumstance +that he was the overseer of the mines of Pluto, in which he perished, +removed from the light of day. Perhaps he was there crushed to death by +the fall of a rock, which caused the poets to say that Proserpine had +covered him with a large stone, as Apollodorus informs us, who also says +that it was Ceres who inflicted the punishment upon him. The name +‘Ascalaphus’ signifies, ‘one that breaks stones,’ and, very probably, +that name was only given him to denote his employment. Some writers +state that he was changed into a lizard, which the Greeks call +‘Ascalabos,’ and, probably, the resemblance between the names gave rise +to this version of the story.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Probably, the story of the Nymph Cyane reproaching Pluto with his +treatment of Proserpine, and being thereupon changed by him into a +fountain, has no other foundation than the propinquity of the place +where Pluto’s emissaries embarked to a stream of that +<span class="pagenum mckay">205</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 564-580</span> +name near the city of Syracuse; which was, perhaps, overflowing at that +time, and may have impeded their passage.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Ovid, probably, feigned that the Sirens begged the Gods to change them +into birds, that they might seek for Proserpine, on the ground of some +existing tradition, that living on the coast of Italy, near the island +of Sicily, and having heard of the misfortune that had befallen her, +they ordered a ship with sails to be equipped to go in search of her. +Further reference to the Sirens will be made, on treating of the +adventures of Ulysses.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">183</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 564-588</span> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableVI" id="bookV_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Muse continues her song, in which +Ceres, being satisfied with the decision of Jupiter relative to her +daughter, returns to Arethusa, to learn the history of her adventures. +The Nymph entertains the Goddess with the Story of the passion of +Alpheus, and his pursuit of her; to avoid which, she implores the +assistance of Diana, who changes her into a fountain.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">But</span> Jupiter being the mediator +between his brother and his disconsolate sister, divides the rolling +year equally <i>between them</i>. For <i>now</i>, the Goddess, +a common Divinity of two kingdoms, is so many months with her +mother, and just as many with her husband. Immediately the appearance of +both her mind and her countenance is changed; for the brow of the +Goddess, which, of late, might appear sad, even to Pluto, himself, is +full of gladness; as the Sun, which has lately been covered with watery +clouds, when he comes forth from the clouds, <i>now</i> dispersed. The +genial Ceres, <i>now</i> at ease on the recovery of her daughter, +<i>thus</i> asks, ‘What was the cause of thy wanderings? Why art thou, +Arethusa, a sacred spring<ins class="corr both" title="McKay missing close quote">?’</ins> The waters are silent, <i>and</i>, the +Goddess raises her head from the deep fountain; and, having dried her +green tresses with her hand, she relates the old amours of the stream of +Elis.<a class="tag" name="tag5_71" id="tag5_71" href="#note5_71">71</a></p> + +<p>“‘I was,’ says she, ‘one of the Nymphs which exist in Achaia, nor did +any one more eagerly skim along the glades than myself, nor with more +industry set the +<span class="pagenum mckay">206</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 581-606</span> +nets. But though the reputation for beauty was never sought by me, +although, <i>too</i>, I was of robust make, <i>still</i> I had the +name of being beautiful. But my appearance, when so much commended, did +not please me; and I, like a country lass, blushed at those endowments +of person in which other females are wont to take a pride, and I deemed +it a crime to please. I remember, I was returning weary from +the Stymphalian<a class="tag" name="tag5_72" id="tag5_72" href="#note5_72">72</a> wood; the weather was hot, and my toil had redoubled +the intense heat. I found a stream gliding on without any eddies, +without any noise, <i>and</i> +<span class="pagenum bell">184</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 588-615</span> +clear to the bottom; through which every pebble, at so great a depth, +might be counted, <i>and</i> which you could hardly suppose to be in +motion. The hoary willows<a class="tag" name="tag5_73" id="tag5_73" href="#note5_73">73</a> and poplars, nourished by the water, +furnished a shade, spontaneously produced, along the shelving banks. +I approached, and, at first, I dipped the soles of my feet, +and then, as far as the knee. Not content with that, I undressed, +and I laid my soft garments upon a bending willow; and, naked, +I plunged into the waters.</p> + +<p>“‘While I was striking them, and drawing them <i>towards me</i>, +moving in a thousand ways, and was sending forth my extended arms, +I perceived a most unusual murmuring noise beneath the middle of +the stream; and, alarmed, I stood on the edge of the nearer bank. +‘Whither dost thou hasten, Arethusa?’ said Alpheus from his waves. +‘Whither dost thou hasten?’ again he said to me, in a hollow tone. Just +as I was, I fled without my clothes; <i>for</i> the other side had +my garments. So much the more swiftly did he pursue, and become +inflamed; and, because I was naked, the more tempting to him did I +appear. Thus was I running; thus unrelentingly was he pursuing me; as +the doves are wont to fly from the hawk with trembling wings, and as the +hawk is wont to pursue the trembling doves, I held out in my course +even as far as Orchomenus,<a class="tag" name="tag5_74" id="tag5_74" href="#note5_74">74</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">207</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 607-634</span> +and Psophis,<a class="tag" name="tag5_75" id="tag5_75" href="#note5_75">75</a> and Cyllene, and the Mænalian valleys, and cold <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Eyramanthus’">Erymanthus</ins> and Elis. Nor was he swifter than I, but +unequal to <i>him</i> in strength, I was unable, any longer, to +keep up the chase; for he was able to endure prolonged fatigue. However, +I ran over fields <i>and</i> over mountains covered with trees, +rocks too, and crags, and where there was no path. The sun was upon my +back; I saw a long shadow advancing before my feet, unless, +perhaps, it was my fear that +<span class="pagenum bell">185</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 615-641</span> +saw it. But, at all events, I was alarmed at the sound of his feet, +and his increased hardness of breathing was <i>now</i> fanning the +fillets of my hair. Wearied with the exertion of my flight, I said, +‘Give aid, Dictynna, to thy armor-bearer, <i>or</i> I am overtaken; +<i>I</i>, to whom thou hast so often given thy bow to carry, and thy +darts enclosed in <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘the quiver’">a quiver</ins>.’ The Goddess was moved, and, taking one of the +dense clouds, she threw it over me. The river looked about for me, +concealed in the darkness, and, in his ignorance sought about the +encircling cloud and twice, unconsciously did he go around the place +where the Goddess had concealed me, and twice did he cry, ‘Ho, +Arethusa!<a class="tag" name="tag5_76" id="tag5_76" href="#note5_76">76</a> Ho, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Ar-/thusa’ at line break">Arethusa!</ins>’ What, then, were my feelings +in my wretchedness? Were they not just those of the lamb, as it hears +the wolves howling around the high sheep-folds? Or of the hare, which, +lurking in the bush, beholds the hostile noses of the dogs, and dares +not make a single movement with her body? Yet he does not depart; for no +<i>further</i> does he trace any prints of my feet. He watches the cloud +and the spot. A cold perspiration takes possession of my limbs +<i>thus</i> besieged, and azure colored drops distil from all my body. +Wherever I move my foot, <i>there</i> +<span class="pagenum mckay">208</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 634-641</span> +flows a lake; drops trickle from my hair, and, in less time than I take +in acquainting thee with my fate, I was changed into a stream. But +still the river recognized the waters, the objects of his love; and, +having laid aside the shape of a mortal, which he had assumed, he was +changed into his own waters, that he might mingle with me. +<i>Thereupon</i>, the Delian Goddess cleaved the ground. Sinking, +I was carried through dark caverns to Ortygia,<a class="tag" name="tag5_77" id="tag5_77" href="#note5_77">77</a> which, being dear +to me, from the surname of my own Goddess, was the first to introduce me +to the upper air.’â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river +Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her, +has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language of +the first inhabitants of Sicily. The PhÅ“nicians, who went to settle in +<span class="pagenum bell">186</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 642-651</span> +that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it the +name of ‘Alphaga,’ or ‘the fountain of the willows.’ Others, again, gave +it the name of ‘Arith,’ signifying ‘a stream.’ The Greeks, arriving +there in after ages, not understanding the signification of these words, +and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis, imagined that since +the river and the fountain had nearly the same name, Alpheus had crossed +the sea, to arrive in Sicily.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity, +they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of the +river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient historians +appear, however, in their credulity, really to have believed, at least, +a part of the story, as they seriously tell us, that the river +Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises again in Sicily, near +the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more learned, this fable gained +credit; for we find the oracle <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘at’">of</ins> Delphi ordering Archias to conduct a colony of +Corinthians to Syracuse, and the priestess giving the following +directions:—‘Go into that island where the river Alpheus mixes his +waters with the fair Arethusa.’</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as a +mere <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘fable!’">fable;</ins> but, not daring to dispute a fact established by +the response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river +running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it can +happen.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">209</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 642-661</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookV_fableVII" id="bookV_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Ceres</span> entrusts her chariot to +Triptolemus, and orders him to go everywhere, and cultivate the earth. +He obeys her, and, at length, arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, +designing to kill him, is changed into a lynx. The Muse then finishes +her song, on which the daughters of Pierus are changed into magpies.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Thus</span> far Arethusa. The fertile +Goddess yoked<a class="tag" name="tag5_78" id="tag5_78" href="#note5_78">78</a> two dragons to her chariot, and curbed their mouths +with bridles; and was borne through the mid air of heaven and of earth, +and guided her light chariot to the Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; +and she ordered him to scatter the seeds that were entrusted <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘to {him}’"><i>to him</i></ins> +partly in the fallow ground, <i>and</i> partly <i>in the ground</i> +restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now had the youth been +borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,<a class="tag" name="tag5_79" id="tag5_79" href="#note5_79">79</a> and he arrived at the +coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He entered the house of the +king. Being asked whence he came, +<span class="pagenum bell">187</span> +<span class="linenum bell">V. 651-678</span> +and the occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, +‘My country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came +neither in a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious +sky made a way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered +over the wide fields, are to yield <i>you</i> the fruitful harvests, and +wholesome food.’ The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be +<i>deemed</i> the author of so great a benefit, he receives him with +hospitality, and, when overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the +sword. <i>But</i>, while attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him +a lynx; and again sent the Mopsopian<a class="tag" name="tag5_80" id="tag5_80" href="#note5_80">80</a> youth to drive the sacred drawers +of her chariot through the air.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum mckay">210</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">V. 662-678</span> +“The greatest of us<a class="tag" name="tag5_81" id="tag5_81" href="#note5_81">81</a> had <i>now</i> finished her learned song. But the +Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit +Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, <i>thus</i> +vanquished, began to scatter their abuse: ‘Since,’ said she, ‘it is a +trifling matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you +add abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we +shall proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall +follow.’ The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening +language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent +hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails, +and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the +other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the +woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the +motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, <i>as</i> magpies, +the scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness +remains in <i>them</i> as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their +enormous love of chattering.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Triptolemus reigned at Eleusis at the time when the mysteries of Ceres +were established there. As we are told by Philochorus, he went with a +ship, to carry corn into different countries, and introduced there the +worship of Ceres, whose priest he was. This is, doubtless, the key for +the +<span class="pagenum bell">188</span> +explanation of the story, that Ceres nursed him on her own milk, and +purified him by fire. Some have supposed that the fable refers to the +epoch when agriculture was introduced into Greece: but it is much more +probable that it relates simply to the introduction there of the +mysterious worship of Ceres, which was probably imported from Egypt. It +is possible that, at the same period, the Greeks may have learned some +improved method of tilling the ground, acquired by their intercourse +with Egypt.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Probably, the dangers which Triptolemus experienced in his voyages and +travels, gave rise to the story of Lyncus, whose cruelty caused him to +be changed into a lynx. Bochart and Le Clerc think that the fable +of Triptolemus being drawn by winged dragons, is based upon the +equivocal meaning of a PhÅ“nician word, which <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘signifies’">signified</ins> either ‘a winged +dragon,’ or ‘a ship fastened +<span class="pagenum mckay">211</span> +with iron nails <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘and’">or</ins> bolts.’ Philochorus, however, as cited by Eusebius, says +that his ship was called a flying dragon, from its carrying the figure +of a dragon on its prow. We learn from a fragment of Stobæus, that +Erectheus, when engaged in a war against the Eleusinians, was told by +the oracle that he would be victorious, if he sacrificed his daughter +Proserpine. This, perhaps, may have given rise, or added somewhat, to +the story of the rape of Proserpine by Pluto.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +According to a fragment of Homer, cited by Pausanias, the names of the +first Greeks, who were initiated into the mysteries of Ceres, +were,—Celeus, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles. Clement of +Alexandria calls them Baubon, Dysaulus, Eubuleüs, Eumolpus, and +Triptolemus. Eumolpus being the Hierophant, or explainer of the +mysteries of <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Eleusi’">Eleusis</ins>, made war against Erectheus, king of Athens. +They were both killed in battle, and it was thereupon agreed that the +posterity of Erectheus should be kings of Athens, and the descendants of +Eumolpus should, in future, retain the office of Hierophant.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note5_1" id="note5_1" href="#tag5_1">1.</a> +<i>Phineus.</i>]—Ver. 8. He was the brother of Cepheus, to whom +Andromeda had been betrothed. There was another person of the same name, +who entertained the Argonauts, and who is also mentioned in the +Metamorphoses.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_2" id="note5_2" href="#tag5_2">2.</a> +<i>In the cushion.</i>]—Ver. 34. This was probably the mattress or +covering of the couch on which the ancients reclined during meals. It +was frequently stuffed with wool; but among the poorer classes, with +straw and dried weeds.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_3" id="note5_3" href="#tag5_3">3.</a> +<i>An altar.</i>]—Ver. 36. This was either the altar devoted to +the worship of the Penates; or, more probably, perhaps, in this +instance, that erected for sacrifice to the Gods on the occasion of the +nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_4" id="note5_4" href="#tag5_4">4.</a> +<i>Gods of hospitality.</i>]—Ver. 45. Jupiter was especially +considered to be the avenger of a violation of the laws of +hospitality.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_5" id="note5_5" href="#tag5_5">5.</a> +<i>Athis by name.</i>]—Ver. 47. Athis, or Atys, is here described +as of Indian birth, to distinguish him from the Phrygian youth of the +same name, beloved by Cybele, whose story is told by Ovid in the +Fasti.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_6" id="note5_6" href="#tag5_6">6.</a> +<i>His falchion.</i>]—Ver. 69. The “Harpe†was a short, crooked +sword, or falchion: such as we call a “scimitar.â€</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_7" id="note5_7" href="#tag5_7">7.</a> +<i>Syene.</i>]—Ver. 74. This was a city on the confines of +Æthiopia, bordering upon Egypt. Ovid tells us in the Pontic Epistles +(Book i. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Ep. i. 79’">Ep. 5, l. 79</ins><a class="tag" name="tag5_A" id="tag5_A" href="#note5_A">A</a>), that “there, at the time of the +summer solstice, bodies as they stand, have no shadow.â€</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_8" id="note5_8" href="#tag5_8">8.</a> +<i>A huge bowl.</i>]—Ver. 82. Clarke calls “ingentem cratera†“a +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘swinging’">swingeing</ins> bowl.â€</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_9" id="note5_9" href="#tag5_9">9.</a> +<i>Sperchius.</i>]—Ver. 86. This was probably a person, and not +the river of Thessaly, flowing into the Malian Gulf.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_10" id="note5_10" href="#tag5_10">10.</a> +<i>Has declined the warfare.</i>]—Ver. 91. This is an illustration +of the danger of neutrality, when the necessity of the times requires a +man to adopt the side which he deems to be in the right.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_11" id="note5_11" href="#tag5_11">11.</a> +<i>Clings to the altars.</i>]—Ver. 103. In cases of extreme +danger, it was usual to fly to the temples of the Deities, and to take +refuge behind the altar or statue of the God, and even to cling to it, +if necessity required.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_12" id="note5_12" href="#tag5_12">12.</a> +<i>A mournful dirge.</i>]—Ver. 118. Clarke translates ‘Casuque +canit miserabile carmen;’ ‘and in his fall plays but a dismal +ditty.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_13" id="note5_13" href="#tag5_13">13.</a> +<i>Cinyphian.</i>]—Ver. 124. Cinyps, or Cinyphus, was the name of +a river situate in the north of Africa.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_14" id="note5_14" href="#tag5_14">14.</a> +<i>Nasamonian land.</i>]—Ver. 129. The Nasamones were a people of +Libya, near the Syrtes, or quicksands, who subsisted by plundering the +numerous wrecks on their coasts.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_15" id="note5_15" href="#tag5_15">15.</a> +<i>Bactrian.</i>]—Ver. 135. Bactris was the chief city of Bactria, +a region bordering on the western confines of India.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_16" id="note5_16" href="#tag5_16">16.</a> +<i>The Mendesian.</i>]—Ver. 144. Mendes was a city of Egypt, near +the mouth of the Nile, where Pan was worshipped, according to Pliny. +Celadon was a native of either this place, or of the city of Myndes, in +Syria.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_17" id="note5_17" href="#tag5_17">17.</a> +<ins class="corr bell" title="Bell reads ‘How deceived’"><i>Now +deceived.</i></ins>]—Ver. 147. Because he had not foreseen his own +approaching fate.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_18" id="note5_18" href="#tag5_18">18.</a> +<i>Bellona.</i>]—Ver. 155. She was the sister of Mars, and was the +Goddess of War.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_19" id="note5_19" href="#tag5_19">19.</a> +<i>Chaonian.</i>]—Ver. 163. Chaonia was a mountainous part of +Epirus, so called from Chaon, who was accidentally killed, while +hunting, by Helenus, the son of Priam. It has been, however, suggested +that the reading ought to be ‘Choanius;’ as the Choanii were a people +bordering on Arabia; and very justly, for how should the Chaonians and +Nabathæans, or Epirotes, and Arabians become united in the same +sentence, as meeting in a region so distant as Æthiopia?</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_20" id="note5_20" href="#tag5_20">20.</a> +<i>Cyllenian.</i>]—Ver. 176. His falchion had been given to him by +Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_21" id="note5_21" href="#tag5_21">21.</a> +<i>Eryx rebuked them.</i>]—Ver. 195. ‘Increpat hos Eryx’ is +translated by Clarke, ‘Eryx rattles these blades.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_22" id="note5_22" href="#tag5_22">22.</a> +<i>PrÅ“tus.</i>]—Ver. 238. He was the brother of Acrisius, the +grandfather of Perseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_23" id="note5_23" href="#tag5_23">23.</a> +<i>Polydectes.</i>]—Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the little +island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys had removed +Perseus, with his mother Danaë, to the kingdom of Polydectes. The latter +became smitten with love for Danaë, though he was about to marry +Hippodamia. On this occasion he exacted a promise from Perseus, of the +head of the Gorgon Medusa. When Perseus returned victorious, he found +that his mother, with her protector Dictys, had taken refuge at the +altars of the Deities, against the violence of Polydectes; on which +Perseus changed him into stone. The story of Perseus afforded abundant +materials to the ancient poets. Æschylus wrote a Tragedy called +Polydectes, Sophocles one called Danaë, while Euripides composed two, +called respectively Danaë and Dictys. Pherecydes also wrote on this +subject, and his work seems to have been a text book for succeeding +poets. Polygnotus painted the return of Perseus with the head of Medusa, +to the island of Seriphus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_24" id="note5_24" href="#tag5_24">24.</a> +<i>To her brother.</i>]—Ver. 250. As both Tritonia, or Minerva, +and Perseus had Jupiter for their father.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_25" id="note5_25" href="#tag5_25">25.</a> +<i>Gyarus.</i>]—Ver. 252. Cythnus and Gyarus were two islands of +the Cyclades.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_26" id="note5_26" href="#tag5_26">26.</a> +<i>The new fountain.</i>]—Ver. 256. This was Helicon, which was +produced by a blow from the hoof of Pegasus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_27" id="note5_27" href="#tag5_27">27.</a> +<i>Urania.</i>]—Ver. 260. One of the Muses, who presided over +Astronomy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_28" id="note5_28" href="#tag5_28">28.</a> +<i>Mnemonian.</i>]—Ver. 268. The Muses are called ‘Mnemonides,’ +from the Greek word <span class="greek" title="mnêmôn">μνήμων</span> +‘remembering,’ or ‘mindful,’ because they were said to be the daughters, +by Jupiter, of Mnemosyne, or Memory.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_29" id="note5_29" href="#tag5_29">29.</a> +<i>Phocean.</i>]—Ver. 276. Daulis was a city of Phocis; +a district between BÅ“otia and Ætolia, in which the city of Delphi +and Mount Parnassus were situate.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_30" id="note5_30" href="#tag5_30">30.</a> +<i>Our Divinities.</i>]—Ver. 279. ‘Nostra veneratus numina,’ is +translated by Clarke, ‘and worshipping our Goddessships.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_31" id="note5_31" href="#tag5_31">31.</a> +<i>Some saluting them.</i>]—Ver. 295. That is, crying out <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads χαῖÏε, χσἴÏε ‘chaire, chsire’ for ‘chaire, chaire’">χαῖÏε, χαῖÏε</ins>, the usual salutation among the +Greeks, equivalent to our ‘How d’ye do?’ From two lines of Persius, it +seems to have been a common thing to teach parrots and magpies to repeat +these words.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_32" id="note5_32" href="#tag5_32">32.</a> +<i>Lands of Pella.</i>]—Ver. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘303’">302</ins>. Pella was a city of Macedonia, in that +part of it which was called Emathia. It was famed for being the +birthplace of Philip, and Alexander the Great.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_33" id="note5_33" href="#tag5_33">33.</a> +<i>Pæonian.</i>]—Ver. 303. Pæonia was a mountainous region of +Macedonia, adjacent to Emathia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_34" id="note5_34" href="#tag5_34">34.</a> +<i>Evippe.</i>]—Ver. 303. Evippe was the wife of Pierus, and the +mother of the Pierides.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_35" id="note5_35" href="#tag5_35">35.</a> +<i>Achaia.</i>]—Ver. 306. The Achaia here mentioned was the +Hæmonian, or Thessalian Achaia. The other parts of Thessaly were +Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_36" id="note5_36" href="#tag5_36">36.</a> +<i>Aganippe.</i>]—Ver. 312. Aganippe was the name of a fountain in +BÅ“otia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses. It is called Hyantean, from +the ancient name of the inhabitants of the country.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_37" id="note5_37" href="#tag5_37">37.</a> +<i>Venus as a fish.</i>]—Ver. 331. The story of the transformation +of Venus into a fish, to escape the fury of the Giants, is told, at +length, in the second Book of the Fasti.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_38" id="note5_38" href="#tag5_38">38.</a> +<i>Wings of an Ibis.</i>]—Ver. 331. The Ibis was a bird of Egypt, +much resembling a crane, or stork. It was said to be of peculiarly +unclean habits, and to subsist upon serpents.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_39" id="note5_39" href="#tag5_39">39.</a> +<i>We of Aonia.</i>]—Ver. 333. The Muses obtained the name of +Aonides from Aonia, a mountainous district of BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_40" id="note5_40" href="#tag5_40">40.</a> +<i>Trinacria.</i>]—Ver. 347. Sicily was called Trinacris, or +Trinacria, from its three corners or promontories, which are here named +by the Poet.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_41" id="note5_41" href="#tag5_41">41.</a> +<i>Pelorus.</i>]—Ver. 350. This cape, or promontory, now called +Capo di Faro, is on the east of Sicily, looking towards Italy, whence +its present epithet, ‘Ausonian.’ It was so named from Pelorus, the pilot +of Hannibal, who, suspecting him of treachery, had put him to death, and +buried him on that spot.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_42" id="note5_42" href="#tag5_42">42.</a> +<i>Pachynus.</i>]—Ver. 351. This Cape, now Capo Passaro, looks +towards Greece, from the south of Sicily.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_43" id="note5_43" href="#tag5_43">43.</a> +<i>Lilybæum.</i>]—Ver. 351. Now called Capo Marsala. It is on the +west of Sicily, looking towards the African coast.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_44" id="note5_44" href="#tag5_44">44.</a> +<i>Erycina.</i>]—Ver. 363. Venus is so called from Eryx, the +mountain of Sicily, on which her son Eryx, one of the early Sicilian +kings, erected a magnificent temple in her honor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_45" id="note5_45" href="#tag5_45">45.</a> +<i>The triple kingdom.</i>]—Ver. 368. In the partition of the +dominion of the universe the heavens fell to the lot of Jupiter, the +seas to that of Neptune; while the infernal regions, or, as some say, +the earth, were awarded to Pluto.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_46" id="note5_46" href="#tag5_46">46.</a> +<i>Henna.</i>]—Ver. 385. Henna, or Enna, was a city so exactly +situated in the middle of Sicily that it was called the navel of that +island. The worship of Ceres there was so highly esteemed, that ancient +writers remarked, that you might easily take the whole place for one +vast temple of that Goddess, and all the inhabitants for her priests. +Proserpine is said by many authors, besides Ovid, to have been carried +away by Pluto in the vicinity of Henna; though some writers say that it +took place in Attica, and others again in Asia, while the Hymn of +Orpheus mentions the western coast of Spain. Cicero describes this spot +in his Oration against Verres: his words are, ‘It is said that Libera, +who is the Deity that we call Proserpine, was carried away from the +Grove of Enna. Enna, where these events took place to which I now refer, +is in a lofty and exposed situation; but on the summit the ground +presents a level surface, and there are springs of everflowing water. +The spot is entirely cut off and separated from all [ordinary] means of +approach. Around it are many lakes and groves, and flowers in bloom at +all seasons of the year; so that the very spot seems to portray the rape +of the damsel, with which story, from our very infancy, we have been +familiar. Close by, there is a cavern with its face towards the north, +of an immense depth, from which they say that father Pluto, in his +chariot, suddenly emerged, and carrying off the maiden, bore her away +from that spot, and then, not far from Syracuse, descended into the +earth, from which place a lake suddenly arose; where, at the present +day, the inhabitants of Syracuse celebrate a yearly festival.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_47" id="note5_47" href="#tag5_47">47.</a> +<i>Seized by Pluto.</i>]—Ver. 395. Pluto is here called ‘Dis.’ +This name was given to him as the God of the Earth, from the bowels of +which riches are dug up.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_48" id="note5_48" href="#tag5_48">48.</a> +<i>Her companions.</i>]—Ver. 397. Pausanias, in his Messeniaca, +has preserved the names of the companions of Ceres, having copied them +from the works of Homer.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_49" id="note5_49" href="#tag5_49">49.</a> +<i>Her mother.</i>]—Ver. 397. Homer, in his poem on the subject, +represents that Ceres heard the cries of her daughter, when calling upon +her mother for assistance. Ovid recounts this tale much more at length +in the fourth Book of the Fasti.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_50" id="note5_50" href="#tag5_50">50.</a> +<i>The <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Palaci’">Palici</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 406. The Palici were two +brothers, sons of Jupiter and the Nymph Thalea, and, according to some, +received their name from the Greek words <span class="greek" title="palin hikesthai">πάλιν ἱκέσθαι</span>, ‘to come again [to life].’ Their +mother, when pregnant, prayed the earth to open, and to hide her from +the vengeful wrath of Juno. This was done; and when they had arrived at +maturity, the Palici burst from the ground in the island of Sicily. They +were Deities much venerated there, but their worship did not extend to +any other countries. We learn from Macrobius that the natives of Sicily +pointed out two small lakes, from which the brothers were said to have +emerged, and that the veneration attached to them was such, that by +their means they decided disputes, as they imagined that perjurers would +meet their death in these waters, while the guiltless would be able to +come forth from them unharmed. They were fetid, sulphureous pools of +water, probably affected by the volcanic action of Mount Ætna.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_51" id="note5_51" href="#tag5_51">51.</a> +<i>The Bacchiadæ.</i>]—Ver. 407. Archias, one of the race of the +Bacchiadæ, a powerful Corinthian family, being expelled from +Corinth, was said to have founded Syracuse, the capital of Sicily. The +family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Dionysius’">Dionysus</ins>, or Bacchus, or +from the fifth king of Corinth, who was named Bacchis. The family was +expelled from Corinth by Cypselus, either on account of their luxury and +extravagant mode of life, or because they were supposed to aim at the +sovereignty.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_52" id="note5_52" href="#tag5_52">52.</a> +<i>With its two seas.</i>]—Ver. 407. Corinth is called ‘Bimaris’ +by the Latin poets, from its having the Ægean sea on one side of it, and +the Ionian sea on the other.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_53" id="note5_53" href="#tag5_53">53.</a> +<i>Built a city.</i>]—Ver. 408. Syracuse had two harbors, one of +which was much larger than the other.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_54" id="note5_54" href="#tag5_54">54.</a> +<i>Cyane.</i>]—Ver. 412. According to Claudian, Cyane was one of +the companions of Proserpine, when she was carried off by Pluto.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_55" id="note5_55" href="#tag5_55">55.</a> +<i>Anapis.</i>]—Ver. 417. This was a river of Sicily, which, +mingling with the waters of the fountain Cyane, falls into the sea at +Syracuse, opposite to the island of Ortygia. This island, in which the +fountain of Arethusa was situate, was separated from the isle of Sicily +by a narrow strait of the sea, and communicating with the city of +Syracuse by a bridge, was considered as part of it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_56" id="note5_56" href="#tag5_56">56.</a> +<i>An old woman.</i>]—Ver. 449. Arnobius calls this old woman here +mentioned by the name of Baubo. Nicander, in his Theriaca, calls her +Metaneira. Antoninus Liberalis calls her Misma, and Ovid, in the fourth +Book of the Fasti, Melanina.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_57" id="note5_57" href="#tag5_57">57.</a> +<i>Lately distilled.</i>]—Ver. 450. Orpheus, in his Hymn, calls +the drink given by the old woman to Ceres <span class="greek" title="kukeôn">κυκεὼν</span>. According to Arnobius, it was a mixed liquor, +called by the Romans ‘<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘cinus’">cinnus</ins>;’ made of parched pearled barley, honey, and wine, +with flowers and various herbs floating in it. Antoninus Liberalis says, +that Ceres drank it off, <span class="greek" title="athroôs">ἀθÏόως</span>, ‘at one draught.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_58" id="note5_58" href="#tag5_58">58.</a> +<i>A boy.</i>]—Ver. 451. According to Nicander, the boy was the +son of the old woman. If so, the Goddess made her but a poor return for +her hospitality.</p> +<p> +<a name="note5_59" id="note5_59" href="#tag5_59">59.</a> +<i>A tedious task.</i>]—Ver. 463. ‘Dicere longa mora est,’ is +rendered by Clarke, ‘It is a tedious business to tell.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_60" id="note5_60" href="#tag5_60">60.</a> +<i>The girdle.</i>]—Ver. 470. The zone, or girdle, +a fastening round the loins, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘were’">was</ins> much <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell reads ‘wore’">worn</ins> by both sexes among the ancients. It was +sometimes made of netted work, and the chief use of it was for holding +up the tunic, and keeping it from dragging on the ground. Among the +Romans, the Magister Equitum, or ‘Master of the Horse,’ wore a girdle of +red leather, embroidered by the needle, and having its extremities +joined by a gold buckle. It also formed part of the cuirass of the +warrior. The girdle was used sometimes by men to hold money instead of a +purse; and the ‘pera,’ ‘wallet,’ or ‘purse,’ was generally fastened to +the girdle. As this article of dress was used to hold up the garments +for the sake of expedition, it was loosened when people were supposed to +be abstracted from the cares of the world, as in performing sacrifice or +attending at funeral rites. A girdle was also worn by the young +women, even when the tunic was not girt up; and it was only discontinued +by them on the day of marriage. To that circumstance, allusion is made +in the present instance, as a proof of the violence that had been +committed on Proserpine.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_61" id="note5_61" href="#tag5_61">61.</a> +<i>Had been carried away.</i>]—Ver. 471. Clarke translates ‘<ins +class="corr bell" title="Bell prints ‘tum’">tunc</ins><a class="tag" name="tag5_B" id="tag5_B" href="#note5_B">B</a>denique <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘raptum’">raptam</ins> +Scisset,’ ‘knew that she had been kidnapped.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_62" id="note5_62" href="#tag5_62">62.</a> +<i>Alpheian Nymph.</i>]—Ver. 487. Alpheus was a river of Elis, in +the northwestern part of Peloponnesus. Its present name is ‘Carbon.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_63" id="note5_63" href="#tag5_63">63.</a> +<i>Beheld by my eyes.</i>]—Ver. 505. Ovid here makes Arethusa the +discoverer to Ceres of the fate of her daughter. In the Fourth Book of +the Fasti, he represents the Sun as giving her that information, in +which he follows the account given by Homer. Apollodorus describes the +descent of Pluto as taking place at Hermione, a town of Argolis, in +Peloponnesus, and the people of that place as informing Ceres of what +had happened to her daughter.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_64" id="note5_64" href="#tag5_64">64.</a> +<i>If you call it finding.</i>]—Ver. 520. This remark of the +Goddess is very like that of the Irish sailor, who vowed that a thing +could not be said to be lost when one knows where it is; and that his +master’s kettle was quite safe, for he knew it to be at the bottom of +the sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_65" id="note5_65" href="#tag5_65">65.</a> +<i>Plucked a pomegranate.</i>]—Ver. 535. It was for this reason +that the Thesmophoriazusæ, in the performance of the rites of Ceres, +were especially careful not to taste the pomegranate. This fruit was +most probably called ‘malum,’ or ‘pomum punicum,’ or ‘puniceum,’ from +the deep red or purple color of the inside, and not as having been first +introduced from PhÅ“nicia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_66" id="note5_66" href="#tag5_66">66.</a> +<i>Seven grains.</i>]—Ver. 537. He says here ‘seven,’ but in the +Fourth Book of the Fasti, only ‘three’ grains.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_67" id="note5_67" href="#tag5_67">67.</a> +<i>Ascalaphus.</i>]—Ver. 539. He was the son of Acheron, by the +Nymph Orphne, or Gorgyra, according to Apollodorus. The latter author +says, that for his unseasonable discovery, Ceres placed a rock upon him; +but that, having been liberated by Hercules, she changed him into an +owl, called <span class="greek" title="ôton">ὦτον</span>. The Greek +name of a lizard <ins class="corr mckay" title="‘being’ missing in McKay">being</ins> <span class="greek" title="askalabos">ἀσκάλαβος</span>, Mellman thinks that the transformation of +the boy into a newt, or kind of lizard, which has just been related by +the Poet, may have possibly originated in a confused version of the +story of Ascalaphus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_68" id="note5_68" href="#tag5_68">68.</a> +<i>Avernus.</i>]—Ver. 540. Avernus was a lake of Campania, near +Baiæ, of a fetid smell and gloomy aspect. Being feigned to be the mouth, +or threshold, of the Infernal Regions, its name became generally used to +signify Tartarus, or the Infernal Regions. The name is said to have been +derived from the Greek word <span class="greek" title="aornos">ἄοÏνος</span>, ‘without birds,’ or ‘unfrequented by birds,’ as +they could not endure the exhalations that were emitted by it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_69" id="note5_69" href="#tag5_69">69.</a> +<i>Phlegethon.</i>]—Ver. 544. This was a burning river of the +Infernal Regions; which received its name from the Greek word <span +class="greek" title="phlegô">φλέγω</span>, ‘to burn.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_70" id="note5_70" href="#tag5_70">70.</a> +<i>Acheloüs.</i>]—Ver. 552. The Sirens were said to be the +daughters of the river Acheloüs and of one of the Muses, either +Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_71" id="note5_71" href="#tag5_71">71.</a> +<i>Stream of Elis.</i>]—Ver. 576. The Alpheus really rose in +Arcadia; but, as it ran through the territory of the Eleans, and +discharged itself into the sea, near Cyllene, the seaport of that +people, they worshipped it with divine honors.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_72" id="note5_72" href="#tag5_72">72.</a> +<i>Stymphalian.</i>]—Ver. 585. Stymphalus was the name of a city, +mountain, and river of Arcadia, near the territory of Elis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_73" id="note5_73" href="#tag5_73">73.</a> +<i>Hoary willows.</i>]—Ver. 590. The leaf of the willow has a +whitish hue, especially on one side of it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_74" id="note5_74" href="#tag5_74">74.</a> +<i>Orchomenus.</i>]—Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia, in a +marshy district, near to Mantinea. There was another place of the same +name, in BÅ“otia, between Elatea and Coronea, famous for a splendid +temple to the Graces, there erected.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_75" id="note5_75" href="#tag5_75">75.</a> +<i>Psophis.</i>]—Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia also, +adjoining to the <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘Eleon’">Elean</ins> territory, which received its name from Psophis, +the daughter of Lycaon, or of Eryx, according to some writers. There +were several other towns of the same name. The other places here +mentioned, with the exception of Elis, were mountains of Arcadia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_76" id="note5_76" href="#tag5_76">76.</a> +<i>Ho, Arethusa!</i>]—Ver. 625-6. Clarke thus translates these +lines:—‘And twice called out Soho, Arethusa! Soho, Arethusa! What +thought had I then, poor soul!’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_77" id="note5_77" href="#tag5_77">77.</a> +<i>To Ortygia.</i>]—Ver. 640. From the similarity of its name to +that of the Goddess Diana, who was called Ortygia, from the Isle of +Delos, where she was born.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_78" id="note5_78" href="#tag5_78">78.</a> +<i>Goddess yoked.</i>]—Ver. 642. Clarke renders ‘geminos Dea +fertilis angues curribus admovit,’ ‘the fertile Goddess clapped two +snakes to her chariot.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_79" id="note5_79" href="#tag5_79">79.</a> +<i>Lands of Asia.</i>]—Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here meant; the +other parts of Asia being included under the term ‘Scythicas oras.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_80" id="note5_80" href="#tag5_80">80.</a> +<i>Mopsopian.</i>]—Ver. 661. This very uneuphonious name is +derived from Mopsopus, one of the ancient kings of Attica. It here means +‘Athenian.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_81" id="note5_81" href="#tag5_81">81.</a> +<i>The greatest of us.</i>]—Ver. 662. Namely, Calliope, who had +commenced her song as the representative of the Muses, at line 341.</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Notes (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note5_A" id="note5_A" href="#tag5_A">A.</a> +... the Pontic Epistles (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79). In the Bell +printing, the “l†of “l. 79†is damaged and can be misread as +an “iâ€. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note5_B" id="note5_B" href="#tag5_B">B.</a> +tunc denique raptam: Ovid V.471. The readings “tunc†and “tum†are both +found, with no difference in meter or translation, but “raptum†for +“raptam†is an error. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">212</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">189</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookVI" id="bookVI"></a> +BOOK THE SIXTH.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableI" id="bookVI_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Arachne</span>, vain-glorious of her +ingenuity, challenges Minerva to a contest of skill in her art. The +Goddess accepts the challenge, and, being enraged to see herself +outdone, strikes her rival with her shuttle; upon which, Arachne, in her +distress, hangs herself. Minerva, touched with compassion, transforms +her into a spider.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Tritonia</span> had <i>meanwhile</i> lent +an ear to such recitals as these, and she approved of the songs of the +Aonian maids, and their just resentment. Then <i>thus she says</i> to +herself: “To commend is but a trifling matter; let us, too, deserve +commendation, and let us not permit our divine majesty to be slighted +without <i>due</i> punishment.†And <i>then</i> she turns her mind to +the fate of the Mæonian Arachne; who, as she had heard, did not yield to +her in the praises of the art of working in wool. She was renowned not +for the place <i>of her birth</i>, nor for the origin of her family, but +for her skill <i>alone</i>. Idmon, of Colophon,<a class="tag" name="tag6_1" id="tag6_1" href="#note6_1">1</a> her father, used to dye +the soaking wool in Phocæan<a class="tag" name="tag6_2" id="tag6_2" href="#note6_2">2</a> purple.<a class="tag" name="tag6_3" id="tag6_3" href="#note6_3">3</a> Her mother was dead; but she, too, +was of the lower rank, and of the same condition with her husband. Yet +<i>Arachne</i>, by her skill, had acquired a memorable name throughout +the cities of Lydia; although, born of a humble family, she used to live +in the little <i>town</i> of Hypæpæ.<a class="tag" name="tag6_4" id="tag6_4" href="#note6_4">4</a> Often +<span class="pagenum mckay">213</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 14-41</span> +did the Nymphs desert the +<span class="pagenum bell">190</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 15-45</span> +vineyards of their own Tymolus, that they might look at her admirable +workmanship; <i>often</i> did the Nymphs of the <i>river</i> Pactolus<a +class="tag" name="tag6_5" id="tag6_5" href="#note6_5">5</a> +forsake their streams. And not only did it give them pleasure to look at +the garments when made, but even, too, while they were being made, so +much grace was there in her working. Whether it was that she was rolling +the rough wool into its first balls, or whether she was unravelling the +work with her fingers, and was softening the fleeces worked over again +with long drawings out, equalling the mists <i>in their fineness</i>; or +whether she was moving the <i>smooth</i> round spindle with her nimble +thumb, or was embroidering with the needle, you might perceive that she +had been instructed by Pallas.</p> + +<p>This, however, she used to deny; and, being displeased with a +mistress so famed, she said, “Let her contend with me. There is nothing +which, if conquered, I should refuse <i>to endure</i>.†Pallas +personates an old woman; she both places false gray hair on her temples, +and supports as well her infirm limbs by a staff. Then thus she begins +to speak: “Old age has not everything which we should avoid; experience +comes from lengthened years. Do not despise my advice; let the greatest +fame for working wool be sought by thee among mortals. <i>But</i> yield +to the Goddess, and, rash woman, ask pardon for thy speeches with +suppliant voice. She will grant pardon at my entreaty.†<i>The other</i> +beholds her with scowling <i>eyes</i>, and leaves the threads she has +begun; and scarcely restraining her hand, and discovering her anger by +her looks, with such words as these does she reply to the disguised +Pallas: “Thou comest <i>here</i> bereft of thy understanding, and worn +out with prolonged old age; and it is thy misfortune to have lived too +long. If thou hast any daughter-in-law, if thou hast any daughter <i>of +thy own</i>, let her listen to these remarks. I have sufficient +knowledge for myself in myself, and do not imagine that thou hast +availed anything by thy advice; my +<span class="pagenum mckay">214</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 42-67</span> +opinion is <i>still</i> the same. Why does not she come herself? why +does she decline this contest?â€</p> + +<p>Then the Goddess says, “Lo! she is come;†and she casts aside the +figure of an old woman, and shows herself <i>as</i> Pallas. The Nymphs +and the Mygdonian<a class="tag" name="tag6_6" id="tag6_6" href="#note6_6">6</a> matrons venerate the Goddess. +<span class="pagenum bell">191</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 45-73</span> +The virgin alone is not daunted. But still she blushes, and a sudden +flush marks her reluctant features, and again it vanishes; <i>just</i> +as the sky is wont to become tinted with purple, when Aurora is first +stirring, and after a short time to grow white from the influence of the +Sun. She persists in her determination, and, from a desire for a foolish +victory, she rushes upon her own destruction. Nor, indeed, does the +daughter of Jupiter decline <i>it</i>, or advise her any further, nor +does she now put off the contest. There is no delay; they both take +their stand in different places, and stretch out two webs <i>on the +loom</i> with a fine warp. The web is tied around the beam; the <ins +class="corr both" title="technical term; missing from many dictionaries">sley</ins> separates the warp; the woof is inserted in the +middle with sharp shuttles, which the fingers hurry along, and being +drawn within the warp, the teeth notched in the moving sley strike it. +Both hasten on, and girding up their garments to their breasts, they +move their skilful arms, their eagerness beguiling their fatigue. There +both the purple is being woven, which is subjected to the Tyrian brazen +vessel,<a class="tag" name="tag6_7" id="tag6_7" href="#note6_7">7</a> and fine shades of minute difference; just as the +rainbow, with its mighty arch, is wont to tint a long tract of the sky +by means of the rays reflected by the shower: in which, though a +thousand different colors are shining, yet the very transition eludes +the eyes that look upon it; to such a degree is that which is adjacent +the same; and yet the extremes are different. There, too, the +<span class="pagenum mckay">215</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 68-90</span> +pliant gold is mixed with the threads, and ancient subjects are +represented on the webs.</p> + +<p>Pallas embroiders the rock of Mars<a class="tag" name="tag6_8" id="tag6_8" href="#note6_8">8</a> in <i>Athens</i>, the citadel of +Cecrops, and the old dispute about the name of the country. Twice six<a +class="tag" name="tag6_9" id="tag6_9" href="#note6_9">9</a> +celestial Gods are sitting on lofty seats in august +<span class="pagenum bell">192</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 73-95</span> +state, with Jupiter in the midst. His own proper likeness distinguishes +each of the Gods. The form of Jupiter is that of a monarch. She makes +the God of the sea to be standing <i>there</i>, and to be striking the +rugged rocks with his long trident, and a wild <i>horse</i> to be +springing forth<a class="tag" name="tag6_10" id="tag6_10" href="#note6_10">10</a> out of the midst of the opening of the rock; by which +pledge <i>of his favor</i> he lays claim to the city. But to herself she +gives the shield, she gives the lance with its sharp point; she gives +the helmet to her head, <i>and</i> her breast is protected by the Ægis. +She <i>there</i> represents, too, the earth struck by her spear, +producing a shoot of pale olive with its berries, and the Gods admiring +it. Victory is the end of her work. But that the rival of her fame may +learn from precedents what reward to expect for an attempt so mad, she +adds, in four <i>different</i> parts, four contests bright in their +coloring, and distinguished by diminutive figures. One corner contains +Thracian Rhodope and Hæmus, now cold mountains, formerly human bodies, +who assumed to themselves the names of the supreme Gods. Another part +contains the wretched fate of the Pygmæan matron.<a class="tag" name="tag6_11" id="tag6_11" href="#note6_11">11</a> Her, overcome +<span class="pagenum mckay">216</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 91-110</span> +in a contest, Juno commanded to be a crane, and to wage war against her +own people. She depicts, too, Antigone,<a class="tag" name="tag6_12" id="tag6_12" href="#note6_12">12</a> who once dared to contend with +the wife of the great Jupiter; <i>and</i> whom the royal Juno changed +into a bird; nor did Ilion protect +<span class="pagenum bell">193</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 95-114</span> +her, or her father Laomedon, from assuming wings, and <i>as</i> a white +crane, from commending herself with her chattering beak. The only corner +that remains, represents the bereft Cinyras;<a class="tag" name="tag6_13" id="tag6_13" href="#note6_13">13</a> and he, embracing the +steps of a temple, <i>once</i> the limbs of his own daughters, and lying +upon the stone, appears to be weeping. She surrounds the exterior +borders with peaceful olive. That is the close; and with her own tree +she puts an end to the work.</p> + +<p>The Mæonian Nymph delineates Europa, deceived by the form of the +bull; and you would think it a real bull, and real sea. She herself +seems to be looking upon the land which she has left, and to be crying +out to her companions, and to be in dread of the touch of the dashing +waters, and to be drawing up her timid feet. She drew also Asterie,<a +class="tag" name="tag6_14" id="tag6_14" href="#note6_14">14</a> +seized by the struggling eagle; and made Leda, reclining beneath the +wings of the swan. She added, how Jupiter, concealed under the form of a +<span class="pagenum mckay">217</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 110-118</span> +Satyr, impregnated <i>Antiope</i>,<a class="tag" name="tag6_15" id="tag6_15" href="#note6_15">15</a> the beauteous daughter of Nycteus, +with a twin offspring; <i>how</i> he was Amphitryon, when he beguiled +thee, Tirynthian<a class="tag" name="tag6_16" id="tag6_16" href="#note6_16">16</a> dame; how, turned to gold, he deceived Danaë; +<i>how</i>, changed into fire, the daughter of Asopus;<a class="tag" +name="tag6_17" id="tag6_17" href="#note6_17">17</a> <i>how</i>, as +a shepherd, Mnemosyne;<a class="tag" name="tag6_18" id="tag6_18" +href="#note6_18">18</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">194</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 114-126</span> +and as a speckled serpent, Deois.<a class="tag" name="tag6_19" id="tag6_19" href="#note6_19">19</a> She depicted thee too, Neptune, +changed into a fierce bull, with the virgin daughter<a class="tag" +name="tag6_20" id="tag6_20" href="#note6_20">20</a> of Æolus. +Thou, seeming to be Enipeus,<a class="tag" name="tag6_21" id="tag6_21" href="#note6_21">21</a> didst beget the Aloïdæ; as a ram, +thou didst delude <i>Theophane</i>, the daughter of Bisaltis.<a class="tag" name="tag6_22" id="tag6_22" href="#note6_22">22</a> Thee too +the most bounteous mother of corn, with her yellow hair, experienced<a +class="tag" name="tag6_23" id="tag6_23" href="#note6_23">23</a> +as a steed; thee, the mother<a class="tag" name="tag6_24" id="tag6_24" href="#note6_24">24</a> of the winged horse, with her snaky +locks, received as a bird; +<span class="pagenum mckay">218</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 119-139</span> +Melantho,<a class="tag" name="tag6_25" id="tag6_25" href="#note6_25">25</a> as a dolphin. To all these did she give their own +likeness, and the <i>real</i> appearance of the <i>various</i> +localities. There was PhÅ“bus, under the form of a rustic; and how, +<i>besides</i>, he was wearing the wings of a hawk at one time, at +another the skin of a lion; how, too, as a shepherd, he deceived Isse,<a +class="tag" name="tag6_26" id="tag6_26" href="#note6_26">26</a> +the daughter of Macareus. How Liber deceived Erigone,<a class="tag" +name="tag6_27" id="tag6_27" href="#note6_27">27</a> in a +fictitious bunch of grapes; <i>and</i> how Saturn<a class="tag" name="tag6_28" id="tag6_28" href="#note6_28">28</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">195</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 126-145</span> +begot the two-formed Chiron, in <i>the form of</i> a horse. The extreme +part of the web, being enclosed in a fine border, had flowers interwoven +with the twining ivy.</p> + +<p>Pallas could not blame that work, nor could Envy <i>censure</i> it. +The yellow-haired Virgin grieved at her success, and tore the web +embroidered with the criminal acts of the Gods of heaven. And as she was +holding her shuttle <i>made of boxwood</i> from Mount Cytorus, three or +four times did she strike the forehead of Arachne, the daughter of +Idmon. The unhappy creature could not endure it; and being of a high +spirit, she tied up her throat in a halter. Pallas, taking compassion, +bore her up as she hung; and thus she said: “Live on indeed, wicked +one,<a class="tag" name="tag6_29" id="tag6_29" href="#note6_29">29</a> but still hang; and let the same decree of punishment +be pronounced against thy race, and against thy latest posterity, that +thou mayst not be free from care in time to come.†After that, as she +departed, she sprinkled her with the juices of an Hecatean herb;<a class="tag" name="tag6_30" id="tag6_30" href="#note6_30">30</a> +<span class="pagenum mckay">219</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 140-145</span> +and immediately her hair, touched by the noxious drug, fell off, and +together with it her nose and ears. The head of herself, <i>now</i> +small as well throughout her whole body, becomes very small. Her slender +fingers cleave to her sides as legs; her belly takes possession of the +rest <i>of her</i>; but out of this she gives forth a thread; and +<i>as</i> a spider, she works at her web as formerly.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of Arachne is most probably based upon the simple fact, that +she was the most skilful artist of her time, at working in silk and +wool. Pliny the Elder tells us, that Arachne, the daughter of Idmon, +a Lydian by birth, and of low extraction, invented the art of +making linen cloths and nets; which invention was also by some +attributed to Minerva. This competition, then, for the merit of the +invention, is the foundation of the challenge here described by the +Poet. As, however, Arachne is said to have hanged herself in despair, +she probably fell a prey to some cause of grief or discontent, the +particulars of which, in their simple form, have +<span class="pagenum bell">196</span> +not come down to us. Perhaps the similarity of her name and employment +with those of the spider, as known among the Greeks, gave rise to the +story of her alleged transformation; unless <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘he’">we</ins> should prefer to attribute the story +to the fact of the Hebrew word “arag,†signifying to spin, and, in some +degree, resembling her name.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +In this story, Ovid takes the opportunity of touching upon several +fables, the subjects whereof he states to have been represented in the +works of Minerva and Arachne. He alludes, among other matters, to the +dispute between Neptune and Minerva, about giving a name to the city of +Athens. St. <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Augustin’">Augustine</ins>, on the authority of Varro, says, that +Cecrops, in building that city, found an olive tree and a fountain, and +that the oracle at Delphi, on being consulted, stating that both Minerva +and Neptune had a right to name the city, the Senate decided in favor of +the Goddess; and this circumstance, he says, gave rise to the story. +According to some writers, it was based on the fact, that Cranaüs +changed the name of the city from Poseidonius, which it was called after +Neptune, to Athenæ, after his own daughter Athena: and as the Areiopagus +sanctioned this change, it was fabled that Neptune had been overcome by +the judgment of the Gods.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Jesuit Tournemine suggests the following explanation of the +story:—He says, that the aborigines of Attica, being conquered by +the Pelasgians, learned from them the art of navigation, which they +turned to account by becoming pirates. Cecrops, bringing a +<span class="pagenum mckay">220</span> +colony from Saïs, in Egypt, tried to abolish this barbarous custom, and +taught them a more civilized mode of life; and, among other things, he +showed them how to till the earth, and to raise the olive, for the +cultivation of which he found the soil very favorable. He also +introduced the worship of Minerva, or Athena, as she was called, +a Goddess highly honored at Saïs, and to whom the olive tree was +dedicated. Her the Athenians afterwards regarded as the patroness of +their city, which they called after her name. Athens becoming famous for +its olives, and, considerable profit arising from their cultivation, the +new settlers attempted to wean the natives from piracy, by calling their +attention to <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘agricultual’">agricultural</ins> pursuits. To succeed in this, they +composed a fable, in which Neptune was said to be overcome by Minerva; +who, even in the judgment of the twelve greater deities, had found out +something of more utility than he. This fable Tournemine supposes to +have been composed in the ancient language of the country, which was the +Phrygian, mingled with many PhÅ“nician words; and, as in those languages +the same word signifies either a ship or a horse, those who afterwards +interpreted the fable, took the word in the latter signification, and +spoke of a horse instead of a ship, which was really the original emblem +employed in the fiction.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Vossius thinks that the fable originated in a dispute between the +sailors of Athens, who acknowledged Neptune for their chief, and the +people, who followed the Senate, governed by Minerva. The people +prevailed, and a life of civilization, marked by attention to the +pursuits of agriculture, was substituted for one of piracy; which gave +occasion for the saying, that Minerva had overcome Neptune.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +With reference to the intrigues and lustful actions attributed to the +<span class="pagenum bell">197</span> +various Deities by Arachne in the delineations on her embroidery, we may +here remark, by way of elucidating the origin of these stories in +general, that, in early times, when the earth was sunk in ignorance and +superstition, and might formed the only right in the heathen world, +where a king or petty chieftain demanded the daughter of a neighbor in +marriage, and met with a refusal, he immediately had recourse to arms, +to obtain her by force. Their standards and ships, on these expeditions, +carrying their ensigns, consisting of birds, beasts, or fabulous +monsters, gave occasion to those who described their feats of prowess to +say, that the ravisher had changed himself into a bull, an eagle, or a +lion, for the purpose of effecting his object. The kings and potentates +of those days, being frequently called Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, etc., +and the priests of the Gods so named often obtaining their ends by +assuming the names of the Divinities they served, we can account the +more easily for the number of intrigues and abominable actions, attended +by changes and transformations, which the poets and mythologists +attribute to many of the Deities.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Palæphatus suggests a very ingenious method of accounting for these +stories; founded, however, it must be owned, on a very low estimate of +female virtue in those times. He says, that these fabulous narratives +originate in the figures of different animals which were engraved on the +coins of those times; and that, when money was given to buy over or to +procure the seduction of a female, it was afterward said that the lover +had himself taken <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘the // the’ at page break">the</ins> +<span class="pagenum mckay">221</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 146-148</span> +figure which was represented on the coin, by means of which his object +had been effected.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Ovid, in common with many of the ancient historians, geographers, and +naturalists, mentions the Pygmies, of which, from the time of Homer +downwards, a nation was supposed to exist, in a state of continual +warfare with the Cranes. Aristotle, who believed in their existence, +placed them in Æthiopia; Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus in India, near +the source of the Ganges; others again, in Scythia, on the banks of the +Danube. Some of the moderns have attempted to explain the origin of this +prevalent notion. Olaüs Magnus thinks the Samoeids and Laplanders to +have been the Pygmies of Homer. Gesner and others fancy that they have +found their originals in Thuringia; while Albertus Magnus supposed that +the Pygmies were the monkeys, which are so numerous <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘is’">in</ins> the interior of Africa, and +which were taken for human beings of diminutive stature. Vander Hart, +who has written a most ingenious treatise on the subject, suggests that +the fable originated in a war between two cities in Greece, Pagæ and +Gerania, the similarity of whose names to those of the Pygmies and the +Cranes, gave occasion to their neighbors, the Corinthians, to confer on +them those nicknames. It is most probable, however, that the story was +founded upon the diminutive stature of some of the native tribes of the +interior of Africa.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +As to the fable of Pygas being changed into a crane, Banier suggests, +that the origin of it may be found in the work of Antoninus Liberalis, +quoting from the Theogony of BÅ“us. That poet, whose works are lost, +says, that among the Pygmies there was a very beautiful princess, named +Å’noë, who greatly oppressed her subjects. Having married Nicodamas, she +had by him a son, named Mopsus, whom her subjects seized upon, to +<span class="pagenum bell">198</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 146-166</span> +educate him in their own way. She accordingly raised levies against her +own subjects; and that circumstance, together with the name of Gerane, +which, according to Ælian, she also bore, gave rise to the fable, which +said that she was changed into a crane; the resemblance which it bore to +‘geranos,’ the Greek for ‘a crane,’ suggesting the foundation of the +story.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableII" id="bookVI_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Theban matrons, forming a solemn +procession in honor of Latona, Niobe esteems herself superior to the +Goddess, and treats her and her offspring with contempt; on which, +Apollo and Diana, to avenge the affront offered to their mother, destroy +all the children of Niobe; and she, herself, is changed into a +statue.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">All</span> Lydia is in an uproar, and the +rumor of the fact goes through the town of Phrygia, and fills the wide +world with discourse <i>thereon</i>. Before her own marriage Niobe had +known her,<a class="tag" name="tag6_31" id="tag6_31" href="#note6_31">31</a> at the time, when still +<span class="pagenum mckay">222</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 149-176</span> +single, she was inhabiting Mæonia and Sipylus.<a class="tag" name="tag6_32" id="tag6_32" href="#note6_32">32</a> And yet by the +punishment of her countrywoman, Arachne, she was not warned to yield to +the inhabitants of Heaven, and to use less boastful words. Many things +augmented her pride; but yet, neither the skill of her husband, nor the +descent of them both, nor the sovereignty of a mighty kingdom, pleased +her so much (although all of them did please her) as her own progeny; +and Niobe might have been pronounced the happiest of mothers, if she had +not so seemed to herself.</p> + +<p>For Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, foreknowing the future, urged by +a divine impulse, had proclaimed through the middle of the streets, “Ye +women of Ismenus, go all of you,<a class="tag" name="tag6_33" id="tag6_33" href="#note6_33">33</a> and give to Latona, and the two +children of Latona, the pious frankincense, together with prayers, and +wreathe your hair with laurel; by my mouth does Latona command +<i>this</i>.†Obedience is paid; and all the Theban women adorn their +temples with leaves <i>of laurel</i>, as commanded, and offer +frankincense on the sacred fires, and words of supplication. Lo! Niobe +comes, surrounded with a crowd of attendants, conspicuous for the +<span class="pagenum bell">199</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 146-166</span> +gold interwoven in her Phrygian garments, and beautiful, so far as anger +will allow; and tossing her hair, hanging down on both shoulders, with +her graceful head, she stands still; and as she loftily casts around her +haughty eyes, she says, <ins class="corr both" title="McKay missing open quote">“What</ins> madness is this to prefer the inhabitants of +Heaven, that you have <i>only</i> heard of, to those who are seen? or +why is Latona worshipped at the altars, <i>and</i> my Godhead is still +without its <i>due</i> frankincense? Tantalus was my father, who alone +was allowed to approach the tables of the Gods above. The sister of the +Pleiades<a class="tag" name="tag6_34" id="tag6_34" href="#note6_34">34</a> is my mother; the most mighty Atlas is my grandsire, +who bears the æthereal skies upon his neck. Jupiter is my other +grandsire; of him, too, I +<span class="pagenum mckay">223</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 176-200</span> +boast as my father-in-law.<a class="tag" name="tag6_35" id="tag6_35" href="#note6_35">35</a> The Phrygian nations dread me; the +palace of Cadmus is subject to me as its mistress; and the walls that +were formed by the strings of my husband’s <i>lyre</i>, together with +their people, are governed by me and my husband; to whatever part of the +house I turn my eyes, immense wealth is seen. To this is added a face +worthy of a Goddess. Add to this my seven daughters,<a class="tag" +name="tag6_36" id="tag6_36" href="#note6_36">36</a> and as many +sons, and, at a future day, sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. Now +inquire what ground my pride has <i>for its existence</i>; and presume +to prefer Latona the Titaness, the daughter of some obscure Cæus, to +whom, when in travail,<a class="tag" name="tag6_37" id="tag6_37" +href="#note6_37">37</a> the great earth once refused a little spot, to +myself. Neither by heaven, nor by earth, nor by water, was your Goddess +received; she was banished the world, till Delos, pitying the wanderer, +said, “Thou dost roam a stranger on the land, I in the waves;†and +gave her an unstable place <i>of rest</i>. She was made the mother of +two children, that is <i>but</i> the seventh part of my issue. I am +fortunate, and who shall deny it? and fortunate I shall remain; who, +too, can doubt of that? +<span class="pagenum bell">200</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 194-227</span> +Plenty has made me secure; I am too great for Fortune possibly to +hurt; and, though she should take away many things from me, <i>even +then</i> much more will she leave me: my <i>many</i> blessings have now +risen superior to apprehensions. Suppose it possible for some part of +this multitude of my children to be taken away <i>from me</i>; still, +thus stripped, I shall not be reduced to two, the number of Latona; +an amount, by the number of which, how far, <i>I pray</i>, is she +removed from one that is childless? Go from the sacrifice; +<span class="pagenum mckay">224</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 200-230</span> +hasten away from the sacrifice, and remove the laurel from your +hair!â€</p> + +<p>They remove it, and the sacrifice they leave unperformed; and what +they can do, they adore the Divinity in gentle murmurs. The Goddess was +indignant; and on the highest top of <i>Mount</i> Cynthus, she spoke to +her two children in such words as these: “Behold! I, your mother, +proud of having borne you, and who shall yield to no one of the +Goddesses, except to Juno <i>alone</i>, am called in question whether I +am a Goddess, and, for all future ages, I am driven from the altars +devoted <i>to me</i>, unless you give me aid. Nor is this my only grief; +the daughter of Tantalus has added abusive language to her shocking +deeds, and has dared to postpone you to her own children, and (what <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘I {wish}’"><i>I +wish</i></ins> may fall upon herself), she has called me childless; and +the profane <i>wretch</i> has discovered a tongue like her father’s.â€<a +class="tag" name="tag6_38" id="tag6_38" href="#note6_38">38</a> +To this relation Latona was going to add entreaties, when PhÅ“bus said, +“Cease thy complaints, ’tis prolonging the delay of her punishment.†+PhÅ“be said the same; and, by a speedy descent through the air, they +arrived, covered with clouds, at the citadel of Cadmus.</p> + +<p>There was near the walls a plain, level, and extending far and wide, +trampled continually by horses, where multitudes of wheels and hard +hoofs had softened the clods placed beneath them. There, part of the +seven sons of Amphion are mounting upon their spirited steeds, and press +their backs, red with the Tyrian dye, and wield the reins heavy with +gold; of these, Ismenus, who had formerly been the first burden of his +mother, while he is guiding the steps of the horses in a perfect circle, +and is curbing their foaming mouths, cries aloud, “Ah, wretched me!†+and, pierced through the middle of his breast, +<span class="pagenum bell">201</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 228-256</span> +bears a dart <i>therein</i>; and the reins dropping from his dying hand, +by degrees he falls on his side, over <i>the horse’s</i> shoulder. The +next <i>to him</i>, Sipylus, on hearing the sound of a quiver in the +air, gives +<span class="pagenum mckay">225</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 230-256</span> +rein<a class="tag" name="tag6_39" id="tag6_39" href="#note6_39">39</a> <i>to his horse</i>; as when the pilot, sensible of +the storm <i>approaching</i>, flies on seeing a cloud, and unfurls the +hanging sails on every side, that the light breeze may by no means +escape them. He gives rein, <i>I said</i>; while thus giving it, the +unerring dart overtakes him, and an arrow sticks quivering in the top of +his neck, and the bare steel protrudes from his throat. He, as he is +bending forward, rolls over the neck, <i>now</i> let loose, and +<i>over</i> the mane, and stains the ground with his warm blood. The +unhappy Phædimus, and Tantalus, the heir to the name of his grandsire, +when they had put an end to their wonted exercise <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘of {riding}’"><i>of riding</i></ins>, had +turned to the youthful exercises of the palæstra, glowing with oil;<a +class="tag" name="tag6_40" id="tag6_40" href="#note6_40">40</a> +and now had they brought<a class="tag" name="tag6_41" id="tag6_41" +href="#note6_41">41</a> breast to breast, struggling in a close +grapple, when an arrow, sped onward from the stretched bow, pierced them +both, just as they were united together. At the same instant they +groaned aloud, and together they laid their limbs on the ground, +writhing with pain; together as they lay, for the last time, they rolled +their eyeballs, and together they breathed forth their life.</p> + +<p>Alphenor sees this, and, beating his torn breast, flies to them, to +lift up their cold limbs in his embrace, and falls in this affectionate +duty. For the Delian God pierces the inner part of his midriff with the +fatal steel. Soon as it is pulled out, a part of his lungs is +dragged forth on the barbs, and his blood is poured forth, with his +life, into the air; but no single wound reaches the unshaven +Damasicthon. He is struck where the leg commences, and where the sinewy +ham +<span class="pagenum bell">202</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 256-290</span> +makes the +<span class="pagenum mckay">226</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 256-287</span> +space between the joints soft; and while he is trying with his hand to +draw out the fatal weapon, another arrow is driven through his neck, up +to the feathers. The blood drives this out, and itself starting forth, +springs up on high, and, piercing the air, spouts forth afar. The last +<i>of them</i>, Ilioneus, had raised his unavailing arms in prayer, and +had said, “O, all ye Gods, in common, (not knowing that all were +not to be addressed) spare me!†The <i>God</i>, the bearer of the bow, +was moved, when now his arrow could not be recalled; yet he died with +the slightest wound <i>of all</i>, his heart not being struck deep by +the arrow.</p> + +<p>The report of this calamity, and the grief of the people, and the +tears of her family, made the mother acquainted with a calamity so +sudden, wondering that it could have happened, and enraged that the Gods +above had dared this, <i>and</i> that they enjoyed a privilege so great. +For Amphion the father, thrusting his sword through his breast, dying, +had ended his grief together with his life. Alas! how different is this +Niobe from that Niobe who had lately driven the people from the altars +of Latona, and, with lofty head, had directed her steps through the +midst of the city, envied by her own people, but now to be pitied even +by an enemy! She falls down upon the cold bodies, and with no +distinction she distributes her last kisses among all her sons. Raising +her livid arms from these towards heaven, she says, “Glut thyself, cruel +Latona, with my sorrow; glut thyself, and satiate thy breast with my +mourning; satiate, too, thy relentless heart with seven deaths. +I have received my death-blow;<a class="tag" name="tag6_42" id="tag6_42" href="#note6_42">42</a> exult and triumph, my victorious +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘enemy,’">enemy.</ins> +But why <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘v’ctorious’">victorious</ins>? More remains to me, in my misery, than +to thee, in thy happiness. Even after so many deaths, I am the +conqueror.†<i>Thus</i> she spoke; <i>when</i> the string twanged from +the bent bow, which affrighted all but Niobe alone; she <i>became</i> +bold by her misfortunes.</p> + +<p><span class="pagenum mckay">227</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 288-312</span> +The sisters were standing in black array, with their hair dishevelled, +before the biers<a class="tag" name="tag6_43" id="tag6_43" href="#note6_43">43</a> of their brothers. One of these, +<span class="pagenum bell">203</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 290-312</span> +drawing out the weapon sticking in her entrails, about to die, swooned +away, with her face placed upon her brother. Another, endeavoring to +console her wretched parent, was suddenly silent, and was doubled +together with an invisible wound; and did not close her mouth, until +after the breath had departed. Another, vainly flying, falls down; +another dies upon her sister; another lies hid; another you might see +trembling. And <i>now</i> six being put to death, and having received +different wounds, the last <i>only</i> remains; her mother covering her +with all her body, <i>and</i> with all her garments, cries, “Leave me +but one, and that the youngest; the youngest only do I ask out of so +many, and <i>that but</i> one.†And while she was entreating, she, for +whom she was entreating, was slain. Childless, she sat down among her +dead sons and daughters and husband, and became hardened by her woes. +The breeze moves no hair <i>of hers</i>; in her features is a color +without blood; her eyes stand unmoved in her sad cheeks; in her form +there is no <i>appearance</i> of life. Her tongue itself, too, congeals +within, together with her hardened palate, and the veins cease to be +able to be moved. Her neck can neither be bent, nor can her arms give +any motion, nor her feet move. Within her entrails, too, it is +stone.</p> + +<p>Still did she weep on; and, enveloped in a hurricane of mighty wind, +she was borne away to her native land. There, fixed on the top of a +mountain,<a class="tag" name="tag6_44" id="tag6_44" href="#note6_44">44</a> she dissolves; and even yet does the marble distil +tears.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">228</span> +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +All the ancient historians agree with Diodorus Siculus and Apollodorus, +that Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and the sister of Pelops; but +she must not be confounded with a second Niobe, who was the daughter of +Phoroneus, and the first mortal (Homer tells us) with whom Jupiter fell +in love. Homer says that she was the mother of twelve children, six sons +and six daughters. Herodotus says, that she had but two sons and three +daughters. Diodorus Siculus makes her the mother of fourteen +<span class="pagenum bell">204</span> +children, seven of each sex. Apollodorus, on the authority of Hesiod, +says, that she had ten sons and as many daughters; but gives the names +of fourteen only. The story of the destruction of her children is most +likely based upon truth, and bears reference to a historical fact. The +plague, which ravaged the city of Thebes, destroyed all the children of +Niobe; and contagious distempers being attributed to the excessive heat +of the sun, it was fabled that Apollo had killed them with his arrows; +while women, who died of the plague, were said to owe their death to the +anger of Diana. Thus, Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of +Andromache were killed by Diana. Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of +<ins class="corr bell" title="Bell reads ‘Clyte’">Clytie</ins>, the +wife of Cyzicus, on the death of her mother, killed by the same Goddess; +so the Scholiast on Pindar (Pythia, ode iii.) says, on the authority of +Pherecydes, that Apollo sent Diana to kill Coronis and several other +women. Eustathius distinctly asserts, that the poets attributed the +deaths of men, who died of the plague, to Apollo; and those of women, +dying a similar death, to Diana.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +This supposition is based upon rational and just grounds; since many +contagious distempers may be clearly traced to the exhalations of the +earth, acted on by the intense heat of the sun. Homer, most probably, +means this, when he says that the plague came upon the Grecian camp, on +the God, in his anger, discharging his arrows against it; or, in other +words, when the extreme heat of his rays had caused a corruption of the +atmosphere. It may be here observed, that arrows were the symbol of +Apollo, when angry, and the harp when he was propitious. Diogenes +Laertius tells us, that, during the prevalence of the plague, it was the +custom to place branches of laurel on the doors of the houses, in the +hope that the God, being reminded of Daphne, would spare the places +which thereby claimed his protection.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Ovid says, that the sons of Niobe were killed while managing their +horses; but Pausanias tells us that they died on Mount Cithæron, while +engaged in hunting, and that her daughters died at Thebes. Homer says, +that her children remained nine days without burial, because the Gods +changed the Thebans into stones, and that the offended Divinities +themselves performed the funeral rites on the tenth day; the meaning +probably, is, that, they dying of the plague, no one ventured to bury +them, and all seemed insensible to the sorrows of Niobe, as each +consulted his own safety. Ismenus, her eldest son, not being able to +endure the pain of his malady, is said to have thrown himself into a +river of BÅ“otia, +<span class="pagenum mckay">229</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 313-327</span> +which, from that circumstance, received his name. After the death of her +husband and children, Niobe is said to have retired to Mount Sipylus, in +Lydia, where she died. Here, as Pausanias informs us, was a rock, +resembling, at a distance, a woman overwhelmed with grief; though +according to the same author, who had visited it, the resemblance could +not be traced on approaching it. On this ground, Ovid relates, that she +was borne on a whirlwind to the top of a Lydian mountain, where she was +changed into a rock.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Pausanias tells us, that MelibÅ“a, or Chloris, and Amycle, two of her +daughters, appeased Diana, who preserved their lives; or that, in other +words, they recovered from the plague; though he inclines to credit the +version of Homer, who says that all of her children died by the hands of +<span class="pagenum bell">205</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 313-341</span> +Apollo and Diana. MelibÅ“a received the surname of Chloris, from the +paleness which ensued on her alarm at the sudden death of her +sisters.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableIII" id="bookVI_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Latona</span>, fatigued with the burden of her +two children, during a long journey, and parched with thirst, goes to +drink at a pond, near which some countrymen are at work. These clowns, +in a brutal manner, not only hinder her from drinking, but trouble the +water to make it muddy; on which, the Goddess, to punish their +brutality, transforms them into frogs.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> then, all, both women and men, +dread the wrath of the divinity, <i>thus</i> manifested, and with more +zeal <i>than ever</i> all venerate with <i>divine</i> worship the great +godhead of the Deity who produced the twins; and, as <i>commonly</i> +happens, from a recent fact they recur to the narration of former +events.</p> + +<p>One of them says, “Some countrymen of old, in the fields of fertile +Lycia, <i>once</i> insulted the Goddess, <i>but</i> not with impunity. +The thing, indeed, is but little known, through the obscure station of +the individuals, still it is wonderful. I have seen upon the spot, +the pool and the lake noted for the miracle. For my father being now +advanced in years, and incapable of travel, ordered me to bring thence +some choice oxen, and on my setting out, had given me a guide of that +nation: with whom, while I was traversing the pastures, behold! an +ancient altar, black with the ashes of sacrifices, was standing in the +middle of a lake, surrounded with quivering reeds. My guide stood still, +and said in a timid whisper, ‘Be propitious to me;’ and +<span class="pagenum mckay">230</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 328-349</span> +with a like whisper, I said, ‘Be propitious.’ However, I asked him +whether it was an altar of the Naiads, or of Faunus, or of some native +God; when the stranger answered me in such words; <a class="tag" name="tag6_A" id="tag6_A" href="#note6_A">A</a>‘Young man, there is no +mountain Divinity for this altar. She calls this her own, whom once the +royal Juno banished from the world; whom the wandering Delos, at the +time when it was swimming as a light island, hardly received at her +entreaties. There Latona, leaning against a palm, together with the tree +of Pallas, brought forth twins, in spite of their stepmother +<i>Juno</i>. Hence, too, the newly delivered <i>Goddess</i> is said to +have fled from Juno, and in her bosom to have carried the two +divinities, her children. And now the Goddess, wearied with her +prolonged toil, being parched with the heat of the season, +<span class="pagenum bell">206</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 341-365</span> +contracted thirst in the country of Lycia, which bred the Chimæra<a +class="tag" name="tag6_45" id="tag6_45" href="#note6_45">45</a> +when the intense sun was scorching the fields; the craving children, +too, had exhausted her <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘sucking’">suckling</ins> breasts. By chance she beheld a lake<a class="tag" name="tag6_46" id="tag6_46" href="#note6_46">46</a> of fine +water, in the bottom of a valley; some countrymen were there, gathering +bushy osiers, together with bulrushes, and sedge natural to fenny spots. +The Titaness approached, and bending her knee, she pressed the ground, +that she might take up the cool water to drink; the company of rustics +forbade it. The Goddess thus addressed them, as they forbade her: ‘Why +do you deny me water? The use of water is common +<span class="pagenum mckay">231</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 350-376</span> +<i>to all</i>. Nature has made neither sun, nor air, nor the running +stream, the property of any one. To her public bounty have I come, which +yet I humbly beg of you to grant me. I was not intending to bathe +my limbs here, and my wearied joints, but to relieve my thirst. My +mouth, as I speak, lacks moisture, and my jaws are parched, and scarce +is there a passage for my voice therein; a draught of water will be +nectar to me, and I shall own, that, together with it, I have +received my life <i>at your hands</i>. In <i>that</i> water you will be +giving me life. Let these, too, move you, who hold out their little arms +from my bosom<ins class="corr both" title="McKay missing close quote">’;</ins> and by chance the children were holding out their +arms.</p> + +<p>“What person might not these kindly words of the Goddess have been +able to influence? Still, they persist in hindering <i>the Goddess +thus</i> entreating them; and moreover add threats and abusive language, +if she does not retire to a distance. Nor is this enough. They likewise +muddy the lake itself <i>with</i> their feet and hands; and they raise +the soft mud from +<span class="pagenum bell">207</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 365-383</span> +the very bottom of the water, by spitefully jumping to and fro. +Resentment removes her thirst. For now no longer does the daughter of +Cæus supplicate the unworthy <i>wretches</i>, nor does she any longer +endure to utter words below <i>the majesty of</i> a Goddess; and raising +her hands to heaven, she says, ‘For ever may you live in that pool.’ The +wish of the Goddess comes to pass. They delight to go beneath the water, +and sometimes to plunge the whole of their limbs in the deep pool; now +to raise their heads, and now to swim on the top of the water; <ins +class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘often’">oft</ins> to sit +on the bank of the pool, <i>and</i> often to leap back again into the +cold stream. And even now do they exercise their offensive tongues in +strife: and banishing <i>all</i> shame, although they are beneath the +water, <i>still</i> beneath the water,<a class="tag" name="tag6_47" id="tag6_47" href="#note6_47">47</a> do they try to keep +<span class="pagenum mckay">232</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 376-387</span> +up their abuse. Their voice, too, is now hoarse, and their bloated necks +swell out; and their very abuse dilates their extended jaws. Their backs +are united to their heads: their necks seem as though cut off; their +backbone is green; their belly, the greatest part of their body, is +white; and <i>as</i> new-made frogs, they leap about in the muddy +stream.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +This story may possibly be based upon some current tradition of Latona +having been subjected to such cruel treatment from some country clowns; +or, which is more probable, it may have been originally invented as a +satire on the rude manners and uncouth conduct of the peasantry of +ancient times. The story may also have been framed, to account, in a +poetical manner, for the origin of frogs.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableIV" id="bookVI_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">The</span> Satyr Marsyas, having challenged +Apollo to a trial of skill on the flute, the God overcomes him, and then +flays him alive for his presumption. The tears that are shed on the +occasion of his death produce the river that bears his name.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">When</span> thus one, who, it is uncertain, +had related the destruction +<span class="pagenum bell">208</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 383-404</span> +of <i>these</i> men of the Lycian race, another remembers <i>that of</i> +the Satyr;<a class="tag" name="tag6_48" id="tag6_48" href="#note6_48">48</a> whom, overcome <i>in playing</i> on the Tritonian +reed, the son of Latona visited with punishment. “Why,†said he, “art +thou tearing me from myself? Alas! I <i>now</i> repent; alas,†+cried he, “the flute is not of so much value!†As he shrieked aloud, his +skin was stript<a class="tag" name="tag6_49" id="tag6_49" href="#note6_49">49</a> off from the surface of his +<span class="pagenum mckay">233</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 388-411</span> +limbs, nor was he aught but <i>one entire</i> wound. Blood is flowing on +every side; the nerves, exposed, appear, and the quivering veins throb +without any skin. You might have numbered his palpitating bowels, and +the transparent lungs within his breast. The inhabitants of the country, +the Fauns, Deities of the woods, and his brothers the Satyrs, and +Olympus,<a class="tag" name="tag6_50" id="tag6_50" href="#note6_50">50</a> even then renowned, and the Nymphs lamented him; and +whoever <i>besides</i> on those mountains was feeding the wool-bearing +flocks, and the horned herds.</p> + +<p>The fruitful earth was moistened, and being moistened received the +falling tears, and drank them up in her lowest veins, which, when she +had turned into a stream, she sent forth into the vacant air. And then, +as the clearest river in Phrygia, running towards the rapid sea within +steep banks, it bears the name of Marsyas.</p> + +<p>From narratives such as these the people return at once to the +present events, and mourn Amphion extinct together with <i>all</i> his +race. The mother is <i>an object</i> of hatred. Yet <i>her brother</i> +Pelops is said alone to have mourned for her as well; and after +<span class="pagenum bell">209</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 405-411</span> +he had drawn his clothes from his <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘shoulders’">shoulder</ins><a class="tag" name="tag6_B" id="tag6_B" href="#note6_B">B</a> towards his breast, he discovered +the ivory on his left shoulder. This shoulder, at the time of his birth, +was of the same color with the right one, and <i>was</i> formed of +flesh. They say that the Gods afterwards joined his limbs cut asunder by +the hands of his father; and the rest of them being found, that part +which is midway between the throat and the top of the arm, was wanting. +Ivory was inserted there, in the place of the part that did not appear; +and so by that means Pelops was made entire.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Marsyas was the son of Hyagnis, the inventor of a peculiar kind of +flute, and of the Phrygian measure. Livy and <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘Quintius’">Quintus</ins> Curtius +<span class="pagenum mckay">234</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 412-415</span> +tell us, that the story of Apollo and Marsyas is an allegory; and that +the river Marsyas gave rise to it. They say that the river, falling from +a precipice, in the neighborhood of the town of Celenæ, in Phrygia, made +a very stunning and unpleasant noise; but that the smoothness of its +course afterwards gave occasion for the saying, that the vengeance of +Apollo had rendered it more tractable.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is, however, not improbable that the story may have been based on +historical facts. Having learned from his father, Hyagnis, the art of +playing on the flute, and, proud of his skill, at a time when the +musical art was yet in its infancy, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Maryas’">Marsyas</ins> may have been rash enough to +challenge either a priest of Apollo, or some prince who bore that name, +and, for his presumption, to have received the punishment described by +Ovid. Herodotus certainly credited the story; for he says that the skin +of the unfortunate musician was to be seen, in his time, in the town of +Celenæ. Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius also believe its truth. +Suidas tells us, that Marsyas, mortified at his defeat, threw himself +into the river that runs near Celenæ, which, from that time, bore his +name. Strabo says, that Marsyas had stolen the flute from Minerva, which +proved so fatal to him, and had thereby drawn upon himself the +indignation of that Divinity. Ovid, in the Sixth Book of the Fasti, and +Pausanias, quoting from Apollodorus, tell us, that Minerva, having +observed, by seeing herself in the river Meander, that, when she played +on the flute, her cheeks were swelled out in an unseemly manner, threw +aside the flute in her disgust, and Marsyas finding it, learned to play +on it so skilfully, that he challenged Apollo to a trial of proficiency. +Hyginus, in his 165th Fable, says that Marsyas was the son of Å’agrius, +and not Hyagnis; perhaps, however, this is a corrupt reading.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">210</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 412-423</span> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableV" id="bookVI_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Tereus</span>, king of Thrace, having married +Progne, the daughter of Pandion, king of Athens, falls in love with her +sister Philomela, whom he ravishes, and then, having cut out her tongue, +he shuts her up in a strong place in a forest, to prevent a discovery. +The unfortunate Philomela finds means to acquaint her sister with her +misfortunes; for, weaving her story on a piece of cloth, she sends it to +Progne by the hands of one of her keepers.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> neighboring princes met +together; and the cities that were near, entreated their kings to go to +console <i>Pelops, namely</i>, Argos and Sparta, and the Pelopean +Mycenæ, and Calydon,<a class="tag" name="tag6_51" id="tag6_51" +href="#note6_51">51</a> not yet odious to the stern +<span class="pagenum mckay">235</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 416-432</span> +Diana, and fierce Orchomeneus, and Corinth famous for its brass,<a class="tag" name="tag6_52" id="tag6_52" href="#note6_52">52</a> and +fertile Messene, and Patræ, and humble Cleonæ,<a class="tag" name="tag6_53" id="tag6_53" href="#note6_53">53</a> and the Neleian +Pylos, and TrÅ“zen not yet named from Pittheus;<a class="tag" name="tag6_54" id="tag6_54" href="#note6_54">54</a> and other cities +which are enclosed by the Isthmus between the two seas, and those which, +situated beyond, are seen from the Isthmus between the two seas. Who +could have believed it? You, Athens, alone omitted it. A war +prevented this act of humanity; and barbarous troops<a class="tag" +name="tag6_55" id="tag6_55" href="#note6_55">55</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">211</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 423-451</span> +brought <i>thither</i> by sea, were alarming the Mopsopian walls. The +Thracian Tereus had routed these by his auxiliary forces, and by his +conquest had acquired an illustrious name. Him, powerful both in riches +and men, and, as it happened, deriving his descent from the mighty +Gradivus, Pandion united to himself, by the marriage of <i>his +daughter</i> Progne.</p> + +<p>Neither Juno, the guardian of marriage rites, nor yet Hymeneus, nor +the Graces,<a class="tag" name="tag6_56" id="tag6_56" href="#note6_56">56</a> attended those nuptials. <i>On that occasion</i>, the +Furies brandished torches, snatched from the funeral pile. The Furies +prepared the nuptial couch, and the ill-boding owl hovered over +<span class="pagenum mckay">236</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 432-460</span> +the abode, and sat on the roof of the bridal chamber. With these omens +were Progne and Tereus wedded; with these omens were they made parents. +Thrace, indeed, congratulated them, and they themselves returned thanks +to the Gods, and they commanded the day, upon which the daughter of +Pandion was given to the renowned prince, and that upon which Itys was +born, to be considered as festivals. So much does our true interest lie +concealed <i>from us</i>. Now Titan had drawn the seasons of the +repeated year through five autumns, when Progne, in gentle accents, said +to her husband, “If I have any influence <i>with thee</i>, either send +me to see my sister, or let my sister come hither. Thou shalt promise +thy father-in-law that she shall return in a short time. As good as a +mighty God <i>wilt thou be</i> to me, if thou shalt allow me to see my +sister.â€</p> + +<p>He <i>thereupon</i> ordered ships to be launched;<a class="tag" +name="tag6_57" id="tag6_57" href="#note6_57">57</a> and with sails +and oars he entered the Cecropian harbor, and landed upon the shores of +the Piræus.<a class="tag" name="tag6_58" id="tag6_58" href="#note6_58">58</a> As soon as ever an opportunity was given of +<i>addressing</i> his father-in-law, and right hand was joined to right +hand, with evil omen their discourse began. He had commenced to relate +the occasion of his coming, <i>and</i> the request of his wife, and to +promise a speedy return for <i>Philomela, if</i> sent. <i>When</i> lo! +Philomela comes, richly adorned +<span class="pagenum bell">212</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 451-489</span> +in costly apparel; richer <i>by far</i> in her charms; such as we hear +<i>of</i> the Naiads and Dryads <i>as they</i> haunt the middle of the +forests, if you were only to give them the like ornaments and dress. +Tereus was inflamed upon seeing the virgin, no otherwise than if one +were to put fire beneath the whitening ears of corn, or were to burn +leaves and <i>dry</i> grass laid up in stacks. Her beauty, indeed, is +worthy <i>of love</i>; but inbred lust, as well, urges him on, and the +people in those regions are <i>naturally</i> much inclined to +lustfulness. He burns, both by his own frailty and that of his nation. +He has a desire +<span class="pagenum mckay">237</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 461-492</span> +to corrupt the care of her attendants, and the fidelity of her nurse, +and <i>besides</i>, to tempt herself with large presents, and to spend +his whole kingdom <i>in so doing</i>; or else, to seize her, and, when +seized, to secure her by a cruel war. And there is nothing which, being +seized by an unbridled passion, he may not dare; nor does his breast +contain the internal flame. And now he ill bears with delay; and with +eager mouth returns to <i>urge</i> the request of Progne, and under it +he pleads his own wishes; passion makes him eloquent. As oft as he +presses beyond what <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘his’">is</ins> becoming, he pretends that Progne has thus desired. He +adds tears as well, as though she had enjoined them too. O ye Gods +above, how much of dark night do the breasts of mortals contain! Through +his very attempt at villany, Tereus is thought to be affectionate, and +from his crime does he gather praise.</p> + +<p>And how is it, too, that Philomela desires the same thing? and fondly +embracing the shoulders of her father with her arms, she begs, even by +her own safety (and against it too), that she may visit her sister. +Tereus views her, and, while viewing her, is embracing her beforehand in +imagination; and, as he beholds her kisses, and her arms around <i>her +father’s</i> neck, he receives them all as incentives, and fuel, and the +food of his furious passion; and, as often as she embraces her father, +he could wish to be <i>that</i> father, and, even then, he would have +been not the less impious. The father is overcome by the entreaties of +them both. She rejoices, and returns thanks to her parent, and, to her +misfortune, deems that the success of both, which will be the cause of +sorrow to them both. Now but little of his toil was remaining for +PhÅ“bus, and his steeds were beating with their feet the descending track +of Olympus; a regal banquet was set on the tables, and +<span class="pagenum bell">213</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 489-521</span> +wine in golden <i>vessels</i>; after this, their bodies were given up to +gentle sleep. But the Odrysian king,<a class="tag" name="tag6_59" id="tag6_59" href="#note6_59">59</a> though he was withdrawn, still +burned for her; and, recalling her form, her movements, her hands, +fancies that which he has not yet seen, to be such as he wishes; and he +<span class="pagenum mckay">238</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 493-522</span> +himself feeds his own flames, his anxiety preventing sleep.</p> + +<p>It was <i>now</i> day; and Pandion, grasping the right hand of his +son-in-law, about to depart, with tears bursting forth, recommended his +companion <i>to his care</i>. “I commit her, my dear son-in-law, to +thee, because reasons, grounded on affection, have compelled me, and +both <i>my daughters</i> have desired it, and thou as well, Tereus, hast +wished it; and I entreat thee, begging by thy honor, by thy breast +<i>thus</i> allied to us, <i>and</i> by the Gods above, to protect her +with the love of a father; and do send back to me, as soon as possible, +this sweet comfort of my anxious old age, <i>for</i> all delay will be +tedious to me, and do thou, too, Philomela, if thou hast any affection +for me, return as soon as possible: ’tis enough that thy sister is so +far away.†<i>Thus</i> did he enjoin, and at the same time he gave +kisses to his daughter, and his affectionate tears fell amid his +instructions. He <i>then</i> demanded the right hands of them both, as a +pledge of their fidelity, and joined them together when given, and bade +them, with mindful lips, to salute for him his absent daughter and +grandson, and with difficulty<a class="tag" name="tag6_60" id="tag6_60" href="#note6_60">60</a> uttered the last farewell, his mouth +being filled with sobs; and he shuddered at the presages of his own +mind. But as soon as Philomela was put on board of the painted ship, and +the sea was urged by the oars, and the land was left behind, he +exclaimed, “I have gained my point; the object of my desires is +borne along with me.†The barbarian exults, too, and with difficulty +defers his joy in his intention, and turns not his eyes anywhere away +from her. No otherwise than when the ravenous bird of Jupiter, with +crooked talons, has placed a hare in his lofty nest; there is no escape +for the captive; the plunderer keeps his eye on his prey. And now the +voyage is ended, and now they have gone forth from the wearied ship, +upon his own shore; when the king drags the daughter of Pandion into a +lofty dwelling, concealed in an ancient wood, +<span class="pagenum bell">214</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 522-559</span> +and there he shuts her up, pale and trembling, and dreading everything, +<span class="pagenum mckay">239</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 523-555</span> +and now with tears inquiring where her sister is; and confessing his +baseness, he masters by force her a maiden, and but one, while she often +vainly calls on her father, often on her sister, and on the great Gods +above all. She trembles like a frightened lamb, which, wounded, being +snatched from the mouth of a hoary wolf, does not as yet seem to itself +in safety; and as a dove, its feathers soaked with its own blood, still +trembles, and dreads the ravening talons wherein it has been +<i>lately</i> held. <i>But</i> soon, when consciousness returned, +tearing her dishevelled hair like one mourning, and beating her arms in +lamentation, stretching out her hands, she said, “Oh, barbarous +<i>wretch</i>, for thy dreadful deeds; oh, cruel <i>monster</i>! have +neither the requests of my father, with his affectionate tears, moved +thee, nor a regard for my sister, nor my virgin state, nor the laws of +marriage? Thou hast confounded all. I am become the supplanter of +my sister; thou, the husband of both of us. This punishment was not my +due. Why dost thou not take away this life, that no villany, perfidious +<i>wretch</i>, may remain <i>unperpetrated</i> by thee? and would that +thou hadst done it before thy criminal embraces! <i>then</i> I might +have had a shade void of <i>all</i> crime. Yet, if the Gods above behold +these things, if the majesty of the Gods be anything; if, with myself, +all things are not come to ruin; one time or other thou shalt give me +satisfaction. I myself, having cast shame aside, will declare thy +deeds. If opportunity is granted me, I will come among the people; +if I shall be kept imprisoned in the woods, I will fill the woods, +and will move the conscious rocks. Let Heaven hear these things, and the +Gods, if there are any in it.â€</p> + +<p>After the wrath of the cruel tyrant was aroused by such words, and +his fear was not less than it, urged on by either cause, he drew the +sword, with which he was girt, from the sheath, and seizing her by the +hair, her arms being bent behind her back, he compelled her to submit to +chains. Philomela was preparing her throat, and, on seeing the sword, +had conceived hopes of her death. He cut away, with his cruel weapon, +her tongue seized with pincers, while giving vent to her indignation, +<span class="pagenum mckay">240</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 555-585</span> +and constantly calling on the name of her father, and struggling to +speak. The extreme root of the tongue <i>still</i> quivers. <i>The +tongue</i> itself lies, and faintly murmurs, quivering upon the black +earth; and as the tail of a mangled snake is +<span class="pagenum bell">215</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 559-586</span> +wont to writhe about, <i>so</i> does it throb, and, as it dies, seeks +the feet of its owner. It is said, too, that often after this crime +(I could hardly dare believe it) he satisfied his lust upon her +mutilated body.</p> + +<p>He has the effrontery, after such deeds, to return to Progne, who, on +seeing her husband, inquires for her sister; but he heaves feigned +sighs, and tells a fictitious story of her death; and his tears procure +him credit. Progne tears from her shoulders her robes, shining with +broad gold, and puts on black garments, and erects an honorary +sepulchre, and offers expiation to an imaginary shade; and laments the +death of a sister not thus to be lamented.</p> + +<p>The God <i>Apollo</i>, the year being completed, had run through the +twice six signs <i>of the Zodiac</i>. What can Philomela do? +A guard prevents her flight; the walls of the house are hard, built +of solid stone: her speechless mouth is deprived of the means of +discovering the crime. But in grief there is extreme ingenuity, and +inventive skill arises in misfortunes. She skilfully suspends the warp +in a web of Barbarian design,<a class="tag" name="tag6_61" id="tag6_61" href="#note6_61">61</a> and interweaves purple marks with +white, as a mode of discovering the villany <i>of Tereus</i>; and +delivers it, when finished, to one <i>of her attendants</i>, and begs +her, by signs, to carry it to her mistress. As desired, she carries it +to Progne, and does not know what she is delivering in it. The wife of +the savage tyrant unfolds the web, and reads the mournful tale<a class="tag" name="tag6_62" id="tag6_62" href="#note6_62">62</a> of her +sister, and (wondrous that she can be so!) she is silent. ’Tis grief +that stops her utterance, and words sufficiently indignant fail her +tongue, in want of them; nor is there room for weeping. But she rushes +onward, about +<span class="pagenum mckay">241</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 586-596</span> +to confound both right and wrong, and is wholly <i>occupied</i> in the +contrivance of revenge.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The gravest authors among the ancients, such as Strabo and Pausanias, +speaking of this tragical story, agree that the narrative, divested of +its poetical ornaments, is strictly conformable to truth; though, of +course, the sequel bears evident marks of embellishment either by the +fancy of the Poet, or the superstition of the vulgar.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">216</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 587-604</span> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableVI" id="bookVI_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Progne</span> delivers her sister Philomela +from captivity, and brings her to the court of Tereus, where she +revolves in her mind her different projects of revenge. Her son Itys, in +the meantime, comes into her apartment, and is murdered by his mother +and aunt. Progne afterwards serves him up at a feast, which she prepares +for her husband; on which, being obliged to fly from the fury of the +enraged king, she is changed into a swallow, Philomela into a +nightingale, and Tereus himself into a lapwing.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">It</span> is <i>now</i> the time<a class="tag" name="tag6_63" id="tag6_63" href="#note6_63">63</a> when the +Sithonian<a class="tag" name="tag6_64" id="tag6_64" href="#note6_64">64</a> matrons are wont to celebrate the triennial festival +of Bacchus. Night is conscious of their rites; by night Rhodope resounds +with the tinklings of the shrill cymbal. By night the queen goes out of +her house, and is arrayed according to the rites of the God, and carries +the arms of the frantic solemnity. Her head is covered with vine leaves; +from her left side hang down the skins of a deer;<a class="tag" name="tag6_65" id="tag6_65" href="#note6_65">65</a> upon her shoulder +rests a light spear. <i>Then</i> the terrible Progne rushing through the +woods, a multitude of her followers attending her, and agitated by +the fury of her resentment, pretends, Bacchus, that it is +<i>inspired</i> by thee.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">242</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 596-620</span> +<p>She comes at length to the lonely dwelling, and howls aloud, and +cries “Evoë!†and breaks open the gates, and seizes her sister, and puts +upon her, <i>so</i> seized, the badges of Bacchus, and conceals her +countenance under the foliage of ivy; and dragging her along, full of +amazement, leads her within her threshold. When Philomela perceives that +she has arrived at that accursed house,<a class="tag" name="tag6_66" id="tag6_66" href="#note6_66">66</a> the wretched woman shudders, +and paleness spreads over her whole face. Progne having <i>now</i> got a +<i>fitting</i> place <i>for so doing</i>, takes away the symbols of the +rites,<a class="tag" name="tag6_67" id="tag6_67" href="#note6_67">67</a> and unveils the blushing face of her wretched sister; +<span class="pagenum bell">217</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 605-641</span> +and holds her in her embraces. But she, on the other hand, cannot endure +to lift up her eyes; seeming to herself the supplanter of her sister, +and fixing her looks on the ground, her hand is in the place of voice to +her, as she desires to swear and to call the Gods to witness that this +disgrace has been brought upon her by violence. Progne burns <i>with +rage</i>, and contains not her anger; and checking the grief of her +sister, she says, “We must not act in this matter with tears, but with +the sword, <i>and even</i> with anything, if <i>such</i> thou hast, that +can possibly outdo the sword. I have, sister, prepared myself for +every crime! Either, when I shall have set fire to the royal palace with +torches, I will throw the artful Tereus into the midst of the +flames, or with the steel will I cut away his tongue or his eyes, or the +members that have deprived thee of thy chastity, or by a thousand wounds +will I expel his guilty soul <i>from his body</i>. Something tremendous +am I prepared for; what it is, I am still in doubt.â€</p> + +<p>While Progne was uttering such expressions, Itys came to his mother. +By him she was put in mind of what she might do; and looking at him with +vengeful eyes, she said, “Ah! how like thou art to thy father!†And +saying no more, she prepared for a <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘horrid’">horrible</ins> deed, and burned with silent +rage. Yet when her son came +<span class="pagenum mckay">243</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 620-652</span> +to her, and saluted his mother and drew her neck <i>towards him</i> with +his little arms, and added kisses mingled with childish endearments, the +mother, in truth, was moved, and her anger abated, and her eyes, in +spite of her, became wet with tears <i>thus</i> forced <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘{from} her’"><i>from her</i></ins>. +But soon as she found the mother <i>in her</i> shrinking from <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘the excess’">excess</ins> of +affection, from him again did she turn towards the features of her +sister; and looking at them both by turns, she said, “Why does the one +employ endearments, <i>while</i> the other is silent with her tongue +torn from her? Why does she not call her sister, whom he calls mother? +Consider to what kind of husband thou art married, daughter of Pandion. +Thou dost grow degenerate. Tenderness in the wife of Tereus is +criminality.†No <i>more</i> delay <i>is there</i>; she drags Itys +along, just as the tigress of the banks of the Ganges <i>does</i> the +suckling offspring of the hind, through the shady forests. And when they +are come to a remote part of the lofty house, Progne strikes<a class="tag" name="tag6_68" id="tag6_68" href="#note6_68">68</a> him with +the sword, +<span class="pagenum bell">218</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 641-669</span> +extending his hands, and as he beholds his fate, crying now “Alas!†and +now “My mother!†and clinging to her neck, where his breast joins his +side; nor does she turn away her face. Even one wound <i>alone</i> is +sufficient for his death; Philomela cuts his throat with the sword; and +they mangle his limbs, still quivering and retaining somewhat of life. +Part of them boils,<a class="tag" name="tag6_69" id="tag6_69" href="#note6_69">69</a> in the hollow cauldrons; part hisses on spits; the +inmost recesses stream with gore. His wife sets Tereus, in his +unconsciousness, before this banquet; and falsely pretending rites after +the manner of her country, at which it is allowed one man only to be +present, she removes his attendants and servants. Tereus himself, +sitting aloft on the throne of his forefathers, eats and heaps his own +entrails into his own stomach. And so great is the blindness of his +mind, <i>that</i> he says, “Send for Itys.†Progne is unable to +<span class="pagenum mckay">244</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 653-676</span> +conceal her cruel joy; and now, desirous to be the discoverer of her +having murdered him, she says, “Thou hast within <i>thee</i>, that for +which thou art asking.†He looks around, and inquires where he is; as he +inquires, and calls him again, Philomela springs forth, just as she is, +with her hair disordered by the infernal murder, and throws the bloody +head of Itys in the face of his father; nor at any time has she more +longed to be able to speak, and to testify her joy by words such as are +deserved.</p> + +<p>The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons +the Viperous sisters<a class="tag" name="tag6_70" id="tag6_70" +href="#note6_70">70</a> from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he +desires, if he <i>only</i> can, by opening his breast to discharge +thence the horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he +weeps, and pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and +then he follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would +have thought the bodies of the Cecropian<a class="tag" name="tag6_71" id="tag6_71" href="#note6_71">71</a> Nymphs were supported +by wings; <i>and</i> they were supported by wings. The one of them makes +for the woods, the other takes her +<span class="pagenum bell">219</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 669-676</span> +place beneath the roofs <i>of houses</i>. Nor <i>even</i> as yet have +the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers are +<i>still</i> stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his +desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a +crested <i>plume</i>; a prolonged bill projects in place of the +long spear. The name of the bird is ‘epops’ [<i>lapwing</i>]; its face +appears to be armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of +Tartarus before his day, and the late period of protracted old age.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +By the symbolical changes of Philomela, Progne, and Tereus, those who +framed this termination of the story intended to depict the different +characters of the persons whose actions are there +<span class="pagenum mckay">245</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 677</span> +represented. As the lapwing delights in filth and impurity, the ancients +thereby <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell reads ‘pourtrayed’">portrayed</ins> the unscrupulous character of Tereus; and, +as the flight of that bird is but slow, it shows that he was not able to +overtake his wife and her sister. The nightingale, concealed in the +woods and thickets, seems there to be concealing her misfortunes and +sorrows; and the swallow, which frequents the abodes of man, shows the +restlessness of Progne, who seeks in vain for her son, whom, in her +frantic fit, she has so barbarously murdered.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Anacreon and Apollodorus, however, reverse the story, saying that +Philomela was changed into a swallow, and Progne into a nightingale. +This event is said by some writers to have happened not in Thrace, but +at Daulis, a town of Phocis, where Tereus is supposed to have gone +to settle. Pausanias tells us, that the tomb of Tereus was to be seen +near Athens, so that it is probable that he died at a distance from +Thrace, his native country. Homer alludes to the story of Philomela in +somewhat different terms; speaking of the grounds of the grief of +Penelope, he says, that ‘she made her complaints to be heard like the +inconsolable Philomela, the daughter of Pandarus, always hidden among +the leaves and branches of trees. When the Spring arrives, she makes her +voice echo through the woods, and laments her dear Itylus, whom she +killed by an unhappy mistake; varying, in her continued plaints, the +mournful melody of her notes.’ By this, Homer seems to have known +nothing of Tereus or of Progne, and to have followed a tradition, which +was to the following effect:—Pandarus had three daughters, Ædon, +Mecrope, and Cleothera. Ædon, the eldest, was married to Zethus, the +brother of Amphion, by whom she had one son, who was named Itylus. +Envying the more numerous family of Niobe, her sister-in-law, she +resolved to despatch the eldest of her nephews; and, as her son was +brought up with his cousin, and was his bedfellow, she bade him change +his place in the bed, on the night on which she intended to commit the +crime. Itylus forgot her commands, and consequently his mother killed +him by mistake for her nephew.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">220</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 677-700</span> + +<h5><a name="bookVI_fableVII" id="bookVI_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Boreas</span>, not obtaining the consent of +Erectheus, king of Athens, for the marriage of his daughter, Orithyïa, +takes that princess in his arms, and carries her away into Thrace. By +her he has two sons, Calaïs and Zethes, who have wings, like their +father, and afterwards embark with Jason in search of the Golden +Fleece.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Erectheus</span><a class="tag" name="tag6_72" id="tag6_72" href="#note6_72">72</a> received the sceptre +of <i>that</i> country, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">246</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 678-707</span> +the government of the state; it is a matter of doubt whether he was more +powerful through his justice, or by his mighty arms. He had, indeed, +begotten four sons, and as many of the female sex: but the beauty of two +<i>of them</i> was equal. Of these, Cephalus,<a class="tag" name="tag6_73" id="tag6_73" href="#note6_73">73</a> the son of Æolus, was +blessed with thee, Procris, for his wife; Tereus and the Thracians were +an obstacle to Boreas; and long was <i>that</i> God without his +much-loved Orithyïa, while he was entreating, and choosing rather to use +prayers than force. But when nothing was effected by blandishments, +terrible with that rage which is his wont, and but too natural with that +wind, he said, “And <i>this is</i> deservedly <i>done</i>; for why did I +relinquish my own weapons, my violence, my strength, my anger, and my +threatening spirit, and turn to prayers, the employment of which ill +becomes me? Violence is suitable for me; by violence do I dispel the +lowering clouds, by violence do I arouse the seas, and overthrow the +knotted oaks, and harden the snow, and beat the earth with hail. +I too, when I have met with my brothers in the open air (for that +is <i>peculiarly</i> my field), struggle with efforts so great, that the +intermediate sky thunders again with our onset, and fires flash, struck +forth from the hollow clouds. I too, when I have descended into the +hollow recesses of the earth, and in my rage have placed my back against +its lowest depths, disturb the shades below, and the whole globe with +earthquakes. By +<span class="pagenum bell">221</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VI. 700-721</span> +these means should I have sought this alliance; and Erectheus ought not +to have been entreated <i>to be</i> my father-in-law, but made so by +force.â€</p> + +<p>Boreas, having said these words, or some not less high-sounding than +these, shakes his wings, by the motion of which all the earth is fanned, +and the wide sea becomes ruffled; and the lover, drawing his dusty +mantle over the high tops <i>of mountains</i>, sweeps the ground, and, +wrapt in darkness, embraces with his tawny wings Orithyïa, as she +trembles with fear. As she flies, his +<span class="pagenum mckay">247</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VI. 708-721</span> +flame, being agitated, burns more fiercely. Nor does the ravisher check +the reins of his airy course, before he reaches the people and the walls +of the Ciconians.<ins class="corr bell" title="footnote marker missing in Bell"><a class="tag" name="tag6_74" id="tag6_74" href="#note6_74">74</a></ins> There, too, is the Actæan damsel made the wife +of the cold sovereign, and <i>afterwards</i> a mother, bringing forth +twins at a birth, who have the wings of their father, the rest +<i>like</i> their mother. Yet they say that these <i>wings</i> were not +produced together with their bodies; and while their long beard, with +its yellow hair, was away, the boys Calaïs and Zethes were without +feathers. <i>But</i> soon after, at once wings began to enclose both +their sides, after the manner of birds, and at once their cheeks +<i>began</i> to grow yellow <i>with down</i>. When, therefore, the +boyish season of youth was passed, they sought,<a class="tag" name="tag6_75" id="tag6_75" href="#note6_75">75</a> with the Minyæ, along +the sea <i>before</i> unmoved,<a class="tag" name="tag6_76" id="tag6_76" href="#note6_76">76</a> in the first ship <i>that +existed</i>, the fleece that glittered with shining hair <i>of +gold</i>.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Plato tells us that the story of the rape of Orithyïa is but an +allegory, which signifies that, by accident, she was blown by the wind +into the sea, where she was drowned. Apollodorus and Pausanias, however, +assert that this story is based on historical facts, and that Boreas, +king of Thrace, seized Orithyïa, the daughter of Erectheus, king of +Athens, and sister of Procris, as she was passing the river Ilissus, and +carried her into his dominions, where she became the mother of twins, +Calaïs and Zethes. In the Argonautic expedition, these chiefs delivered +Phineus, the king of Bithynia, from the persecution of the Harpies, +which were in the habit of snatching away the victuals served up at his +table.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note6_1" id="note6_1" href="#tag6_1">1.</a> +<i>Colophon.</i>]—Ver. 8. Colophon was an opulent city of Lydia, +famous for an oracle of Apollo there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_2" id="note6_2" href="#tag6_2">2.</a> +<i>Phocæan.</i>]—Ver. 9. Phocæa was a city of Æolia, in Ionia, on +the shores of the Mediterranean, famous for its purple dye.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_3" id="note6_3" href="#tag6_3">3.</a> +<i>Purple.</i>]—Ver. 9. ‘Murex’ was a shell-fish, now called ‘the +purples,’ the juices of which were much used by the ancients for dyeing +a deep purple color. The most valuable kinds were found near Tyre and +Phocæa, mentioned in the text.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_4" id="note6_4" href="#tag6_4">4.</a> +<i>Hypæpæ.</i>]—Ver. 13. This was a little town of Lydia, near the +banks of the river Cayster. It was situate on the descent of Mount +Tymolus, or Tmolus, famed for its wines and saffron.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_5" id="note6_5" href="#tag6_5">5.</a> +<i>Pactolus.</i>]—Ver. 16. This was a river of Lydia, which was +said to have sands of gold.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_6" id="note6_6" href="#tag6_6">6.</a> +<i>Mygdonian.</i>]—Ver. 45. Mygdonia was a small territory of +Phrygia, bordering upon Lydia, and colonized by a people from Thrace. +Probably these persons had come from the neighboring country, to see the +exquisite works of Arachne. As the Poet tells us, many were present when +the Goddess discovered herself, and professed their respect and +veneration, while Arachne alone remained unmoved.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_7" id="note6_7" href="#tag6_7">7.</a> +<i>Brazen vessel.</i>]—Ver. 60. It seems that brazen cauldrons +were used for the purposes of dyeing, in preference to those of +iron.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_8" id="note6_8" href="#tag6_8">8.</a> +<i>Rock of Mars.</i>]—Ver. 70. This was the spot called +Areiopagus, which was said to have received its name from the trial +there of Mars, when he was accused by Neptune of having slain his son +Halirrothius.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_9" id="note6_9" href="#tag6_9">9.</a> +<i>Twice six.</i>]—Ver. 72. These were the ‘Dii consentes,’ +mentioned before, in the note to Book i., l. 172. They are thus +enumerated in an Elegiac couplet, more consistent with the rules of +prosody than the two lines there quoted:—</p> + +<div class="poem"> +<p>‘Vulcanus, Mars, Sol, Neptunus, Jupiter, Hermes,</p> +<p>Vesta, Diana, Ceres, Juno, Minerva, Venus.’</p> +</div> + +<p> +<a name="note6_10" id="note6_10" href="#tag6_10">10.</a> +<i>To be springing forth.</i>]—Ver. 76-7. Clarke renders +‘facit—e vulnere saxi Exsiluisse ferum,’ ‘she makes a wild horse +bounce out of the opening in the rock.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_11" id="note6_11" href="#tag6_11">11.</a> +<i>Pygmæan matron.</i>]—Ver. 90. According to Ælian, the name of +this queen of the Pigmies was Gerane, while other writers call her +Pygas. She was worshipped by her subjects as a Goddess, which raised her +to such a degree of conceit, that she despised the worship of the +Deities, especially of Juno and Diana, on which in their indignation, +they changed her into a crane, the most active enemy of the Pygmies. +These people were dwarfs, living either in India, Arabia, or Thrace, and +they were said not to exceed a cubit in height.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_12" id="note6_12" href="#tag6_12">12.</a> +<i>Antigone.</i>]—Ver. 93. She was the daughter of Laomedon, king +of Troy, and was remarkable for the extreme beauty of her hair. Proud of +this, she used to boast that she resembled Juno; on which the Goddess, +offended at her presumption, changed her hair into serpents. In +compassion, the Deities afterwards transformed her into a stork.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_13" id="note6_13" href="#tag6_13">13.</a> +<i>Cinyras.</i>]—Ver. 98. Cinyras had several daughters (besides +Myrrha), remarkable for their extreme beauty. Growing insolent upon the +strength of their good looks, and pretending to surpass even Juno +herself in beauty, they incurred the resentment of that Goddess, who +changed them into the steps of a temple, and transformed their father +into a stone, as he was embracing the steps.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_14" id="note6_14" href="#tag6_14">14.</a> +<i>Asterie.</i>]—Ver. 108. She was the daughter of Cæus, the +Titan, and of PhÅ“be, and was ravished by Jupiter under the form of an +eagle. She was the wife of Perses, and the mother of Hecate. Flying from +the wrath of Jupiter, she was first changed by him into a quail; and +afterwards into a stone.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_15" id="note6_15" href="#tag6_15">15.</a> +<i>Antiope.</i>]—Ver. 110. Antiope was the daughter of Nycteus, +a king of BÅ“otia. Being seduced by Jupiter under the form of a +Satyr, she bore two sons, Zethus and Amphion. On being insulted by +Dirce, she was seized with madness, and was cured by Phocus, whom she is +said to have afterwards married.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_16" id="note6_16" href="#tag6_16">16.</a> +<i>Tirynthian.</i>]—Ver. 112. Tirynthus was a city near Argos, +where Hercules was born and educated, and from which place his mother, +Alcmene, derived her present appellation.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_17" id="note6_17" href="#tag6_17">17.</a> +<i>Daughter of Asopus.</i>]—Ver. 113. Jupiter changed himself into +fire, or, according to some, into an eagle, to seduce Ægina, the +daughter of Asopus, king of BÅ“otia. By her he was the father of +Æacus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_18" id="note6_18" href="#tag6_18">18.</a> +<i>Mnemosyne.</i>]—Ver. 114. This Nymph, as already mentioned, +became the mother of the Nine Muses, having been seduced by Jupiter.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_19" id="note6_19" href="#tag6_19">19.</a> +<i>Deois.</i>]—Ver. 114. Proserpine was called Deois, or Dêous +<span class="greek" title="Dêous korê">Δηοῦς κόÏη</span>, from her +mother Ceres, who was called <span class="greek" title="Dêô">Δηὼ</span> by the Greeks, from the verb <span class="greek" +title="dêô">δήω</span>, ‘to find;’ because as it was said, when +seeking for her daughter, the universal answer of those who wished her +success in her search, was, <span class="greek" title="dêeis">δήεις</span>, ‘You will find her.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_20" id="note6_20" href="#tag6_20">20.</a> +<i>Virgin daughter.</i>]—Ver. 116. This was Canace, or Arne, the +daughter of Æolus, whom Neptune seduced under the form of a bull.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_21" id="note6_21" href="#tag6_21">21.</a> +<i>Enipeus.</i>]—Ver. 116. Under the form of Enipeus, a river +of Thessaly, Neptune committed violence upon Iphimedeia, the wife of the +giant Aloëus, and by her was the father of the giants Otus and +Ephialtes.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_22" id="note6_22" href="#tag6_22">22.</a> +<i>Bisaltis.</i>]—Ver. 117. Theophane was the daughter of +Bisaltis. Changing her into a sheep, and himself into a ram, Neptune +begot the Ram with the golden fleece, that bore Phryxus to Colchis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_23" id="note6_23" href="#tag6_23">23.</a> +<i>Experienced.</i>]—Ver. 119. ‘Te sensit,’ repeated twice in this +line, Clarke translates, not in a very elegant manner, ‘had a bout with +thee,’ and ‘had a touch from thee.’ By Neptune, Ceres became the mother +of the horse Arion; or, according to some, of a daughter, whose name it +was not deemed lawful to mention.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_24" id="note6_24" href="#tag6_24">24.</a> +<i>Thee the mother.</i>]—Ver. 119. This was Medusa, who, according +to some, was the mother of the horse Pegasus, by Neptune, though it is +more generally said that it sprang from her blood, when she was slain by +Perseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_25" id="note6_25" href="#tag6_25">25.</a> +<i>Melantho.</i>]—Ver. 120. Melantho was the daughter either of +Proteus, or of Deucalion, and was the mother of Delphus, by Neptune.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_26" id="note6_26" href="#tag6_26">26.</a> +<i>Isse.</i>]—Ver. 124. She was a native of either Lesbos, or +EubÅ“a. Her father, Macareus, was the son of Jupiter and Cyrene.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_27" id="note6_27" href="#tag6_27">27.</a> +<i>Erigone.</i>]—Ver. 125. She was the daughter of Icarus, and was +placed among the Constellations.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_28" id="note6_28" href="#tag6_28">28.</a> +<i>How Saturn.</i>]—Ver. 126. By Phillyra, Saturn was the father +of the Centaur Chiron. We may here remark, that Arachne was not very +complimentary to the Gods, in the choice of her subjects; probably it +was not her intention or wish to be so.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_29" id="note6_29" href="#tag6_29">29.</a> +<i>Wicked one.</i>]—Ver. 136. Clarke translates ‘improba,’ ‘thou +wicked jade.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_30" id="note6_30" href="#tag6_30">30.</a> +<i>An Hecatean Herb.</i>]—Ver. 139. This was aconite, or +wolfsbane, said to have been discovered by Hecate, the mother of Medea. +She was the first who sought after, and taught the properties of +poisonous herbs. Some accounts say, that the aconite was produced from +the foam of Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules from the infernal +regions.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_31" id="note6_31" href="#tag6_31">31.</a> +<i>Had known her.</i>]—Ver. 148. This was the more likely, as +Tantalus, the father of Niobe, was king of both Phrygia and Lydia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_32" id="note6_32" href="#tag6_32">32.</a> +<i>Sipylus.</i>]—Ver. 149. This was the name of both a city and a +mountain of Lydia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_33" id="note6_33" href="#tag6_33">33.</a> +<i>Go all of you.</i>]—Ver. 159. Clarke renders the words +‘Ismenides, ite frequentes,’ ‘Go, ye Theban ladies in general.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_34" id="note6_34" href="#tag6_34">34.</a> +<i>Sister of the Pleiades.</i>]—Ver. 174. Taygete, one of the +Pleiades, was the mother of Niobe.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_35" id="note6_35" href="#tag6_35">35.</a> +<i>As my father-in-law.</i>]—Ver. 176. Because Jupiter was the +father of her husband, Amphion.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_36" id="note6_36" href="#tag6_36">36.</a> +<i>Seven daughters.</i>]—Ver. 182. Tzetzes enumerates fourteen +daughters of Niobe, and gives their names.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_37" id="note6_37" href="#tag6_37">37.</a> +<i>When in travail.</i>]—Ver. 187. She alludes to the occasion on +which Latona fled from the serpent Python, which Juno, in her jealousy, +had sent against her; and when Delos, which had hitherto been a floating +island, became immovable, for the convenience of Latona, in labor with +Apollo and Diana. That island was said to have received its name from +the Greek, <span class="greek" title="dêlos">δῆλος</span>, +‘manifest,’ or ‘appearing,’ from having risen to the surface of the sea +on that occasion.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_38" id="note6_38" href="#tag6_38">38.</a> +<i>Like her father’s.</i>]—Ver. 213. Latona alludes to one of the +crimes of Tantalus, the father of Niobe, who was accused of having +indiscreetly divulged the secrets of the Gods.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_39" id="note6_39" href="#tag6_39">39.</a> +<i>Gives rein.</i>]—Ver. 230. This was done with the intention of +making his escape.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_40" id="note6_40" href="#tag6_40">40.</a> +<i>Glowing with oil.</i>]—Ver. 241. Clarke renders this line, +‘Were gone to the juvenile work of neat wrestling.’ It would be hard to +say what ‘neat’ wrestling is. He seems not to have known, that the +‘Palæstra’ was called ‘nitida,’ as shining with the oil which the +wrestlers used for making their limbs supple, and the more difficult for +their antagonist to grasp. Juvenal gives the epithet ‘ceromaticum’ to +the neck of the athlete, or wrestler, which word means ‘rubbed with +wrestler’s oil.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_41" id="note6_41" href="#tag6_41">41.</a> +<i>Now had they brought.</i>]—Ver. 243-4. Clarke thus translates +‘Et jam contulerant arcto luctantia nexu Pectora pectoribus;’ ‘And now +they had clapped breast to breast, struggling in a close hug.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_42" id="note6_42" href="#tag6_42">42.</a> +<i>I have received my death-blow.</i>]—Ver. 283. ‘Efferor’ +literally means, ‘I am carried out.’ ‘Effero’ was the term used to +signify the carrying of the body out of the city walls, for the purposes +of burial.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_43" id="note6_43" href="#tag6_43">43.</a> +<i>Before the biers.</i>]—Ver. 289. The body of the deceased +person was in ancient times laid out on a bed of the ordinary kind, with +a pillow for supporting the head and back; among the Romans, it was +placed in the vestibule of the house, with its feet towards the door, +and was dressed in the best robe which the deceased had worn when alive. +Among the better classes, the body was borne to the place of burial, or +the funeral pile, on a couch, which was called ‘feretrum,’ or ‘capulus.’ +This was sometimes made of ivory, and covered with gold and purple.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_44" id="note6_44" href="#tag6_44">44.</a> +<i>Top of a mountain.</i>]—Ver. 311. This was Mount Sipylus, in +BÅ“otia, which, as we learn from Pausanias, had on its summit a rock, +which, at a distance, strongly resembled a female in an attitude of +sorrow. This resemblance is said to exist even at the present day.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_45" id="note6_45" href="#tag6_45">45.</a> +<i>The Chimæra.</i>]—Ver. 339. The Chimæra, according to the +poets, was a monster having the head of a lion, the body of a goat, and +the tail of a dragon. It seems, however, that it was nothing more than a +volcanic mountain of Lycia, in Asia Minor, whence there were occasional +eruptions of flame. The top of it was frequented by lions; the middle +afforded plentiful pasture for goats; and towards the bottom, being +rocky, and full of caverns, it was infested by vast numbers of serpents, +that harbored there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_46" id="note6_46" href="#tag6_46">46.</a> +<i>Beheld a lake.</i>]—Ver. 343. Probus, in his Commentary on the +Second Book of the Georgics, says that the name of the spring was Mela, +and that of the shepherd who so churlishly repulsed Latona, was Neocles. +Antoninus Liberalis says, that the name of the stream was Melites, and +that Latona required the water for the purpose of bathing her children. +He further tells us, that on being repulsed, she carried her children to +the river Xanthus, and returning thence, hurled stones at the peasants, +and changed them into frogs.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_47" id="note6_47" href="#tag6_47">47.</a> +<i>Beneath the water.</i>]—Ver. 376. Some commentators are so +fanciful as to say, that the repetition of the words ‘sub aqua,’ in the +line ‘Quamvis sint sub aquâ, sub aquâ, maledicere tentant,’ not +inelegantly [non ineleganter] expresses the croaking noise of the frogs. +A man’s fancy must, indeed, be exuberant to find any such +resemblance; more so, indeed, than that of Aristophanes, who makes his +frogs say, by way of chorus, ‘<ins class="corr both" title="text unchanged: one ‘-ke-’ too many">brekekekekex</ins> koäx koäx.’ Possibly, +however, that might have been the Attic dialect among frogs.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_48" id="note6_48" href="#tag6_48">48.</a> +<i>The Satyr.</i>]—Ver. 382. Herodotus tells this story of the +Satyr Marsyas, under the name of Silenus. Fulgentius informs us, that in +paintings, Marsyas was represented with the tail of a pig.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_49" id="note6_49" href="#tag6_49">49.</a> +<i>His skin was stript.</i>]—Ver. 387. Apollo fastened him to a +pine-tree, or, according to Pliny the Elder, a plane-tree, which +was to be seen even in his day. The skin was afterwards suspended by +Apollo in the city of Celenæ. Hyginus says, that Apollo hewed Marsyas to +pieces. The description here of the flaying is, perhaps, very natural; +but it is all the more disgusting for being so. A commentator +justly says, that it might suit a Roman, whose eyes were familiar with +bloodshed, much better than the taste of the reader of modern times.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_50" id="note6_50" href="#tag6_50">50.</a> +<i>Olympus.</i>]—Ver. 393. He was a Satyr, the brother and pupil +of Marsyas. Pausanias describes a picture, painted by Polygnotus, in +which Olympus was represented as sitting by Marsyas, clad as a youth, +and learning to play on the flute. Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis +(l. 576) says that Olympus discovered some new measures for the ‘tibia,’ +or flute. From Hyginus we learn, that Apollo delivered to him the body +of Marsyas for burial.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_51" id="note6_51" href="#tag6_51">51.</a> +<i>Calydon.</i>]—Ver. 415. This was a city of Ætolia, which +derived its name from Calydon, the son of Endymion. Diana, being +incensed against Å’neus, its king, because he omitted her when offering +the first fruits to the other Deities, sent an immense boar to ravage +its fields, which was slain by Meleager. Ovid recounts these +circumstances in the eighth book of the Metamorphoses. Argos, Sparta, +and Mycenæ, are also included in one line, by Homer, as having been +under the particular tutelage of Juno.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_52" id="note6_52" href="#tag6_52">52.</a> +<i>Famous for its brass.</i>]—Ver. 416. According to some writers, +the Corinthian brass became famous after the fall of Corinth, when it +was taken and burnt by the Consul Mummius. On that occasion, they say, +that from the immense number of statues melted in the conflagration, +a stream of metal poured through the streets, consisting of melted +gold, silver, and copper; in which, of course, the latter would be +predominant. If that was the ground on which the Corinthian brass was so +much commended, Ovid is here guilty of an anachronism.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_53" id="note6_53" href="#tag6_53">53.</a> +<i>Cleonæ.</i>]—Ver. 417. This was a little town, situate between +Argos and Corinth. It is called ‘humilis,’ not from its situation, but +from the small number of its inhabitants. Patræ was a city of +Achaia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_54" id="note6_54" href="#tag6_54">54.</a> +<i>Pittheus.</i>]—Ver. 418. He was the uncle of Theseus; and was +(after the time here mentioned) the king of TrÅ“zen, in Peloponnesus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_55" id="note6_55" href="#tag6_55">55.</a> +<i>Barbarous troops.</i>]—Ver. 423. Some suggest that it is here +meant that Attica was invaded by the Amazons at this time; and they rely +on a passage of Justin in support of the position. The story is, +however, very improbable.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_56" id="note6_56" href="#tag6_56">56.</a> +<i>The Graces.</i>]—Ver. 429. The Graces, who were the attendants +of Venus, were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and Euphrosyne.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_57" id="note6_57" href="#tag6_57">57.</a> +<i>To be launched.</i>]—Ver. 445. The ships were launched into the +sea by means of rollers placed beneath them, from which circumstance +they were said ‘deduci,’ ‘to be led down.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_58" id="note6_58" href="#tag6_58">58.</a> +<i>Shores of the Piræus.</i>]—Ver. 446. The Piræus was the arsenal +and the harbor of the Athenians, and owed its magnificence to the vast +conceptions of Themistocles.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_59" id="note6_59" href="#tag6_59">59.</a> +<i>The Odrysian king.</i>]—Ver. 490. Tereus is thus called, from +the Odrysæ, a people of Thrace.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_60" id="note6_60" href="#tag6_60">60.</a> +<i>With difficulty.</i>]—Ver. 510. Clarke translates ‘vix,’ ‘with +much ado.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_61" id="note6_61" href="#tag6_61">61.</a> +<i>Barbarian design.</i>]—Ver. 576. Probably of a Phrygian +design.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_62" id="note6_62" href="#tag6_62">62.</a> +<i>The mournful tale.</i>]—Ver. 582. This line is translated by +Clarke, ‘And reads the miserable ditty of her sister.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_63" id="note6_63" href="#tag6_63">63.</a> +<i>Now the time.</i>]—Ver. 587. This was the festival of Bacchus, +before mentioned as being celebrated every three years, in memory of his +Indian expedition.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_64" id="note6_64" href="#tag6_64">64.</a> +<i>Sithonian.</i>]—Ver. 588. Sithonia was a region of Thrace, +which lay between Mount Hæmus and the Euxine sea. The word, however, is +often used to signify the whole of Thrace.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_65" id="note6_65" href="#tag6_65">65.</a> +<i>Skins of a deer.</i>]—Ver. 593. These were the ‘nebrides,’ or +skins of fawns and deer, which the Bacchanals wore when celebrating the +orgies. The lance mentioned here was, no doubt, the thyrsus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_66" id="note6_66" href="#tag6_66">66.</a> +<i>That accursed house.</i>]—Ver. 601. Clarke translates this +line, ‘As soon as Philomela perceived she had got into the wicked +rogue’s house.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_67" id="note6_67" href="#tag6_67">67.</a> +<i>Symbols of the rites.</i>]—Ver. 603. These were the ivy, the +deer-skins, and the thyrsus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_68" id="note6_68" href="#tag6_68">68.</a> +<i>Progne strikes.</i>]—Ver. 641. ‘Ense ferit Progne’ is +translated by Clarke, ‘Progne strikes with the sword poor Itys.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_69" id="note6_69" href="#tag6_69">69.</a> +<i>Part of them boils.</i>]—Ver. 645-6. Clarke gives this comical +translation: ‘Then part of them bounces about in hollow kettles; part +hisses upon spits; the parlor runs down with gore.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_70" id="note6_70" href="#tag6_70">70.</a> +<i>Viperous sisters.</i>]—Ver. 662. Tereus invokes the Furies, who +are thus called from having their hair wreathed with serpents. Clarke +translates, ‘ingenti clamore,’ in line 661, ‘with a huge cry.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_71" id="note6_71" href="#tag6_71">71.</a> +<i>Cecropian.</i>]—Ver. 667. The Cecropian or Athenian Nymphs are +Progne and Philomela, the daughters of Pandion, king of Athens.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_72" id="note6_72" href="#tag6_72">72.</a> +<i>Erectheus.</i>]—Ver. 677. This personage really was king of +Athens before Pandion, the father of Progne and Philomela, and not after +him, as Ovid here states; at least, such is the account given by +Pausanias and Eusebius: the order of succession being Actæus, Cecrops, +Cranaüs, Amphictyon, Erecthonius, Pandion, Erectheus, Cecrops II., +Pandion II., Ægeus, Theseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_73" id="note6_73" href="#tag6_73">73.</a> +<i>Cephalus.</i>]—Ver. 681. He was the son of Deioneus, and the +grandson of Æolus. According to some writers, he was the son of Mercury; +and <ins class="corr mckay" title="‘in’ missing in McKay">in</ins> +the Art of Love (Book iii. l. 725) he is called ‘Cyllenia proles.’ +Strabo says that he was the son-in-law of Deioneus. His story is related +at length in the next Book.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_74" id="note6_74" href="#tag6_74">74.</a> +<i>The Ciconians.</i>]—Ver. 710. The Cicones were a people of +Thrace, living near Mount Ismarus, and the Bistonian lake.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_75" id="note6_75" href="#tag6_75">75.</a> +<i>They sought.</i>]—Ver. 720. This was the fleece of the ram that +carried Phryxus along the Hellespont to Colchis, which is mentioned +again in the next Book.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_76" id="note6_76" href="#tag6_76">76.</a> +<i>Before unmoved.</i>]—Ver. 721. This passage may mean that that +part of the sea had not been navigated before; though many of the poets +assert that the Argo was the first ship that was ever built. It is more +probable that it was the first vessel that was ever fitted out as a ship +of war.</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Notes (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note6_A" id="note6_A" href="#tag6_A">A.</a> +<i>the stranger answered me in such words; ‘Young man...</i> This +embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor; each +double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied by a +single quote. +</p> + +<p> +<a name="note6_B" id="note6_B" href="#tag6_B">B.</a> +<i>after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his +breast</i>. Ovid VI.404-405 “... umeroque suas a pectore [<i>or:</i> ad +pectora] +postquam / deduxit [<i>or:</i> diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse +sinistroâ€. It is possible to construct a Latin variation that would +translate as “from his shouldersâ€, but editorial or typographic error is +a much likelier explanation. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">248</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">222</span> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div class="chapter"> + +<h2><a name="bookVII" id="bookVII"></a> +BOOK THE SEVENTH.</h2> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableI" id="bookVII_fableI"> +FABLE I.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jason</span>, after having met with various +adventures, arrives with the Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the +Golden Fleece. Medea falls in love with Jason, and by the power of her +enchantments preserves him from the dangers he has to encounter in +obtaining it. He obtains the prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in +triumph to Thessaly.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> now the Minyæ<a class="tag" +name="tag7_1" id="tag7_1" href="#note7_1">1</a> were ploughing the +sea in the Pagasæan ship;<a class="tag" name="tag7_2" id="tag7_2" +href="#note7_2">2</a> and Phineus prolonging a needy old age under +perpetual night, had been visited, and the youthful sons of the North +wind had driven the birds with the faces of virgins from <i>before</i> +the mouth of the distressed old man;<a class="tag" name="tag7_3" id="tag7_3" href="#note7_3">3</a> and having suffered many things under +the famous Jason, had reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy +Phasis.</p> + +<p>And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged +to Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of +mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of Æetes<a class="tag" +name="tag7_4" id="tag7_4" href="#note7_4">4</a> conceives a +violent flame; and having long struggled <i>against it</i>, after she is +unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: “In vain, Medea, dost +thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a +wonder too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is +called ‘love.’ For why do the commands +<span class="pagenum mckay">249</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 15-44</span> +of my father appear too rigid for me? and yet too rigid they are. Why +<span class="pagenum bell">223</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 16-48</span> +am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen <i>but</i> so lately, should +perish? What is the cause of alarm so great? Banish the flames conceived +in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy <i>creature</i>. If I +could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws me on, +against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another. +I see which is the more proper <i>course</i>, and I approve of it, +<i>while</i> I follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning +for a stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? +This land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether +he shall live, or whether die, is in <i>the disposal of</i> the Gods. +Yet he may survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what +<i>fault</i> has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not +the <i>youthful</i> age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? +Whom, though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? +at least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he +will be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with +his own <i>kindred</i> crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will +be given as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I +will confess that I was born of a tigress; then, <i>too</i>, that I +carry steel and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him +perish? Why not, too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not +stimulate the bulls against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and +the never-sleeping dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet +these things are not to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. +Shall I <i>then</i> betray the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall +some stranger, I know not who, be saved; that being delivered by my +means, he may spread his sails to the winds without me, and be the +husband of another; and I, Medea, be left for punishment? If he can +do this, and if he is capable of preferring another to me, let him +perish in his ingratitude. But not such is his countenance, not such +that nobleness of soul, that gracefulness of person, that I should fear +treachery, and forgetfulness +<span class="pagenum mckay">250</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 45-61</span> +of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will +oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou +dread, <i>thus</i> secure? Haste <i>then</i>,<a class="tag" name="tag7_5" id="tag7_5" href="#note7_5">5</a> and banish +<span class="pagenum bell">224</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 48-66</span> +<i>all</i> delay. Jason will ever be indebted to thee for his +preservation; thee will he unite to himself in the rites of marriage, +and throughout the Pelasgian cities<a class="tag" name="tag7_6" id="tag7_6" href="#note7_6">6</a> thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of +matrons, as the preserver <i>of their sons</i>. And shall I then, borne +away by the winds, leave my sister<a class="tag" name="tag7_7" id="tag7_7" href="#note7_7">7</a> and my brother,<a class="tag" name="tag7_8" id="tag7_8" href="#note7_8">8</a> and my father, and my +Gods, and my native soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, +is barbarous;<a class="tag" name="tag7_9" id="tag7_9" href="#note7_9">9</a> my brother is still <i>but</i> an infant; the wishes of +my sister are in my favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of +me. I shall not be relinquishing anything great; I shall be +pursuing what is great; the credit of saving the youth of Greece,<a +class="tag" name="tag7_10" id="tag7_10" href="#note7_10">10</a> +acquaintance with a better country, and cities, whose fame is +flourishing even here, and the politeness and the arts of their +inhabitants; and the son of Æson, whom I could be ready to take in +exchange for <i>all</i> the things that the whole world contains; with +whom for my husband I shall both be +<span class="pagenum mckay">251</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 62-84</span> +deemed dear to the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say +that I know not what mountains<a class="tag" name="tag7_11" id="tag7_11" href="#note7_11">11</a> are reported to arise in the midst +of the waves, and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in +the sea, at another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with +furious dogs, is said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him +<span class="pagenum bell">225</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 66-94</span> +whom I love, and clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne +over the wide seas; embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear +anything, for my husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call +this a marriage, and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? +Do but consider how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while +<i>still</i> thou mayst, fly from guilt.â€</p> + +<p><i>Thus</i> she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, +and Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to +the ancient altars of Hecate,<a class="tag" name="tag7_12" id="tag7_12" href="#note7_12">12</a> the daughter of Perses, which a +shady grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was +resolved, and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld +the son of Æson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were +covered with blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a +spark is wont to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small +when it lay concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, <ins class="corr +mckay" title="McKay reads ‘is {wont}’"><i>is wont</i></ins> to +increase, and aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her +love, now declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, +when she beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him +before her eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of Æson was more +<span class="pagenum mckay">252</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 85-110</span> +beauteous than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and +keeps her eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for +the first time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the +face of a mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger +began to speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance +with a humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears +running down, “I see what I ought to do; and it will not be +ignorance of the truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou +shalt be saved; when saved, grant what thou hast promised.â€</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">226</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 94-120</span> + +<p>He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the +Deity which is in that grove, and by the sire<a class="tag" name="tag7_13" id="tag7_13" href="#note7_13">13</a> of his future +father-in-law, who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by +dangers so great. Being believed <i>by her</i>, he immediately received +some enchanted herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went +away rejoicing to his abode. The next morning had <i>now</i> dispersed +the twinkling stars, <i>when</i> the people repaired to the sacred field +of Mavors, and ranged themselves on the hills. In the midst of the +assembly sat the king himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a +sceptre of ivory. Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames<a +class="tag" name="tag7_14" id="tag7_14" href="#note7_14">14</a> +from their adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is +on fire. And as the forges filled <i>with fire</i> are wont to roar, or +when flints<a class="tag" name="tag7_15" id="tag7_15" href="#note7_15">15</a> dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat +by the sprinkling of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth +the flames enclosed within, and their scorched throats, resound. +<span class="pagenum mckay">253</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 110-139</span> +Yet the son of Æson goes forth to meet them. The fierce <i>bulls</i> +turn their terrible features, and their horns pointed with iron, towards +his face as he advances, and with cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty +ground, and fill the place with lowings, that send forth clouds of +smoke. The Minyæ are frozen with horror. He comes up, and feels not the +flames breathed forth by them, so great is the power of the +incantations. He even strokes their hanging dewlaps with a bold right +hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges them to draw the heavy +weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share the plain <i>till +now</i> unused to it.<a class="tag" name="tag7_16" id="tag7_16" +href="#note7_16">16</a></p> + +<p>The Colchians are astonished; the Minyæ fill <i>the air</i> with +their shouts, and give him <i>fresh</i> courage. Then in a brazen +<span class="pagenum bell">227</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 120-155</span> +helmet he takes the dragon’s teeth,<a class="tag" name="tag7_17" id="tag7_17" href="#note7_17">17</a> and strews them over the ploughed +up fields. The ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, +softens the seed; and the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new +bodies. And as the infant receives the human form in the womb of the +mother, and is there formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into +the common air until at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened +in the bowels of the pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; +and, what is still more surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the +same time. When the Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears +with sharp points at the head of the Hæmonian youth, they lowered their +countenances and their courage, <i>quailing</i> with fear. She, too, +became alarmed, who had rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, +being but one, attacked by so many enemies, she turned pale, and +suddenly chilled <i>with fear</i>, sat down without blood <i>in her +cheeks</i>. And, lest the herbs that had been given by her, should avail +him but little, she repeats an auxiliary charm, and summons <i>to her +aid</i> her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy stone into the midst of his +<span class="pagenum mckay">254</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 140-158</span> +enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from himself, upon themselves. +The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual wounds, and fall in civil +fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress the conqueror, and cling +to him in hearty embraces. And thou too, barbarian maiden, wouldst fain +have embraced him; ’twas modesty that opposed the design; otherwise thou +wouldst have embraced him; but regard for thy reputation restrained thee +from doing so. What thou mayst do, <i>thou dost do</i>; thou rejoicest +with a silent affection, and thou givest thanks to thy charms, and to +the Gods, the authors of them.</p> + +<p>It <i>still</i> remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, +who, distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with +his hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has +sprinkled him with herbs of Lethæan juice,<a class="tag" name="tag7_18" id="tag7_18" href="#note7_18">18</a> and has thrice +repeated words that cause placid slumbers, which <i>would even calm</i> +the boisterous ocean, <i>and</i> which would stop the rapid rivers, +sleep creeps upon the eyes +<span class="pagenum bell">228</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 155-158</span> +that were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of Æson, gains the +gold; and proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize +as a second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of +Iolcos.<a class="tag" name="tag7_19" id="tag7_19" href="#note7_19">19</a></p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history of +Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the fictions +which the poets have mingled with the history of the expedition of the +Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the fabulous ages.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of +Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to +divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He +afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus +and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two +sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele, +sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship +to be privately prepared; and taking his father’s treasures, sailed with +<span class="pagenum mckay">255</span> +his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his kinsman. +Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis, where he +dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He there married +Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes, Molas, and +Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be assassinated; and his +sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather, Athamas, were +shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until found there by +Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having mourned them as dead, +she was transported with joy on finding them, and used every exertion to +aid Jason in promoting his addresses to Medea. Æetes having seized the +treasures of Athamas on the death of Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an +expedition to recover them, and to avenge his death. Pelias, who had +driven his brother Æson from the throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure +the absence of his son Jason, took this opportunity of engaging him in +an enterprise, which promised both glory, profit, and a large amount of +personal exertion. The uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the +prediction of an oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the +family of Æolus, and which warned him to beware of a person who should +have but one shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school +of Chiron, lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle +was desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he +induced him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish +in an undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece +repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when +they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of +which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of +Argonauts.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness; +<span class="pagenum bell">229</span> +while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its +builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart, +however, supposes, that the name is derived from the PhÅ“nician word +‘arco,’ which signifies ‘long,’ and suggests, that before that time the +Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first who +sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many adventures, +on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the women had killed +their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the Argonauts took wives +from their number, and Jason received for his companion Hypsipyle, the +daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they were driven on the coast +of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus, its king, from the +persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit of snatching away the +victuals from his table. These monsters, of hideous form, with crooked +beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces of women, the Argonauts, and +especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as far as the islands called +Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris appearing to them, enjoined +them to pursue the Harpies no further, promising that Phineus should no +longer be persecuted by them. To explain this story, some suppose that +the Harpies were the daughters of Phineus, who by their dissipation and +extravagance, had ruined him in his old age, which occasioned the +saying, that they snatched the victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc +thinks, that the Harpies were vast swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged +<span class="pagenum mckay">256</span> +all Paphlagonia, and caused a famine in the dominions of Phineus; the +word ‘arbati,’ whence the term ‘Harpy’ is derived, signifying ‘a +grasshopper;’ and that the North wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, +it gave rise to the saying, that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. +Diodorus Siculus does not mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the +arrival of the Argonauts at the court of Phineus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes, or +Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a stranger +should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a custom of +sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His daughter Medea, +falling in love with Jason, promised him her assistance in preserving +them from the dangers to which they were exposed, on the condition of +his marrying her. Having engaged to do so, she conducted him by night to +the royal palace, and gave him a false key, by means whereof he found +the royal treasures, and carrying them off, embarked with Medea and his +companions. By way of explaining the miraculous portion of the story, we +may, perhaps, not err in supposing, that the account of it was +originally written in the PhÅ“nician language; and through not +understanding it, the Greeks invented the fiction of the Fleece, the +Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls. Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, +that the Syriac word ‘gaza,’ signifies either ‘a treasure,’ or ‘a +fleece.’ ‘Saur,’ which means ‘a wall,’ also means ‘a bull;’ and in the +same language the same word, ‘nachas,’ signifies both ‘brass,’ ‘iron,’ +and ‘a dragon.’ Hence, instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by +the aid of Medea, carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within +walls, with bolts, or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to +Colchis in a ship with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was +published, and circulated by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save +Phryxus from his stepmother, sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, +<span class="pagenum bell">230</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 159-176</span> +which bore him to Colchis; that its fleece became the object of the +ambition of the leading men of Greece; and that whoever wished to bear +it away was obliged to contend with bulls and dragons. Some historians, +by way of interpreting the story, affirm, that the keeper of the +treasures was named ‘Draco,’ or ‘Dragon,’ and that the garrison of the +stronghold of Æetes was brought from the ‘Tauric’ Chersonesus. They say +also, that the fleece was the skin of the sheep which Phryxus had +sacrificed to Neptune, which he had caused to be gilt. It is not, +however, very likely, that an object so trifling could have excited the +avarice of the Greeks, and caused them to undertake an expedition +accompanied with so many dangers. The dragon’s teeth most probably bear +reference to some foreign troops which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus +had done, found means to alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his +own side. Homer makes but very slight allusion to the adventures of the +Argonauts.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">257</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 159-180</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableII" id="bookVII_fableII"> +FABLE II.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jason</span>, after his return home, requests +Medea to restore his father Æson to youth, which she performs; then, +going to the court of Pelias, she avenges the injuries which he had done +to the family of Jason, by making him the victim of the credulity of his +own daughters, who, in compliance with her pretended regard for them, +stab him to death. Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape +in her chariot.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">The</span> Hæmonian mothers and aged +fathers bring presents, for receiving their sons <i>safe home</i>; and +frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames, and the devoted victim +falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not among those +congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the years of old +age; when thus the son of Æson <i>addresses Medea</i>: “O wife, to +whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me +everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds <i>all</i> belief; +<i>still</i>, if <i>thy enchantments</i> can effect this (and what can +enchantments not effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, +add them to <i>those of</i> my father.â€</p> + +<p>And <i>thus saying</i>, he could not check his tears. She was moved +with the affection of the petitioner; and <i>her father</i>, Æetes, left +behind, recurred to her mind, unlike <i>that of Jason</i>; yet she did +not confess any such feelings. “What a piece of wickedness, husband,†+said she, “has escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable +of transferring to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow +of this; nor dost thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will +endeavor to grant thee a favor <i>still</i> greater than that which thou +art asking. By my arts +<span class="pagenum bell">231</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 176-203</span> +we will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and +not by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form<a class="tag" name="tag7_20" id="tag7_20" href="#note7_20">20</a> do but +assist, and propitiously aid <i>so</i> vast an undertaking.†Three +nights were <i>now</i> wanting that the horns <i>of the Moon</i> might +meet entirely, and might form a <i>perfect</i> orb. After the +<span class="pagenum mckay">258</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 180-204</span> +Moon shone in her full, and looked down upon the Earth, with her disk +complete, <i>Medea</i> went forth from the house, clothed in garments +flowing loose, with bare feet,<a class="tag" name="tag7_21" id="tag7_21" href="#note7_21">21</a> and having her unadorned hair +hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed her wandering steps +through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep has <i>now</i> +relaxed <i>the nerves of both</i> men, and birds, and beasts; the hedges +and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy air is +still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up her +arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she besprinkles +her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells she opens +her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she says, +“O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden Stars, +who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, three-faced +Hecate,<a class="tag" name="tag7_22" id="tag7_22" href="#note7_22">22</a> who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms and +arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the +enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, +rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of +night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run +back from their astonished banks to their sources, <i>and</i> by my +charms I calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse +the clouds, and I bring clouds <i>upon the Earth</i>; I both allay +the winds, and I raise them; and I break the jaws of +<span class="pagenum bell">232</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 203-229</span> +serpents with my words and my spells; I move, too, the solid rocks, +and the oaks torn up with their own <i>native</i> earth, and the forests +<i>as well</i>. I command +<span class="pagenum mckay">259</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 204-229</span> +the mountains, too, to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to +come forth from their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, +although the Temesæan<a class="tag" name="tag7_23" id="tag7_23" +href="#note7_23">23</a> brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, +the chariot of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale +through my enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, +and with the curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore +the yoke. You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among +themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper <i>of the golden +fleece</i>, that had never known sleep; and <i>thus</i>, deceiving the +guardian, you sent the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is +need of juices, by means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to +the bloom <i>of life</i>, and may receive back again its early years; +and <i>this</i> ye will give me; for not in vain did the stars <i>just +now</i> sparkle; nor yet in vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks +of winged dragons.â€</p> + +<p>A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had +mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had +shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked +down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the +chalky regions;<a class="tag" name="tag7_24" id="tag7_24" href="#note7_24">24</a> and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the +lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus <i>still</i> +greater than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, +part she cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.<a class="tag" name="tag7_25" id="tag7_25" href="#note7_25">25</a> Many a herb, too, +that grew on the banks of Apidanus<a class="tag" name="tag7_26" id="tag7_26" href="#note7_26">26</a> pleased her; many, too, <i>on the +banks</i> of Amphrysus; +<span class="pagenum mckay">260</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 229-249</span> +<span class="pagenum bell">233</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 229-249</span> +nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and the Spercheian +as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of BÅ“be.<a class="tag" name="tag7_27" id="tag7_27" href="#note7_27">27</a> She +plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the EubÅ“an Anthedon,<a class="tag" +name="tag7_28" id="tag7_28" href="#note7_28">28</a> not yet +commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.<a class="tag" +name="tag7_29" id="tag7_29" href="#note7_29">29</a> And now the +ninth day,<a class="tag" name="tag7_30" id="tag7_30" href="#note7_30">30</a> and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the +fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she +returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors <i>of the +plants</i>: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her +arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied +by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and +erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the +left side one to Youth.<a class="tag" name="tag7_31" id="tag7_31" +href="#note7_31">31</a> After she had hung them round with vervain and +forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off, she +performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black ram, +and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon +goblets<a class="tag" name="tag7_32" id="tag7_32" href="#note7_32">32</a> of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm +milk; she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of +the earth, and entreats the king of the shades<a class="tag" name="tag7_33" id="tag7_33" href="#note7_33">33</a> below, together with +his +<span class="pagenum mckay">261</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 249-271</span> +ravished +<span class="pagenum bell">234</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 249-273</span> +wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of life. When +she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and prolonged +mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be brought out +to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by her charms, +<i>and</i> resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him.</p> + +<p>She orders the son of Æson to go <ins class="corr bell" title="Bell translates ‘afar’">far</ins> thence, and the attendants, too, to +go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her +mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes +round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her +torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and +lights them, <i>thus</i> dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she<a +class="tag" name="tag7_34" id="tag7_34" href="#note7_34">34</a> +purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with +sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture<a class="tag" name="tag7_35" id="tag7_35" href="#note7_35">35</a> is boiling and +heaving in the brazen cauldron, placed <i>on the flames</i>, and whitens +with swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian +valleys, and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched +from the most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean +has washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of +the moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,<a class="tag" +name="tag7_36" id="tag7_36" href="#note7_36">36</a> together with +its flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to +change its appearance of a wild beast into <i>that of</i> a man. Nor is +there wanting there +<span class="pagenum mckay">262</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 272-294</span> +the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,<a class="tag" name="tag7_37" id="tag7_37" href="#note7_37">37</a> and the liver of +the long-lived +<span class="pagenum bell">235</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 273-296</span> +stag;<a class="tag" name="tag7_38" id="tag7_38" href="#note7_38">38</a> to which, besides, she adds the bill and head of a +crow that had sustained <i>an existence of</i> nine ages. When, with +these and a thousand other things without a name, the barbarian +<i>princess</i> has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal +<i>body</i>, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, +she stirs them all up, and blends the lowest <i>ingredients</i> with the +highest. Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at +first becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is +suddenly loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the +froth from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon +the earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring +up.</p> + +<p>Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat<a class="tag" name="tag7_39" id="tag7_39" href="#note7_39">39</a> of the old man with a +drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes <i>his +veins</i> with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received +in his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair<ins class="corr +bell" title="footnote marker missing in Bell"><a class="tag" name="tag7_40" id="tag7_40" href="#note7_40">40</a></ins> laying aside +their hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; +his paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with +additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is +astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten +years before.</p> + +<p>Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a +prodigy; and taught <i>thereby</i> that +<span class="pagenum mckay">263</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 295-315</span> +youthful years can be restored to his nurses,<a class="tag" name="tag7_41" id="tag7_41" href="#note7_41">41</a> he requests this +present from the daughter of Æetes.<a class="tag" name="tag7_42" id="tag7_42" href="#note7_42">42</a></p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">236</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 297-325</span> + +<p>And that her arts<a class="tag" name="tag7_43" id="tag7_43" +href="#note7_43">43</a> may not cease, the Phasian feigns a +counterfeit quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the +threshold of Pelias<a class="tag" name="tag7_44" id="tag7_44" href="#note7_44">44</a> and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his +daughters receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian +engages to herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And +while among the greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities +of Æson have been removed, and is dwelling upon that part <i>of the +story</i>, a hope is suggested to the damsels, the daughters of +Pelias, that by the like art their parent may become young again; and +this they request <i>of her</i>, and repeatedly entreat her to name her +own price. For a short time she is silent, and appears to be hesitating, +and keeps their mind in suspense, as they ask, with an affected +gravity.</p> + +<p>Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, “That there may be +the greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among +your sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by +this preparation.†Immediately, a fleecy <i>ram</i>, enfeebled by +innumerable years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow +temples; whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian +knife, and stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress +plunges the limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the +hollow copper. The limbs of +<span class="pagenum mckay">264</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 316-345</span> +his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, and his years together +with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a low bleating is heard. +And without any delay, while they are wondering at the bleating, +a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and seeks the +suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after her +promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still +more strongly. PhÅ“bus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking +in the Iberian sea;<a class="tag" name="tag7_45" id="tag7_45" href="#note7_45">45</a> and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were +twinkling, +<span class="pagenum bell">237</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 326-349</span> +when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a blazing fire, +and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, their bodies +being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together with <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘the’; Ovid VII.329 ‘rege suo’">their</ins> king, which her charms and the influence of her +enchanting tongue had caused. The daughters <i>of the king</i>, +<i>as</i> ordered, had entered the threshold, together with the +Colchian, and had surrounded the bed; “Why do you hesitate now, in your +indolence? Unsheathe your swords,†says she, “and exhaust the ancient +gore, that I may replenish his empty veins with youthful blood. The life +and the age of your father is now in your power. If you have any +affection and cherish not vain hopes, perform your duty to your father, +and drive away old age with your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, +let out his corrupted blood.â€</p> + +<p>Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes +especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits +wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘they, turning away their eyes’">they turn away their eyes</ins>, and turning away their faces, +they deal chance blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with +gore, yet raises his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to +rise from the couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth +his pale arms, he says, “What +<span class="pagenum mckay">265</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 346-354</span> +are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against the life of your +parent?†Their courage and their hands fail <i>them</i>. As he is about +to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with his words, +and plunges him, <i>thus</i> mangled, in the boiling cauldron.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin +of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in +their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of +reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood. It +is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of being +a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the virtues +of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson, which +furnished him with new spirits and strength.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of Medea +for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought upon +her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous herbs +in his drink, which immediately killed him.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">238</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 350-362</span> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableIII" id="bookVII_fableIII"> +FABLE III.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Medea</span>, after having killed Pelias, goes +through several countries to Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her +absence, has married the daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the +palace, whereby the princess and her father are consumed. She then +murders the two children which she had by Jason, before his face, and +takes to flight.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">And</span> unless she had mounted into the +air with winged dragons, she would not have been exempt from punishment; +she flies aloft, over both shady Pelion, the lofty habitation<a class="tag" name="tag7_46" id="tag7_46" href="#note7_46">46</a> of the +son of Phillyra, and over Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of +the ancient Cerambus.<a class="tag" name="tag7_47" id="tag7_47" +href="#note7_47">47</a> He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on +wings into the air, when the ponderous earth was covered by +<span class="pagenum mckay">266</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 355-365</span> +the sea pouring over it, not being overwhelmed, escaped the flood of +Deucalion. On the left side, she leaves the Æolian Pitane,<a class="tag" name="tag7_48" id="tag7_48" href="#note7_48">48</a> and the +image of the long Dragon<a class="tag" name="tag7_49" id="tag7_49" +href="#note7_49">49</a> made out of stone, and the wood of Ida,<a +class="tag" name="tag7_50" id="tag7_50" href="#note7_50">50</a> +in which Bacchus hid a stolen bullock beneath the appearance of a +fictitious stag; <i>the spot</i> too, where the father of Corythus<a +class="tag" name="tag7_51" id="tag7_51" href="#note7_51">51</a> +lies buried beneath a little sand, and the fields which Mæra<a class="tag" name="tag7_52" id="tag7_52" href="#note7_52">52</a> alarmed +by her unusual barking.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">239</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 363-370</span> + +<p>The city, too, of Eurypylus,<a class="tag" name="tag7_53" id="tag7_53" href="#note7_53">53</a> in which the Coan matrons<a class="tag" name="tag7_54" id="tag7_54" href="#note7_54">54</a> wore +horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules<a class="tag" name="tag7_55" id="tag7_55" href="#note7_55">55</a> departed +<i>thence</i>; PhÅ“bean Rhodes<a class="tag" name="tag7_56" id="tag7_56" href="#note7_56">56</a> also, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">267</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 365-382</span> +the Ialysian Telchines,<a class="tag" name="tag7_57" id="tag7_57" +href="#note7_57">57</a> whose eyes<a class="tag" name="tag7_58" id="tag7_58" href="#note7_58">58</a> corrupting all things by the very +looking upon them, Jupiter utterly hating, thrust beneath the waves of +his brother. She passed, too, over the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,<a +class="tag" name="tag7_59" id="tag7_59" href="#note7_59">59</a> +where her father Alcidamas<a class="tag" name="tag7_60" id="tag7_60" href="#note7_60">60</a> was destined to wonder that a gentle +dove could arise from the body of his daughter.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">240</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 371-389</span> + +<p>After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,<a class="tag" name="tag7_61" id="tag7_61" href="#note7_61">61</a> and Cycneian Tempe,<a +class="tag" name="tag7_62" id="tag7_62" href="#note7_62">62</a> +which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there +Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce +lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; +and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, +<i>when</i> begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, +said, “Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;†and <i>then</i> leaped +from a high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a +swan, he hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, +not knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake +<i>called</i> after her own name.</p> + +<p>Adjacent to these <i>places</i> is Pleuron;<a class="tag" name="tag7_63" id="tag7_63" href="#note7_63">63</a> in which +<span class="pagenum mckay">268</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 383-396</span> +Combe,<a class="tag" name="tag7_64" id="tag7_64" href="#note7_64">64</a> the daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons +with trembling wings. After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,<a +class="tag" name="tag7_65" id="tag7_65" href="#note7_65">65</a> +sacred to Latona, conscious of the transformation of their king, +together with his wife, into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on +which Menephron<a class="tag" name="tag7_66" id="tag7_66" href="#note7_66">66</a> was <i>one day</i> to lie with his mother, after the +manner of savage beasts. Far hence she beholds Cephisus,<a class="tag" +name="tag7_67" id="tag7_67" href="#note7_67">67</a> lamenting the +fate of his grandson, changed +<span class="pagenum bell">241</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 389-401</span> +by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,<a class="tag" name="tag7_68" id="tag7_68" href="#note7_68">68</a> +lamenting his son in the air.</p> + +<p>At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the +Pirenian Ephyre.<a class="tag" name="tag7_69" id="tag7_69" href="#note7_69">69</a> Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the +early ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from +rain. But after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian +drugs, and both seas beheld the king’s house on fire, her wicked sword +was bathed in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having <i>thus</i> +barbarously revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. +<span class="pagenum mckay">269</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 397-401</span> +Being borne hence by her Titanian dragons,<a class="tag" name="tag7_70" id="tag7_70" href="#note7_70">70</a> she entered the city +of Pallas, which saw thee, most righteous Phineus,<a class="tag" name="tag7_71" id="tag7_71" href="#note7_71">71</a> and thee, aged +Periphas,<a class="tag" name="tag7_72" id="tag7_72" href="#note7_72">72</a> flying together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon<a +class="tag" name="tag7_73" id="tag7_73" href="#note7_73">73</a> +resting upon new-formed wings.</p> + +<h6><a name = "bookVII_fableIII_exp" id = "bookVII_fableIII_exp"> +EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to his +son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or Creüsa, the +daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to that place, left +her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to Creon’s palace, +where he and +<span class="pagenum bell">242</span> +his daughter were consumed to ashes, after which she killed her own +children. Euripides, in his tragedy of Medea, makes a chorus of +Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians themselves committed the +murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on the city, as a punishment for +the deed. Pausanias also says, that the tomb of Medea’s children, whom +the Corinthians stoned to death, was still to be seen in his time; and +that the Corinthians offered sacrifices there every year, to appease +their ghosts, as the oracle had commanded them.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that +Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible +nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn so +furiously, that the young princess perished <ins class="corr mckay" +title="McKay reads ‘in / in’ at line break">in</ins> the greatest +misery. Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to +give her assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to +perform. Going thence to Athens, she married Ægeus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact, that +her ship was called ‘the Dragon.’ In recounting the particulars of her +flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the most of +which are entirely unknown to us. With regard +<span class="pagenum mckay">270</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 402-408</span> +to these fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as +affording a key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any +imminent danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. +If, to avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said +to be transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from +excess of grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, +if a damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The +resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus, Alopis +was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a crow; and +Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories here alluded +to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be remarked, that the +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘accounts’">account</ins> +of the women of Cos being changed into cows, is thought by some to have +been founded on the cruel act of the companions of Hercules, who +sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the country. The inhabitants of +the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been changed into rocks, because +they perished in an inundation, which laid a part of that island under +water, and particularly the town of Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the +daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it to be said, that she was changed +into a dove. The rage of Mæra is shown by her transformation into a +bitch; and Arne was changed into a daw, because, having sold her +country, her avarice was well depicted under the symbol of that bird, +which, according to the popular opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the +mother of the Centaur Chiron, was said to be changed into a linden-tree, +probably because she happened to bear the name of that tree, which in +the Greek language is called <span class="greek" title="philura">φιλύÏα</span>.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<span class="pagenum bell">243</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 402-423</span> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableIV" id="bookVII_fableIV"> +FABLE IV.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Hercules</span> chains the dog Cerberus, the +guardian of the gates of the Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his +exploits at Corinth, arrives at Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of +poison for him. The king, however, recognizing his son, just as he is +about to drink, snatches away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her +chariot. Ægeus then makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and +preservation of Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, +solicits several princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to +revenge the death of his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Ægeus</span>, to be blamed for this deed +alone, shelters her; and hospitality is not enough, he also joins her +<i>to himself</i> by the ties of marriage. And now was Theseus, his son, +arrived, unknown to his father, who, by his valor, had established peace +in the Isthmus between the two seas. For his destruction Medea mingles +the wolfsbane, which she once brought with her from the shores of +Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the teeth of +<span class="pagenum mckay">271</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 409-428</span> +the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,<a class="tag" name="tag7_74" id="tag7_74" href="#note7_74">74</a> with a dark entrance, +<i>wherein</i> there is a descending path, along which the Tirynthian +hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes sideways from +the day and the shining rays <i>of the Sun</i>, in chains formed of +adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with triple +barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields with white +foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the nourishment of +a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of being noxious. +Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock, the rustics call +it aconite.<a class="tag" name="tag7_75" id="tag7_75" href="#note7_75">75</a></p> + +<p>This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father Ægeus himself +presented to his son,<a class="tag" name="tag7_76" id="tag7_76" +href="#note7_76">76</a> as though to an enemy. Theseus had received +the presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father +perceived upon the ivory hilt of his sword the +<span class="pagenum bell">244</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 423-439</span> +tokens of his race,<a class="tag" name="tag7_77" id="tag7_77" href="#note7_77">77</a> and struck the guilty <i>draught</i> from his +mouth. She escaped death, having raised clouds by her enchantments.</p> + +<p>But the father, although he rejoices at his son’s being safe, +astonished that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an +escape from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with +gifts; and the +<span class="pagenum mckay">272</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 429-443</span> +axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns bound with +wreaths. No day is said <i>ever</i> to have shone upon the people of +Erectheus more famous than that—the senators and the common people +keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. “Thee, +greatest Theseus,†said they, “Marathon<a class="tag" name="tag7_78" id="tag7_78" href="#note7_78">78</a> admired for <i>shedding</i> the +blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon<a +class="tag" name="tag7_79" id="tag7_79" href="#note7_79">79</a> +in safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means +the country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan<a class="tag" name="tag7_80" id="tag7_80" href="#note7_80">80</a> fall; +<i>and</i> the banks of the river Cephisus<a class="tag" name="tag7_81" id="tag7_81" href="#note7_81">81</a> saw the cruel +Procrustes <i>fall by thee</i>. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the +death of Cercyon.<a class="tag" name="tag7_82" id="tag7_82" href="#note7_82">82</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">245</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 439-460</span> +Sinnis<a class="tag" name="tag7_83" id="tag7_83" href="#note7_83">83</a> fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who +was able to bend <i>huge</i> beams, and used to pull pine trees from +aloft to the earth, destined to scatter <i>human</i> bodies far and +wide. The road to Alcathoë,<a class="tag" name="tag7_84" id="tag7_84" href="#note7_84">84</a> the Lelegeïan +<span class="pagenum mckay">273</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 443-463</span> +city, is now open in safety, Scyron<a class="tag" name="tag7_85" id="tag7_85" href="#note7_85">85</a> being laid low <i>in death</i>: +<i>and</i> the earth denies a resting-place, the water, <i>too</i>, +denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber scattered piecemeal; +these, long tossed about, length of time is reported to have hardened +into rocks. To <i>these</i> rocks the name of Scyron adheres. If we +should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy years, thy actions would +exceed thy years <i>in number</i>. For thee, bravest <i>hero</i>, we +make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of wine.†The +palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the prayers of +those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout the whole +city.</p> + +<p>And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some +anxiety is <i>ever</i> interposing amid joyous circumstances), Ægeus +does not have his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos +prepares for war; who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in +shipping, is still strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, +with retributive arms, avenges the death of <i>his son</i> Androgeus. +Yet, before the war, he obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea +with a swift fleet, in which +<span class="pagenum bell">2436</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 460-468</span> +he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe<a class="tag" +name="tag7_86" id="tag7_86" href="#note7_86">86</a> to himself; +and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of Astypale by +conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky lands of +Cimolus,<a class="tag" name="tag7_87" id="tag7_87" href="#note7_87">87</a> and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, +<span class="pagenum mckay">274</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 464-468</span> +and the level Seriphos;<a class="tag" name="tag7_88" id="tag7_88" +href="#note7_88">88</a> Paros, too, abounding in marble, and <i>the +island</i> wherein the treacherous Sithonian<a class="tag" name="tag7_89" id="tag7_89" href="#note7_89">89</a> betrayed the citadel, +on receiving the gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She +was changed into a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the +jackdaw <i>namely</i>, black-footed, and covered with black +feathers.</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the +Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be +but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the +Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future +state of <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘man,’">man.</ins> The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon +the custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or +caverns in which they kept their mummies.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been +founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a +serpent which haunted the cavern of Tænarus, in Laconia, and ravaged the +districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally +considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets +thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its +portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that +Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name in +the Greek language signified ‘one that devours flesh.’ The story that +Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in Thessaly, and +that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever after common +there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those herbs were found +in great quantities in that region.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground +for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to +bring the +<span class="pagenum bell">247</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 469-481</span> +moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations; which latter +notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these women used to +invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their magical +operations.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">275</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 469-481</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableV" id="bookVII_fableV"> +FABLE V.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Minos</span>, having engaged several powers in +his interest, and having been refused by others, goes to the <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘islands’">island</ins> of Ægina, +where Æacus reigns, to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; +but without success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as +ambassador, from Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives +him an account of the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in +his country, and of the surprising manner in which it had been <ins +class="corr mckay" title="mid-line hyphen invisible in McKay">re-peopled</ins>.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">But</span> Oliaros,<a class="tag" name="tag7_90" id="tag7_90" href="#note7_90">90</a> and Didyme, and +Tenos,<a class="tag" name="tag7_91" id="tag7_91" href="#note7_91">91</a> and Andros,<a class="tag" name="tag7_92" id="tag7_92" href="#note7_92">92</a> and Gyaros,<a class="tag" name="tag7_93" id="tag7_93" href="#note7_93">93</a> and Peparethos, +fruitful in the smooth olive,<a class="tag" name="tag7_94" id="tag7_94" href="#note7_94">94</a> do not aid the Gnossian ships. Then +Minos makes for Å’nopia,<a class="tag" name="tag7_95" id="tag7_95" +href="#note7_95">95</a> the kingdom of Æacus, lying to the left. The +ancients called it Å’nopia, but Æacus himself called it Ægina, from the +name of his mother. The multitude rushes forth, and desires greatly to +know a man of so great celebrity. Both Telamon,<a class="tag" name="tag7_96" id="tag7_96" href="#note7_96">96</a> and Peleus, younger +than Telamon, and Phocus, the <i>king’s</i> third son, go to meet him. +Æacus himself, too, <i>though</i> slow through the infirmity of old age, +goes forth, and asks him what is the reason of his coming? The ruler of +a hundred cities, being +<span class="pagenum bell">248</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 481-512</span> +put in mind of his fatherly sorrow <i>for his son</i>, sighs, and gives +him this answer: “I beg +<span class="pagenum mckay">276</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 482-509</span> +thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party in a +war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction.†To him the +grandson of Asopus says, “Thou <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘asketh’">askest</ins> in vain, and for a thing not to be done by +my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied to the people +of Cecropia. Such are <i>the terms of</i> our compact.†<i>Minos</i> +goes away in sadness, and says, “This compact of thine will cost thee a +dear price;†and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to +wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely.</p> + +<p>Even yet may the Lyctian<a class="tag" name="tag7_97" id="tag7_97" href="#note7_97">97</a> fleet be beheld from the Å’nopian +walls, when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and +enters the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together +<i>with him</i> the request of his native country. The youthful sons of +Æacus recognize Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and +give their right hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The +graceful hero, even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, +enters; and, holding a branch of his country’s olive, being the elder, +he has on his right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and +Butes, the sons of Pallas.<a class="tag" name="tag7_98" id="tag7_98" href="#note7_98">98</a> After their first meeting has had +words suitable <i>thereto</i>, Cephalus relates the request of the +people of Cecrops, and begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and +alliances of their forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the +whole of Achaia is aimed at. After the eloquence <i>of Cephalus</i> has +thus promoted the cause entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left +hand on the handle of his sceptre, says—</p> + +<p>“Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond +doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let +all the forces of my kingdom go <i>along with thee</i>. Strength is not +wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for +<span class="pagenum mckay">277</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 510-537</span> +<i>opposing</i> the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous +time, and one that can excuse no refusal of mine.†“Yes, <i>and</i> be +it so,†says Cephalus:<a class="tag" name="tag7_99" id="tag7_99" +href="#note7_99">99</a> +<span class="pagenum bell">249</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 512-545</span> +<ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay missing “">“and</ins> I pray +that thy power may increase along with thy citizens. Indeed, as I came +along just now, I received <i>much</i> pleasure, when a number of +youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came forward to meet me. +Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw when I was formerly +entertained in this city.†Æacus heaves a sigh, and thus he says, with +mournful voice: “A better fortune will be following a lamentable +beginning; I <i>only</i> wish I could relate this to you. +I will now tell it you without any order, that I may not be +detaining you by any long preamble.<a class="tag" name="tag7_100" id="tag7_100" href="#note7_100">100</a> They are <i>now</i> lying as +bones and ashes, for whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And +how great a part were they of my resources that perished! +A dreadful pestilence fell upon my people, through the anger of the +vengeful Juno, who hated a country named<a class="tag" name="tag7_101" id="tag7_101" href="#note7_101">101</a> from her rival. +While the calamity seemed natural, and the baneful cause of so great +destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the resources of medicine. +<i>But</i> the havoc exceeded <i>all</i> help, which <i>now</i> lay +baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick +darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the +Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, <i>and</i>, +four times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds +were blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the +infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of +serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting +the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was +first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and +oxen, and among the wild beasts. +<span class="pagenum mckay">278</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 538-566</span> +The unfortunate ploughman wonders that strong oxen fall down at their +work, and lie stretched in the middle of the furrow. <i>And</i> while +the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings, both their wool falls +off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The horse, once of high +mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates for the <i>purposes +of</i> victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he groans at the +manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The boar remembers +not to +<span class="pagenum bell">250</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 545-576</span> +be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor the bears to rush upon +the powerful herds.</p> + +<p>“A faintness seizes all <i>animals</i>; both in the woods, in the +fields, and in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is +corrupted with the smell <i>of them</i>. I am relating strange +events. The dogs, and the ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch +them not; falling away, they rot, and, by their exhalations, produce +baneful effects, and spread the contagion far and wide. With more +dreadful destruction the pestilence reaches the wretched husbandmen, and +riots within the walls of the extensive city. At first, the bowels are +scorched,<a class="tag" name="tag7_102" id="tag7_102" href="#note7_102">102</a> and a redness, and the breath drawn with +difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The tongue, <i>grown</i> +rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its throbbing veins; +the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. <i>The infected</i> +cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their hardened +breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by the +ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no +physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who +administer remedies; and <i>their own</i> arts become an injury to their +owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he +attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the +fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the +end of their malady <i>only</i> in death, they indulge their humors, and +there is no +<span class="pagenum mckay">279</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 567-596</span> +concern as to what is to their advantage; for, <i>indeed</i>, nothing is +to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished, they lie +<i>promiscuously</i> close to the fountains and rivers, and deep wells; +and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their life +<i>is</i>. Many, overpowered <i>with the disease</i>, are unable to +arise thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks +that <i>water</i>. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched +<i>creatures</i> of their hated beds, <i>that</i> they leap out, or, if +their strength forbids them standing, they roll their bodies upon the +ground, and every man flies from his own dwelling; each one’s house +seems fatal to him: and since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the +place that is known +<span class="pagenum bell">251</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 576-611</span> +is blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, +as long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on +the ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They +stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens, +breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken +them.</p> + +<p>“What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, +to hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever +side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed <i>on the +earth</i>, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and +acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest<a class="tag" name="tag7_103" id="tag7_103" href="#note7_103">103</a> a lofty temple, +opposite <i>thee</i>, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it +<i>as his own</i>. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? +how often did the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for +his wife, <i>or</i> the father for his son, end his life at the altars +without prevailing? in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found +unconsumed! How often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while +the priest was making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine +between their horns, fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself +was offering sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my +three sons, +<span class="pagenum mckay">280</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 597-613</span> +the victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without +any blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the +diseased entrails, too, had lost <i>all</i> marks of truth, and the +warnings of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. +I have seen the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; +before the very altars, <i>too</i>, that death might become more +odious<a class="tag" name="tag7_104" id="tag7_104" href="#note7_104">104</a> <i>to the Gods</i>. Some finish their lives with +the halter, and by death dispel the apprehension of death, and +voluntarily invite approaching fate. The bodies of the dead are not +borne out with any funeral rites, according to the custom; for the +<i>city</i> gates cannot receive <i>the multitude of</i> the +processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are laid +on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no +distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on +fires that belong to others. They who should +<span class="pagenum bell">252</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 611-622</span> +weep are wanting; and the souls <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘of the sons’">of sons</ins>, and of husbands, of old and of +young, wander about unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the +tombs, nor trees for the fires<ins class="corr both" title="McKay missing close quote">.â€</ins></p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his +accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made +several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned, and, +at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet is +particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus +Siculus.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The Feast of the Panathenæa being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his +son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was +sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby +acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the +friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of Ægeus. This +circumstance caused Ægeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more +especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him. +Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes, he +caused him to be assassinated near Å’noë, a town on the confines of +Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of +Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is very +possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view of +screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and unjust. +<span class="pagenum mckay">281</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 614-632</span> +Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that Ægeus himself caused +Androgeus to be murdered.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +On hearing the news of his son’s death, Minos resolved on revenge. He +ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several +courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him; +and this, with the history of the plague at Ægina, forms the subject of +the present narrative.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableVI" id="bookVII_fableVI"> +FABLE VI.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Jupiter</span>, at the prayer of his son +Æacus, transforms the ants that are in the hollow of an old oak into +men; these, from the Greek name of those insects, are called +Myrmidons.</p> + +<p>“<span class="smallcaps">Stupefied</span> by so great an outburst +of misery, I said, ‘O Jupiter! if stories do not falsely say that +thou didst come into the embraces of Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and +thou art not ashamed, great Father, to be the parent of myself; either +restore my people to me, or else bury me, as well, in the sepulchre.’ He +gave a signal by lightnings, and by propitious thunders. I accepted +<i>the omen</i>, and I said, ‘I pray that these may be happy signs of +thy intentions: the omen which thou givest me, I accept as a +pledge.’ By chance there was close +<span class="pagenum bell">253</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 622-654</span> +by, an oak sacred to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,<a class="tag" name="tag7_105" id="tag7_105" href="#note7_105">105</a> but thinly +covered with wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the +gatherers of corn, in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their +little mouths, and keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was +wondering at their numbers, I said, ‘Do thou, most gracious Father, +give me citizens as many in number, and replenish my empty walls.’ The +lofty oak trembled, and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a +breeze. My limbs quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an +end; yet I gave kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess +that I had any +<span class="pagenum mckay">282</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 633-660</span> +hopes; <i>and</i> yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my +mind. Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. +Before my eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many +branches, and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with +a similar motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the +fields below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and +raised themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; +and laid aside their leanness, and the <i>former</i> number of their +feet, and their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human +shape.</p> + +<p>“Sleep departs. When <i>now</i> awake, I censured the vision, +and complained that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But +within my palace there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing +the voices of men, to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was +supposing that these, too, were <i>a part</i> of my dream, lo! Telamon +came in haste, and, opening the door, said, ‘Father, thou wilt see +things beyond thy hopes or expectations. Do come out.’ I did go out, and +I beheld and recognized such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to +behold in the vision of my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as +their king. I offered up vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and +the lands void of their former tillers, among this new-made people, and +I called them Myrmidons,<a class="tag" name="tag7_106" id="tag7_106" href="#note7_106">106</a> and did not +<span class="pagenum bell">254</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 654-671</span> +deprive their name <i>of the marks</i> of their origin. Thou hast beheld +their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they formerly +had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of what +they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and in +courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which +brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him), +shall have changed to the South<ins class="corr both" title="McKay missing close quote">.â€</ins></p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of +<span class="pagenum mckay">283</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 661-674</span> +the subjects of Æacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when +the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted, +and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is +probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the +young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance +would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of +Æacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a +barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in +caves, and who were brought thence by Æacus to people his island, which +had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their name to +the Greek word <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads μύÏμης ‘murmês’ for ‘murmêx’">μύÏμηξ</ins>, signifying ‘an ant,’ most probably +gave occasion <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘of’">to</ins> the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men.</p> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableVII" id="bookVII_fableVII"> +FABLE VII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Cephalus</span>, having resisted the advances +of Aurora, who has become enamoured of him while hunting, returns in +disguise to his wife, Procris, to try if her affection for him is +sincere. She, discovering his <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘suspicion’">suspicions</ins>, flies to the woods, and becomes a +huntress, with the determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on +becoming reconciled to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which +Diana had once given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a +wild beast, which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, +after the interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Å’dipus.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">In</span> these and other narratives they +passed the day. The last part of the day was spent in feasting, and the +night in sleep. The golden Sun had <i>now</i> shed his beams, +<i>when</i> the East wind was still blowing, and detained the sails +about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to Cephalus, who was stricken +in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas, together <i>with him</i>, +<i>come</i> to the king; but a sound sleep still possessed the monarch. +Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the threshold; for Telamon +and his brother were levying men for the war. Phocus conducted the +citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a +<span class="pagenum bell">255</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 671-702</span> +handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that +the grandson of Æolus<a class="tag" name="tag7_107" id="tag7_107" +href="#note7_107">107</a> was holding in his hand a javelin made of an +unknown wood, the point of which was of gold.</p> + +<p>Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, +<span class="pagenum mckay">284</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 675-702</span> +he said, “I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; +still, from what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, +is cut, I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were +of wild ash, it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would +be knots in it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not +looked upon a weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this.†One +of the Athenian brothers replied, and said, “In it, thou wilt admire its +utility, <i>even</i> more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it +strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained +with blood, no one returning it.†Then, indeed, does the Nereian youth<a +class="tag" name="tag7_108" id="tag7_108" href="#note7_108">108</a> inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and +whence <i>it came</i>? who was the author of a present of so great +value? What he asks, <i>Cephalus</i> tells him; but as to what he is +ashamed to tell, <i>and</i> on what condition he received it, he is +silent; and, being touched with sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus +speaks, with tears bursting forth: “Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who +could have believed it?) makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if +the Fates shall grant me long to live. ’Twas this that proved the +destruction of me and of my dear wife. Would that I had ever been +without this present! Procris was (if perchance <i>the fame of</i> +Orithyïa<a class="tag" name="tag7_109" id="tag7_109" href="#note7_109">109</a> may have more probably reached thy ears) the sister +of Orithyïa, the victim of violence. If you should choose to compare the +face and the manners of the two, she was the more worthy to be carried +off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love, <i>too</i>, united her +to me. I was pronounced happy, and <i>so</i> I was. Not thus did it +seem <i>good</i> to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be +<i>so</i>. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, +when the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, +beheld me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from +<span class="pagenum bell">256</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 702-731</span> +the highest summit of the +<span class="pagenum mckay">285</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 702-728</span> +ever-blooming Hymettus,<a class="tag" name="tag7_110" id="tag7_110" href="#note7_110">110</a> and carried me off against my +will. By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; +though she is comely with her rosy face, <i>and</i> though she possesses +the confines of light, and possesses <i>the confines</i> of darkness, +though she is nourished with the draughts of nectar, <i>still</i> I +loved Procris; Procris was <i>ever</i> in my thoughts, Procris was ever +on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties of marriage, our late +embraces, and our recent union, and the prior engagements of my forsaken +bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said, ‘Cease thy complaints, +ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind is gifted with +foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;’†and +<i>thus</i>, in anger, she sent me back to her.</p> + +<p>“While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess +within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly +observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be +apprehensive of her infidelity; <i>yet</i> her virtue forbade me to +believe it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom +I was <i>just</i> returning, was an example of <i>such</i> criminality: +but we that are in love, apprehend all <i>mishaps</i>. +I <i>then</i> endeavored to discover that, by reason of which I +must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts<a class="tag" name="tag7_111" id="tag7_111" href="#note7_111">111</a> upon her chaste +constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and changed my shape, +<i>as</i> I seemed <i>then</i> to perceive. I entered Athens, the +city of Pallas, unknown <i>to any one</i>, and I went into my own house. +The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity, +and was in concern for the carrying off of its master.</p> + +<p>“Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by +means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, +and was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with +<span class="pagenum mckay">286</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 729-752</span> +difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty +from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no +one could be more beautiful +<span class="pagenum bell">257</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 732-756</span> +than she, <i>even</i> in her sadness; and she was consuming with regret +for her husband, torn from her. <i>Only</i> think, Phocus, how great was +the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much become. Why should I +tell how often her chaste manners repulsed <i>all</i> my attempts? How +often she said, ‘I am reserved for <i>but</i> one, wherever he is; for +that one do I reserve my joys.’ For whom, in his senses, would not that +trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? <i>Yet</i> I was not +content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give +vast sums for <i>but one</i> night, and forced her at last to waver, by +increasing the reward. <i>On this</i> I cried out, ‘Lo! I, the +gallant in disguise, to my sorrow, <i>and</i> lavish in promises, to my +misery, am thy real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, +<i>and</i> I the witness.’ She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with +silent shame, she fled from the house of treachery, together with her +wicked husband; and from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole +race of men, she used to wander<a class="tag" name="tag7_112" id="tag7_112" href="#note7_112">112</a> on the mountains, employed in the +pursuits of Diana. Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my +bones, thus deserted. I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in +fault; and that I too might have yielded to a similar fault, on presents +being made; if presents so large had been offered. Upon my confessing +this, having first revenged her offended modesty, she was restored to +me, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">287</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 779-795</span> +passed the pleasant years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as +though in herself she had given me but a small present, a dog as a +gift, which when her own Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, ‘He +will excel all dogs in running.’ She gave her, too, a javelin, +which, as thou seest, I am carrying in my hand.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">258</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 757-782</span> + +<p>“Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other +present—hear <i>then</i>. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty +of the wondrous fact. The son of Laius<a class="tag" name="tag7_113" id="tag7_113" href="#note7_113">113</a> had solved the verses not +understood by the wit of others before him; and the mysterious +propounder lay precipitated, forgetful of her riddle. But the genial +Themis,<a class="tag" name="tag7_114" id="tag7_114" href="#note7_114">114</a> forsooth, did not leave such things unrevenged. +Immediately another plague was sent forth against Aonian Thebes; and +many of the peasants fed the savage monster, both by the destruction of +their cattle, and their own as well. We, the neighboring youth, came +together, and enclosed the extensive fields with toils. With a light +bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the topmost barriers of +the toils that were set. The couples were taken off the dogs, from +which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no otherwise than as +a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with eager demands, +for my <i>dog</i> Lælaps [<i>Tempest</i>]; that was the name of <i>my +wife’s</i> present. For some time already had he been struggling to get +free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained +him. Scarce was he well let loose; and <i>yet</i> we could not now tell +where he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, <i>but</i> he +himself was snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter +than he <i>did</i>, nor pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the +light arrow from the Gortynian bow.<a class="tag" name="tag7_115" id="tag7_115" href="#note7_115">115</a> The top of a +<span class="pagenum mckay">288</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 779-795</span> +hill, <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘{standiny}’"><i>standing</i></ins> in the middle, looks down upon the +plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an unusual +chase; wherein the wild beast<a class="tag" name="tag7_116" id="tag7_116" href="#note7_116">116</a> one while seemed to be caught, at +another to +<span class="pagenum bell">259</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 782-799</span> +elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a direct course, and +straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he pursues it, and returns +in circles, that its enemy may not have his full career against it. He +keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for him; and +<i>though</i> like as if he has caught it, <i>still</i> he fails to +catch it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was <i>now</i> turning to +the resources of my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, +<i>and</i> while I was attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs +<i>of it</i>, I turned away my eyes; and again I had directed them, +recalled to the same spot, when, <i>most</i> wondrous, I beheld two +marble statues in the middle of the plain; you would think the one was +flying, the other barking <i>in pursuit</i>. Some God undoubtedly, if +any God <i>really</i> did attend to them, desired them both to remain +unconquered in this contest of speed.â€</p> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of Mercury +and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of Deïoneus, king +of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The first was carried +off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria; the second married +Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens. Though Apollodorus +seems, in the first instance, to follow this genealogy, in his third +book he confounds the actions of those two princes. Ovid and other +writers have spoken only of the son of Deïoneus, who was carried off by +Aurora, and having left her, according to them, returned to Procris.</p> + +<span class="pagenum mckay">289</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 796-818</span> + +<hr class="tiny" /> + +<h5><a name="bookVII_fableVIII" id="bookVII_fableVIII"> +FABLE VIII.</a></h5> + +<p class="synopsis"> +<span class="smallcaps">Procris</span>, jealous of Cephalus, in her +turn, goes to the forest, which she supposes to be the scene of his +infidelity, to surprise him. Hearing the rustling noise which she makes +in the thicket, where she lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild +beast, and, hurling the javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he +kills her.</p> + +<p><span class="smallcaps">Thus</span> far <i>did he speak</i>; and +<i>then</i> he was silent. “But,†said Phocus, “what fault is there in +that javelin?†<i>whereupon</i> he thus informed him of the demerits of +the javelin. “Let my joys, Phocus, be the first portion of my sorrowful +story. These will I first relate. O son of Æacus, I delight to +remember the happy time, during which, for the first years <i>after my +marriage</i>, I was completely blessed in my wife, <i>and</i> she +<span class="pagenum bell">260</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 799-834</span> +was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love +possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter +before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me, +not <i>even</i> if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the +breasts <i>of us both</i>. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains +with his early rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor +into the woods, to hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my +horses, nor my quick-scented hounds to go <i>with me</i>, nor the knotty +nets to attend me; I was safe with my javelin. But when my right +hand was satiated with the slaughter of wild beasts, I betook +myself to the cool spots and the shade, and the breeze which was +breathing forth from the cool valleys. The gentle breeze was sought by +me, in the midst of the heat. For the breeze was I awaiting; that was a +refreshment after my toils: ‘Come, breeze,’ I was wont to sing, for I +remember it <i>full well</i>, ‘and, most grateful, refresh me, and enter +my breast; and, as thou art wont, be willing to assuage the heat with +which I am parched.’ Perhaps I may have added (<i>for</i> so my destiny +prompted me) many words of endearment, and I may have been accustomed to +say, ‘Thou art my great delight; thou dost refresh and cherish me; thou +makest me to love the woods and lonely haunts, and +<span class="pagenum mckay">290</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 819-850</span> +thy breath is ever courted by my face.’ I was not aware that some one +was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and thinking the +name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that of a Nymph, +he believed some Nymph was beloved by me.</p> + +<p>“The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris, +and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a +credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with +sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she +was wretched, and <i>born</i> to a cruel destiny; and she complained +about my constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,<a class="tag" name="tag7_117" id="tag7_117" href="#note7_117">117</a> she dreads that +which, <i>indeed</i>, is nothing; <i>and</i> fears a name without a +body; and, in her wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. +Yet she is often in doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she +may be deceived, and denies credit to the information; and unless she +beholds it herself, will not pass sentence upon +<span class="pagenum bell">261</span> +<span class="linenum bell">VII. 834-865</span> +the criminality of her husband. The following light of the morning had +banished the night, when I sallied forth, and sought the woods; and +being victorious in the fields, I said, ‘Come, breeze, and relieve +my pain;’ and suddenly I seemed to hear I know not what groans in the +midst of my words; yet I said, ‘Come hither, most delightful +<i>breeze</i>.’ Again, the falling leaves making a gentle noise, +I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon. +It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she +cried out, ‘Ah, wretched me!’ When the voice of my attached wife was +heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards <i>that</i> voice. +I found her dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, +and drawing her own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; +I lifted up her body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, +and I bound up her cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; +and I endeavored to stanch the blood, and besought her that she would +not forsake +<span class="pagenum mckay">291</span> +<span class="linenum mckay">VII. 851-865</span> +me, <i>thus</i> criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now +expiring, forced herself to utter these few words:</p> + +<p>“‘I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the +Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of +thee, by that <i>as well</i>, and by the cause of my death, my love even +now enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura +[<i>breeze</i>] to share with thee my marriage ties.’ She <i>thus</i> +spoke; and then, at last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and +informed her of it. But what avails informing her? She sinks; and her +little strength flies, together with her blood. And so long as she can +look on anything, she gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my +face,<a class="tag" name="tag7_118" id="tag7_118" href="#note7_118">118</a> her unhappy life; but she seems to die free from +care, and with a more contented look.â€</p> + +<p>In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, +and, lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,<a class="tag" name="tag7_119" id="tag7_119" href="#note7_119">119</a> and his soldiers +newly levied; which Cephalus received, <i>furnished</i> with valorous +arms.</p> + +<span class="pagenum bell">262</span> + +<h6>EXPLANATION.</a></h6> + +<p class="explanation"> +The love which Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, bore for the chase, +causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his sport, +was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife, Procris, +as Apollodorus <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘tell’">tells</ins> us, carried on an amour with Pteleon, and, probably, +caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert attention from her own +intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife’s infidelity, she fled to the +court of the second Minos, king of Crete, who fell in love with her. +Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of Pasiphaë, who adopted +several methods to destroy her rival, and, among others, spread poison +in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to Thoricus, the place of her +former residence, where she was reconciled to Cephalus, and gave him the +celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by Ovid.</p> + +<p class="explanation"> +The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by +him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands of +her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which ravaged +the country, and was pursued by +<span class="pagenum mckay">292</span> +the dog of Procris, and which some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, +was probably a pirate or sea robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some +Cretan officer of Minos, who escorted Procris back to her country, on +their vessels being shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the +story that the dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, +Tzetzes says distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, +or fox, Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought +Procris back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some +share in causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus +condemned Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, +which received its name from him, having been given to him by +Amphitryon, he retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded +him.</p> + +<div class="footnote"> +<p> +<a name="note7_1" id="note7_1" href="#tag7_1">1.</a> +<i>The Minyæ.</i>]—Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyæ were a people +of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_2" id="note7_2" href="#tag7_2">2.</a> +<i>Pagasæan ship.</i>]—Ver. 1. Pagasæ was a seaport of Thessaly, +at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was built.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_3" id="note7_3" href="#tag7_3">3.</a> +<i>Distressed old man.</i>]—Ver. 4. Clarke translates ‘miseri +senis ore,’ ‘from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_4" id="note7_4" href="#tag7_4">4.</a> +<i>Daughter of Æetes.</i>]—Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter of +Æetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded Venus to +inspire Medea with love for him.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_5" id="note7_5" href="#tag7_5">5.</a> +<i>Haste then.</i>]—Ver. 47. Clarke translates ‘accingere,’ more +literally than elegantly, ‘buckle to.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_6" id="note7_6" href="#tag7_6">6.</a> +<i>Pelasgian cities.</i>]—Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly that part +of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The province of +Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its name, which was +derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of Greece. Pliny informs us +that Peloponnesus at first had the names of ‘Apia’ and ‘Pelasgia.’ Some +suppose that the Pelasgi derived their name from Pelasgus, the son of +Jupiter; while other writers assert that they were so called from <span +class="greek" title="pelargoi">πελαÏγοὶ</span>, ‘storks,’ from their +wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the present +instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_7" id="note7_7" href="#tag7_7">7.</a> +<i>My sister.</i>]—Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who had +married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children being found +by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to Colchis, and +presented him to their mother, who afterwards commended him to the care +of Medea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_8" id="note7_8" href="#tag7_8">8.</a> +<i>And my brother.</i>]—Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus, whose +tragical death is afterwards mentioned.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_9" id="note7_9" href="#tag7_9">9.</a> +<i>Is barbarous.</i>]—Ver. 53. It was certainly ‘barbara’ in the +eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in the mouth of +Medea, herself a native of the country.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_10" id="note7_10" href="#tag7_10">10.</a> +<i>The youth of Greece.</i>]—Ver. 56. These were the Argonauts, +who were selected from the most noble youths of Greece.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_11" id="note7_11" href="#tag7_11">11.</a> +<i>What mountains.</i>]—Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean rocks, or +Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_12" id="note7_12" href="#tag7_12">12.</a> +<i>Hecate.</i>]—Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have been much +divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the account which +made her to be the daughter of Perses, who, according to Diodorus +Siculus, was the son of PhÅ“bus, and the brother of Æetes. Marrying her +uncle Æetes, she is said to have been the mother of Circe, Medea, and +Absyrtus. By some writers she is confounded with the Moon and with +Proserpine; as identical with the Moon, she has the epithets ‘Triceps’ +and ‘Triformis,’ often given to her by the poets, because the Moon +sometimes is full, sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her +disk.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_13" id="note7_13" href="#tag7_13">13.</a> +<i>And by the sire.</i>]—Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the Sun, who +was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined father-in-law of +Jason.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_14" id="note7_14" href="#tag7_14">14.</a> +<i>Breathe forth flames.</i>]—Ver. 104. The name of the God of +fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus says, that Medea +gave Jason a drug (<span class="greek" title="pharmakon">φάÏμακον</span>) to rub over himself and his armor.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_15" id="note7_15" href="#tag7_15">15.</a> +<i>Or when flints.</i>]—Ver. 107. It is difficult to determine +whether ‘silices’ here means ‘flint-stones,’ or ‘lime-stone;’ probably +the latter, from the mention of water sprinkled over them. If the +meaning is ‘flint-stones,’ the passage may refer to the manufacture of +glass, with the art of making which the ancients were perfectly +acquainted.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_16" id="note7_16" href="#tag7_16">16.</a> +<i>Unused to it.</i>]—Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to Mars, it +was not permitted to be ploughed.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_17" id="note7_17" href="#tag7_17">17.</a> +<i>Dragon’s teeth.</i>]—Ver. 122. These were a portion of the +teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva had sent to +Æetes.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_18" id="note7_18" href="#tag7_18">18.</a> +<i>Lethæan juice.</i>]—Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the infernal +regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and forgetfulness.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_19" id="note7_19" href="#tag7_19">19.</a> +<i>Port of Iolcos.</i>]—Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of Thessaly, +of which country Jason was a native.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_20" id="note7_20" href="#tag7_20">20.</a> +<i>Of the triple form.</i>]—Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess of +enchantment.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_21" id="note7_21" href="#tag7_21">21.</a> +<i>With bare feet.</i>]—Ver. 183. To have the feet bare was +esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites, though +sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present instance, only +one foot was left unshod. In times of drought, according to Tertullian, +a procession and ceremonial, called ‘nudipedalia,’ were resorted +to, with a view to propitiate the Gods by this token of grief and +humiliation.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_22" id="note7_22" href="#tag7_22">22.</a> +<i>Three-faced Hecate.</i>]—Ver. 194. Though Hecate and the Moon +are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently considered to have +been the same Deity, with different attributes. The three heads with +which Hecate was represented were those of a horse, a dog, and a +pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter, a human head.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_23" id="note7_23" href="#tag7_23">23.</a> +<i>Temesæan.</i>]—Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the Brutii, on +the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It was also sometimes +called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa, a city of Cyprus, +also famous for its copper.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_24" id="note7_24" href="#tag7_24">24.</a> +<i>Chalky regions.</i>]—Ver. 223. Such was the characteristic of +the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she now alighted.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_25" id="note7_25" href="#tag7_25">25.</a> +<i>Brazen sickle.</i>]—Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius and +Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting herbs for +the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and in aiding the +moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the witches, because it +was supposed to be a purer metal.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_26" id="note7_26" href="#tag7_26">26.</a> +<i>Apidanus.</i>]—Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were rivers of +Thessaly.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_27" id="note7_27" href="#tag7_27">27.</a> +<i>Shores of BÅ“be.</i>]—Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of lake +BÅ“beis, near the town of BÅ“be, in Thessaly. It was not far from the +mouth of the river Peneus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_28" id="note7_28" href="#tag7_28">28.</a> +<i>Anthedon.</i>]—Ver. 232. This was a town of BÅ“otia, opposite to +EubÅ“a, being situated on the Euripus, now called the straits of +Negropont.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_29" id="note7_29" href="#tag7_29">29.</a> +<i>Glaucus.</i>]—Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was changed +into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is related at the +end of the 13th Book.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_30" id="note7_30" href="#tag7_30">30.</a> +<i>Ninth day.</i>]—Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine seem to +have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_31" id="note7_31" href="#tag7_31">31.</a> +<i>One to youth.</i>]—Ver. 241. This goddess was also called Hebe, +from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the daughter of Juno, and +the wife of Hercules. She was also the cup-bearer of the Gods, until she +was supplanted by Ganymede.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_32" id="note7_32" href="#tag7_32">32.</a> +<i>Goblets.</i>]—Ver. 246. ‘Carchesia.’ The ‘carchesium’ was a +kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early times. It was +slightly contracted in the middle, and its two handles extended from the +top to the bottom. It was employed in the worship of the Deities, and +was used for libations of blood, wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says +that it was only used by the Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used +to hold wine.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_33" id="note7_33" href="#tag7_33">33.</a> +<i>King of the shades.</i>]—Ver. 249. Pluto and Proserpine. Clarke +translates this line and the next, ‘And prays to the king of shades with +his kidnapped wife, that they would not be too forward to deprive the +limbs of the old gentleman of life.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_34" id="note7_34" href="#tag7_34">34.</a> +<i>Thrice does she.</i>]—Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders this and +the two following lines: ‘And purifies the old gentleman three times +with flame, three times with water, and three times with sulphur. In the +meantime the strong medicine boils, and bounces about in a brazen kettle +set on the fire.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_35" id="note7_35" href="#tag7_35">35.</a> +<i>The potent mixture.</i>]—Ver. 262. This reminds us of the line +of Shakespeare in Macbeth, ‘Make the hell-broth thick and slab.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_36" id="note7_36" href="#tag7_36">36.</a> +<i>A screech owl.</i>]—Ver. 269. ‘Strigis.’ The ‘strix’ is +supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird with the +enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of assuming that form. +From the description given of the ‘striges’ in the Sixth Book of the +Fasti, it would almost appear that the qualities of the vampyre bat were +attributed to them.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_37" id="note7_37" href="#tag7_37">37.</a> +<i>Water snake.</i>]—Ver. 272. The ‘chelydrus’ was a venomous +water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The Delphin Commentator +seems to think that a kind of turtle is here meant.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_38" id="note7_38" href="#tag7_38">38.</a> +<i>Long-lived stag.</i>]—Ver. 273. The stag was said to live four +times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_39" id="note7_39" href="#tag7_39">39.</a> +<i>Opened the throat.</i>]—Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates the words +‘quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis jugulum,’ ‘which +as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the old gentleman with a +drawn sword.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_40" id="note7_40" href="#tag7_40">40.</a> +<i>And his hair.</i>]—Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some writers +not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color to grey hair, +but to have found out the invigorating properties of the warm bath.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_41" id="note7_41" href="#tag7_41">41.</a> +<i>To his nurses.</i>]—Ver. 295. These (in Book iii. l. 314.) he +calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book of the Fasti they +are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number of the Constellations. +A commentator on Homer, quoting from Pherecydes, calls them +‘Dodonides.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_42" id="note7_42" href="#tag7_42">42.</a> +<i>Daughter of Æetes.</i>]—Ver. 296. The reading in most of the +MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or ‘Thetide;’ but Burmann has replaced it by +Æetide, ‘the daughter of Æetes.’ It has been justly remarked, why should +Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of the Nymphs, who had nursed +him, renewed, when he had just beheld Medea, and not Tethys, do it in +favor of Æson?</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_43" id="note7_43" href="#tag7_43">43.</a> +<i>That her arts.</i>]—Ver. 297. ‘Neve doli cessent’ is translated +by Clarke, ‘and that her tricks might not cease.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_44" id="note7_44" href="#tag7_44">44.</a> +<i>Pelias.</i>]—Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and had +dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_45" id="note7_45" href="#tag7_45">45.</a> +<i>The Iberian sea.</i>]—Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or Western Ocean, +is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of Spain; which country, +perhaps, was so called from the river Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through +it.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_46" id="note7_46" href="#tag7_46">46.</a> +<i>Lofty habitation.</i>]—Ver. 352. The mountains of Thessaly are +so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph Phillyra, lived +there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_47" id="note7_47" href="#tag7_47">47.</a> +<i>Cerambus.</i>]—Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting from +Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the foot of +Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs, who changed him +into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the heights of Parnassus, +at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he thereby made his escape. Some +writers say that he was changed into a bird.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_48" id="note7_48" href="#tag7_48">48.</a> +<i>Pitane.</i>]—Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in Asia +Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_49" id="note7_49" href="#tag7_49">49.</a> +<i>The long dragon.</i>]—Ver. 358. He alludes, most probably, to +the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or serpent, which is +mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_50" id="note7_50" href="#tag7_50">50.</a> +<i>Wood of Ida.</i>]—Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida, in +Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of Thyoneus, the son +of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some Phrygian shepherds, was +pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to screen his son, changed the ox +into a stag, and invested Thyoneus with the garb of a hunter.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_51" id="note7_51" href="#tag7_51">51.</a> +<i>Father of Corythus.</i>]—Ver. 361. Paris was the father of +Corythus, by Å’none. He was said to have been buried at Cebrena, +a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_52" id="note7_52" href="#tag7_52">52.</a> +<i>Mæra.</i>]—Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of Icarius, +the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his master by the +shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation, under the name of the +Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea was now far distant from +Attica, it is more likely that the Poet refers to the transformation of +some female, named Mæra, into a dog, whose story has not come down to +us; indeed, Lactantius expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks +that it refers to the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th +book, line 406; and that ‘Mæra’ is a corruption for some other name of +Hecuba.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_53" id="note7_53" href="#tag7_53">53.</a> +<i>Eurypylus.</i>]—Ver. 363. He was a former king of the Isle of +Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as an augur.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_54" id="note7_54" href="#tag7_54">54.</a> +<i>The Coan matrons.</i>]—Ver. 363. Lactantius says that the women +of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that of Venus, +incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were changed by her into +cows. Another version of the story is, that these women, being offended +at Hercules for driving the oxen of Ægeon through their island, were +very abusive, on which Juno transformed them into cows: to this latter +version reference is made in the present passage.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_55" id="note7_55" href="#tag7_55">55.</a> +<i>Hercules.</i>]—Ver. 364. He besieged and took the chief city of +the island, which was also called Cos; and having slain Eurypylus, +carried off his daughter Chalciope.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_56" id="note7_56" href="#tag7_56">56.</a> +<i>PhÅ“bean Rhodes.</i>]—Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes, in the +Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to the Sun, and +was said never to be deserted by his rays.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_57" id="note7_57" href="#tag7_57">57.</a> +<i>Ialysian Telchines.</i>]—Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of the three +most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been founded by +Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or Thelchines, were a +race supposed to have migrated thither from Crete. They were persons of +great artistic skill, on which account they may, possibly, have obtained +the character of being magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_58" id="note7_58" href="#tag7_58">58.</a> +<i>Whose eyes.</i>]—Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed by the +ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but to be able to +destroy the beauty of any object on which it was turned.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_59" id="note7_59" href="#tag7_59">59.</a> +<i>Cea.</i>]—Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the Ægean sea, +near EubÅ“a. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of which are still in +existence.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_60" id="note7_60" href="#tag7_60">60.</a> +<i>Alcidamas.</i>]—Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says, that +Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in the Isle +of Cea.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_61" id="note7_61" href="#tag7_61">61.</a> +<i>Lakes of Hyrie.</i>]—Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of Cycnus; +and pining away with grief on the transformation of her son, she was +changed into a lake, called by her name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_62" id="note7_62" href="#tag7_62">62.</a> +<i>Cycneian Tempe.</i>]—Ver. 371. This <ins class="corr mckay" +title="letter ‘w’ invisible in McKay">was</ins> not Thessalian Tempe, +but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_63" id="note7_63" href="#tag7_63">63.</a> +<i>Pleuron.</i>]—Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia, near Mount +Curius. It was far distant from BÅ“otia and Lake Hyrie. Some +commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be Brauron, +a village of Attica, near the confines of BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_64" id="note7_64" href="#tag7_64">64.</a> +<i>Combe.</i>]—Ver. 383. She was the mother of the Curetes of +Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount Curius. There was +another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who discovered the use of brazen +arms, and was called Chalcis, from that circumstance. She was said to +have borne a hundred daughters to her husband.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_65" id="note7_65" href="#tag7_65">65.</a> +<i>Calaurea.</i>]—Ver. 384. This was an island between Crete and +the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred to Apollo. +Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in exchange for it. +Demosthenes died there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_66" id="note7_66" href="#tag7_66">66.</a> +<i>Menephron.</i>]—Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he committed +incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his daughter.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_67" id="note7_67" href="#tag7_67">67.</a> +<i>Cephisus.</i>]—Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in BÅ“otia, had a +daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus, and bore him eight +sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here referred to.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_68" id="note7_68" href="#tag7_68">68.</a> +<i>Eumelus.</i>]—Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on the +sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged chariot; on +which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while his father was +sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He is, probably, here +referred to; and the reading should be ‘natum,’ and not ‘natam.’ Some +writers, however, suppose that his daughter was changed into a bird.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_69" id="note7_69" href="#tag7_69">69.</a> +<i>Pirenian Ephyre.</i>]—Ver. 391. Corinth was so called from +Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was <ins class="corr mckay" title="‘said’ missing in McKay">said</ins> to have lived there. Its +inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_70" id="note7_70" href="#tag7_70">70.</a> +<i>Titanian dragons.</i>]—Ver. 398. Her dragons are so called, +either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the blood of the +Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition, the chariot and +winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun, one of whose names was +Titan.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_71" id="note7_71" href="#tag7_71">71.</a> +<i>Phineus.</i>]—Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the person +here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest ‘Phini,’ and that some +female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making the adjective +‘justissime’ of the feminine gender.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_72" id="note7_72" href="#tag7_72">72.</a> +<i>Periphas.</i>]—Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of Attica, +before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been changed into an +eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed into an osprey.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_73" id="note7_73" href="#tag7_73">73.</a> +<i>Polypemon.</i>]—Ver. 401. This was a name of the robber +Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the daughter of his son +Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence, was thrown into the sea by +her father, on which she was changed into a kingfisher, which bore her +name.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_74" id="note7_74" href="#tag7_74">74.</a> +<i>A gloomy cave.</i>]—Ver. 409. This cavern was called Acherusia. +It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near the city of +Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance of the Infernal +Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged from Tartarus by <ins +class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Herculea’">Hercules</ins>, +through this cave, which circumstance was supposed to account for the +quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane, that grew there.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_75" id="note7_75" href="#tag7_75">75.</a> +<i>Call it aconite.</i>]—Ver. 419. From the Greek <span class="greek" title="akonê">ακόνη</span>, ‘a whetstone.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_76" id="note7_76" href="#tag7_76">76.</a> +<i>Presented to his son.</i>]—Ver. 420. Medea was anxious to +secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus, and was +therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_77" id="note7_77" href="#tag7_77">77.</a> +<i>Tokens of his race.</i>]—Ver. 423. Ægeus, leaving Æthra at +TrÅ“zen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore a son, to rear +him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed his own sword and +shoes under a large stone, and directed her to send his son to him when +he was able to lift the stone, and to take them from under it; and he +then returned to Athens, where he married Medea. When Theseus had grown +to the proper age, his mother led him to the stone under which his +father had deposited his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and +took them out. It was, probably, by means of this sword that Ægeus +recognized his son in the manner mentioned in the text.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_78" id="note7_78" href="#tag7_78">78.</a> +<i>Marathon.</i>]—Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica, adjoining a +plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the command of +Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense slaughter. The bull which +Theseus slew there was presented by Neptune to Minos. Being brought into +Attica by Hercules, it laid waste that territory until it was slain by +Theseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_79" id="note7_79" href="#tag7_79">79.</a> +<i>Cromyon.</i>]—Ver. 435. This was a village of the Corinthian +territory, which was infested by a wild boar of enormous size, that slew +both men and animals. It was put to death by Theseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_80" id="note7_80" href="#tag7_80">80.</a> +<i>Vulcan.</i>]—Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the father of +Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the Peloponnesus. +He was so formidable with his club, that he was called Corynetas, from +<span class="greek" title="korunê">κοÏύνη</span>, the Greek for ‘a +club.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_81" id="note7_81" href="#tag7_81">81.</a> +<i>Cephisus.</i>]—Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of such +extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the extremities +of his captives, according as they were shorter or longer than his +bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis, in Attica, which was +watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death by Theseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_82" id="note7_82" href="#tag7_82">82.</a> +<i>Cercyon.</i>]—Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge +travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the contest, +or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and having +overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially dedicated to +Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that Goddess were +held.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_83" id="note7_83" href="#tag7_83">83.</a> +<i>Sinnis.</i>]—Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to whom +reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_84" id="note7_84" href="#tag7_84">84.</a> +<i>Alcathoë.</i>]—Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoë, which was founded +by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was rebuilt by Alcathoüs, +the son of Pelops. He, flying from his father, on being accused of the +murder of his brother Chrysippus, retired to the city of Megara, where, +having slain a lion which was then laying waste that territory, he was +held in the highest veneration by the inhabitants.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_85" id="note7_85" href="#tag7_85">85.</a> +<i>Scyron.</i>]—Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks in the +neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who became his +guests washing his feet. This being done upon the rocks, Scyron used to +kick the strangers into the sea while so occupied, where a tortoise lay +ready to devour the bodies. Theseus killed him, and threw his body down +the same rocks, which derived their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from +this robber.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_86" id="note7_86" href="#tag7_86">86.</a> +<i><ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay reads ‘Anophe’">Anaphe</ins>.</i>]—Ver. 461. This, and the other islands +here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those times were +subject to the sway of Minos.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_87" id="note7_87" href="#tag7_87">87.</a> +<i>Cimolus.</i>]—Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that this +island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have had much the +properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color, and was also +employed for medicinal purposes.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_88" id="note7_88" href="#tag7_88">88.</a> +<i>Seriphos.</i>]—Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to know why +Seriphos should here have the epithet ‘plana,’ ‘level,’ inasmuch as it +was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt reading.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_89" id="note7_89" href="#tag7_89">89.</a> +<i>Sithonian.</i>]—Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story is +referred to in the <a href="#bookVII_fableIII_exp">Explanation</a>, +<ins class="corr bell" title="page number in Bell">p. 242</ins> +(<ins class="corr mckay" title="page number in McKay">p. 270</ins>).</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_90" id="note7_90" href="#tag7_90">90.</a> +<i>Oliaros.</i>]—Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades, in the +Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_91" id="note7_91" href="#tag7_91">91.</a> +<i>Tenos.</i>]—Ver. 469. This island was famous for a temple +there, sacred to Neptune.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_92" id="note7_92" href="#tag7_92">92.</a> +<i>Andros.</i>]—Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean Sea, +near EubÅ“a. It received its name from Andros, the son of Anius. The +Andrian slave, who gives <ins class="corr both" title="both texts read ‘its’">his</ins> name to one of the comedies of Terence, was +supposed to be a native of this island.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_93" id="note7_93" href="#tag7_93">93.</a> +<i>Gyaros.</i>]—Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among the +Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal settlement for +their criminals. The mice of this island were said to be able to gnaw +iron; perhaps, because they were starved by reason of its +unfruitfulness.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_94" id="note7_94" href="#tag7_94">94.</a> +<i>Smooth olive.</i>]—Ver. 470. Clarke translates ‘nitidæ olivæ’ +‘the neat olive.’ ‘Nitidus’ here means ‘smooth and shining.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_95" id="note7_95" href="#tag7_95">95.</a> +<i>Å’nopia.</i>]—Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of the isle of +Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native place of the +family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from Ægina, the +daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom Jupiter carried +thither.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_96" id="note7_96" href="#tag7_96">96.</a> +<i>Telamon.</i>]—Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, were the +three sons of Æacus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_97" id="note7_97" href="#tag7_97">97.</a> +<i>Lyctian.</i>]—Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of the +cities of Crete.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_98" id="note7_98" href="#tag7_98">98.</a> +<i>Pallas.</i>]—Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son of +Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus. This +Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by Theseus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_99" id="note7_99" href="#tag7_99">99.</a> +<i>Cephalus.</i>]—Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus, or +according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter of +Cecrops.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_100" id="note7_100" href="#tag7_100">100.</a> +<i>Long preamble.</i>]—Ver. 520. Clarke translates ‘neu longâ +ambage morer vos,’ ‘that I may not detain you with a long-winded detail +of it.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_101" id="note7_101" href="#tag7_101">101.</a> +<i>Country named.</i>]—Ver. 524. This was the island of Ægina, so +called from the Nymph who was carried thither by Jupiter.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_102" id="note7_102" href="#tag7_102">102.</a> +<i>Bowels are scorched.</i>]—Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly renders the +words ‘viscera torrentur primo.’ ‘first people’s bowels are searched;’ +perhaps, however, the latter word is a misprint for ‘scorched.’</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_103" id="note7_103" href="#tag7_103">103.</a> +<i>Thou seest.</i>]—Ver. 587. As Æacus says this, he must be +supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_104" id="note7_104" href="#tag7_104">104.</a> +<i>More odious.</i>]—Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed to be +particularly offensive to the Gods.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_105" id="note7_105" href="#tag7_105">105.</a> +<i>From Dodona.</i>]—Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of Chaonia, in +Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter and Europa. Near +it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter, which was famous for the +number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves were said to give oracular +responses there, probably from the circumstance that the female +soothsayers of Thessaly were called <span class="greek" title="peleiadai">πελειαδαι</span><a class="tag" name="tag7_A" id="tag7_A" href="#note7_A">A</a>. Some writers, however, say that the +oaks had the gift of speech, combined with that of prophesying.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_106" id="note7_106" href="#tag7_106">106.</a> +<i>Myrmidons.</i>]—Ver. 654. From the Greek word <span class="greek" title="murmêx">μύÏμηξ</span>, ‘an ant;’ according to this +version of the story.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_107" id="note7_107" href="#tag7_107">107.</a> +<i>Æolus.</i>]—Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus, the parent +of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_108" id="note7_108" href="#tag7_108">108.</a> +<i>Nereian youth.</i>]—Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son of Æacus, +by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_109" id="note7_109" href="#tag7_109">109.</a> +<i>Orithyïa.</i>]—Ver. 695. She was the daughter of Erectheus, +king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as already stated.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_110" id="note7_110" href="#tag7_110">110.</a> +<i>Hymettus.</i>]—Ver. 702. This was a mountain of Attica, famous +for its honey and its marble.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_111" id="note7_111" href="#tag7_111">111.</a> +<i>To make attempts.</i>]—Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us that she +was found by her husband in company with a young man named Pteleon, who +had made her a present of a golden wreath. Antoninus Liberalis says, +that her husband tried her fidelity by offering her a bribe, through the +medium of a slave.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_112" id="note7_112" href="#tag7_112">112.</a> +<i>Used to wander.</i>]—Ver. 746. Some writers say that she fled +to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the attachment of Aurora for +her husband, made her a present of a javelin, which no person could +escape; and gave her the dog Lælaps, which no wild beast could outrun. +Such is the version given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus +Liberalis say, that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, +made her a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting +herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him proofs +of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to give them to +him, she exacted, as a condition, what must, apparently, have resulted +in a breach of the laws of conjugal fidelity. On his assenting to the +proposal, she discovered herself, and afterwards made him the presents +which he desired.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_113" id="note7_113" href="#tag7_113">113.</a> +<i>The son of Laius.</i>]—Ver. 759. Å’dipus was the son of Laius, +king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring of Typhon and +Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Å’dipus solved the riddle +which it proposed for solution, on which the monster precipitated itself +from a rock. It had the face of a woman, the wings of a bird, and the +extremities of a lion.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_114" id="note7_114" href="#tag7_114">114.</a> +<i>Genial Themis.</i>]—Ver. 762. Themis had a very ancient oracle +in BÅ“otia.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_115" id="note7_115" href="#tag7_115">115.</a> +<i>Gortynian bow.</i>]—Ver. 778. Crete was called Gortynian, from +Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was famous for the skill of +its inhabitants in archery.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_116" id="note7_116" href="#tag7_116">116.</a> +<i>The wild beast.</i>]—Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis and +Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called ‘the Teumesian,’ +from Teumesus, a mountain of BÅ“otia, and that the Thebans, to +appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to devour every +month. Palæphatus says that it was not a wild beast, but a man called +Alopis.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_117" id="note7_117" href="#tag7_117">117.</a> +<i>Groundless charge.</i>]—Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may intend to +imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus from the +similarity of the name ‘Aura’ to that of her former rival, Aurora.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_118" id="note7_118" href="#tag7_118">118.</a> +<i>On my face.</i>]—Ver. 861. He alludes to the prevalent custom +of catching the breath of the dying person in the mouth.</p> + +<p> +<a name="note7_119" id="note7_119" href="#tag7_119">119.</a> +<i>His two sons.</i>]—Ver. 864. These were Telamon and Peleus, who +had levied these troops.</p> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5>Supplementary Note (<i>added by transcriber</i>)</h5> + +<p> +<a name="note7_A" id="note7_A" href="#tag7_A">A.</a> +<i>the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called</i> <span class="greek" title="peleiadai">πελειαδαι</span>. Text unchanged, but the +intended form was probably <span class="greek" title="peleiades">πελειάδες</span>. +</p> + +</div> + +</div> <!--footnotes--> + +</div> <!--maintext--> + +<div class="mynote plain"> + +<h5><a name="texts" id="texts"> +More about the texts</a></h5> + +<p>Ovid’s <i>Metamorphoses</i>, translated by Henry Thomas Riley +(1816-1878, B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as +part of Bohn’s Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, is +based on two reprints:</p> + +<p class="inset"> +George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition describes itself as +“reprinted from the stereotype platesâ€. These may have been the original +1851 plates; the <i>Classical Library</i> was sold to Bell & Daldy, +later George Bell.</p> + +<p class="inset"> +David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by +Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is +absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the +Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors.</p> + +<p>The McKay edition was the “base†of the e-text. The scanned, +proofread text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell +edition, and differences were in turn checked against page images of the +printed books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or +more versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay +uses American spelling such as “honor†for “honourâ€, and compound forms +such as “northwest†for “north-westâ€; punctuation is often changed, +though some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing +and reproduction.</p> + +<p>Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as +“Henry T. Riley, B.A.â€, while the McKay edition has “M.A.†The sequence +of dates—original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint +1893—supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict +facsimile.</p> + +<h5><a name="errors" id="errors"> +Errors and Variations</a></h5> + +<p><b>Changes</b> to the text are shown with mouse-hover popups, marked +in three ways:</p> + +<p class="inset"> +—Errors shared by <ins class="corr both" title="both texts have ‘error’">both editions</ins>.<br /> +—Errors introduced in the <ins class="corr mckay" title="McKay has ‘error’">McKay edition</ins>. This is the largest group; in +particular, the typesetter appears not to have known Greek, and had +trouble distinguishing between <i>Å“</i> and <i>æ</i>. Unless otherwise +noted, the Bell version was treated as the correct form.<br /> +—<ins class="corr bell" title="Bell has ‘error’">Errors</ins> +in the Bell/Bohn edition corrected in McKay, and <ins class="corr +bell" title="Bell translates ‘different’">variant readings</ins> where +the McKay text was used. Variant readings are “wrong†in the sense that +they are different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they +are acceptable translations of the Latin.<br /> +</p> + +<p><b>Italics</b> in the translation—shown with braces { } in +the correction popups—are considered non-trivial because they +indicate text added by the translator, not present in the Latin +original. More complex errors and ambiguities are addressed in +supplementary footnotes marked by letters: <sup>A, B</sup>. +Numbered footnotes are from the original text.</p> + +<p><b>Dieresis</b> is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as +“Phaetonâ€, “Ocyrrhöe†and “Danäe†are common, and have been silently +corrected. Since the ligatures “æ†and “œ†are used consistently, +dieresis can be assumed even when not explicitly indicated.</p> + +<p>The translator used a number of less common name forms and variant +spellings:</p> + +<p class="inset"> +Cæus, Calisto, LilybÅ“us, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne:<br /> +The original, Greek-derived forms are CÅ“us (Κοιος), Callisto (Καλλιστω), +Lilybæus (Λιλυβαιος), Phiale (Φιαλη), Phrixus (ΦÏιξος), Procne (Î Ïοκνη). +Note that in the main text, the name “Callisto†is never used, probably +on metrical grounds.</p> + +<p class="inset"> +Damasicthon, Erectheus <i>and similar</i>:<br /> +Spellings in “-cth-†are used consistently in place of “-chth-†(Greek +-χθ-).</p> + +<p class="inset"> +The pairs Achæa/Achaia, Ethiopia/Æthiopia, Phocea/Phocæa, +Proserpine/Proserpina all occur, with the McKay text following Bell in +all cases.</p> + +<h5><a name="footnotes" id="footnotes"> +Footnote Numbering</a></h5> + +<p>In the original text, footnote numbers began from 1 in each Book, and +started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books had duplications +in the sequence, usually in the form “17*â€. There were no changes +between the two editions. In this e-text, footnotes have been renumbered +consecutively within each Book, without duplication; Books I and VII +continue past 100.</p> + +<table summary="footnote list"> +<tr> +<td colspan="2"> +<b>Interpolations:</b></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. I</td> +<td>51*, 67*</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. II</td> +<td>4*, 71*</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. III</td> +<td>72*, 88*</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. IV</td> +<td>17*, 37*, 77*</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. V</td> +<td>46*, 76*</td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. VI</td> +<td><i>no change from original sequence</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td>Bk. VII</td> +<td>4*, 73*, 2* (second series)</td> +</tr> +</table> + +</div> + +</div><!--end chapter--> + +<div style='display:block; margin-top:4em'>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID ***</div> +<div style='text-align:left'> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Updated editions will replace the previous one—the old editions will +be renamed. +</div> + +<div style='display:block; margin:1em 0'> +Creating the works from print editions not protected by U.S. copyright +law means that no one owns a United States copyright in these works, +so the Foundation (and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United +States without permission and without paying copyright +royalties. Special rules, set forth in the General Terms of Use part +of this license, apply to copying and distributing Project +Gutenberg™ electronic works to protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG™ +concept and trademark. 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Anyone seeking to utilize +this eBook outside of the United States should confirm copyright +status under the laws that apply to them. diff --git a/README.md b/README.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..61251a8 --- /dev/null +++ b/README.md @@ -0,0 +1,2 @@ +Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for +eBook #21765 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/21765) diff --git a/old/21765-8.txt b/old/21765-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f8fa382 --- /dev/null +++ b/old/21765-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,13447 @@ +Project Gutenberg's The Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Publius Ovidius Naso + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid + Vol. I, Books I-VII + +Author: Publius Ovidius Naso + +Translator: Henry Thomas Riley + +Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21765] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: + + This e-text is intended for users whose text readers cannot display + the "real" or Unicode (utf-8) version of the file. Greek words in the + Notes have been transliterated and shown between +marks+. The "oe" + ligature is written as the separate letters "oe". + + In the original text, words and phrases supplied by the translator + were printed in _italics_. In this e-text they are shown in {braces}. + Italics in the notes and commentary are shown conventionally with + _lines_, boldface by =marks=. + + Line numbers from the original Latin poem were printed as headnotes + on each page. For this e-text, only the line numbers of each complete + "Fable" are given. Line numbers used in footnotes are retained from + the original text; these, too, refer to the Latin poem and are + independent of line divisions in the translation. + + Parts of this e-text use material from another edition of the Riley + translation of the _Metamorphoses_: George Bell (London, 1893). + Details are given at the end of the text, before the Errata. Each + segment of the introductory material is individually identified.] + + + + + THE + METAMORPHOSES OF OVID + + Vol. I--Books I-VII + +LITERALLY TRANSLATED WITH NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS + + by + HENRY T. RILEY, M.A. + + With an Introduction by + EDWARD BROOKS, JR. + + + + + Copyright, 1899, By David McKay + + Press Of + Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [From Bell edition.] + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological +narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so ingeniously framed, as to +embrace a large amount of information upon almost every subject +connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of +antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the +learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful +translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied +information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets +of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume. + +To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of +necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting +to the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in +Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and +Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable +light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen +Mythology. + +In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally +adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few +instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes; +at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been +carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to +punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in +adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each +passage the intended meaning of the writer. + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the +English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn's excellent Catalogue of the +Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole +of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five +translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the +Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the middle of +the last century, which professes to be "as near the original as the +different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;" and to be +"printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen." A few +moments' perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not +the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, while, +by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained +nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by "critical, +historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best +Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes, +entirely new;" but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations +will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the +early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities +of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so +recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up +of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more +literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which +was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh +edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to +fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being "as literal as +possible," still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the +fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early +part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at +explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the +requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too +much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words, +"have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of +regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school," he has, in +many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of +the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes; +but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a +few of them are adduced: the word "nitidus" is always rendered "neat," +whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a +temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders "horridus," "in a rude +pickle;" "virgo" is generally translated "the young lady;" "vir" is +"a gentleman;" "senex" and "senior" are indifferently "the old blade," +"the old fellow," or "the old gentleman;" while "summa arx" is "the very +tip-top." "Misera" is "poor soul;" "exsilio" means "to bounce forth;" +"pellex" is "a miss;" "lumina" are "the peepers;" "turbatum fugere" is +"to scower off in a mighty bustle;" "confundor" is "to be jumbled;" and +"squalidus" is "in a sorry pickle." "Importuna" is "a plaguy baggage;" +"adulterium" is rendered "her pranks;" "ambages" becomes either "a long +rabble of words," "a long-winded detail," or "a tale of a tub;" +"miserabile carmen" is "a dismal ditty;" "increpare hos" is "to rattle +these blades;" "penetralia" means "the parlour;" while "accingere," more +literally than elegantly, is translated "buckle to." "Situs" is "nasty +stuff;" "oscula jungere" is "to tip him a kiss;" "pingue ingenium" is a +circumlocution for "a blockhead;" "anilia instrumenta" are "his old +woman's accoutrements;" and "repetito munere Bacchi" is conveyed to the +sense of the reader as, "they return again to their bottle, and take the +other glass." These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure +the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses. + +In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,] +entitled "Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, and, according +to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and the verse +will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used according +to the directions in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster, and more +fully in the book called, 'Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar school, +chap. 8.'" Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a +translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book, +executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity is now the +only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first +Book "on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke," was published in 1839, +which had been already preceded by "a selection from the Metamorphoses +of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal +translation," published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian +system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and +consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. + +For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and +allusions, explanations have been added, which are principally derived +from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius, +Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the +historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number +of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid, +published by the Abbé Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the +last century; who has, therein, and in his "Explanations of the Fables +of Antiquity," with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the +works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely +to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome. + +This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement +of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to +enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects +presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances, space +has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference +to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the +explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of +critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of +Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very positive +result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Müller, Buttmann, and many +other scholars of profound learning. + + + + + A SYNOPTICAL VIEW + of the Principal Transformations Mentioned in + THE METAMORPHOSES. + + [From Bell edition, omitting Books VIII-XV.] + + +BOOK I. + +Chaos is divided by the Deity into four Elements: to these their +respective inhabitants are assigned, and man is created from earth and +water. The four Ages follow, and in the last of these the Giants aspire +to the sovereignty of the heavens; being slain by Jupiter, a new race of +men springs up from their blood. These becoming noted for their impiety, +Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon into a wolf, but destroys the whole +race of men and animals by a Deluge, with the exception of Deucalion and +Pyrrha, who, when the waters have abated, renew the human race, by +throwing stones behind them. Other animated beings are produced by heat +and moisture: and, among them, the serpent Python. Phoebus slays him, and +institutes the Pythian games as a memorial of the event, in which the +conquerors are crowned with beech; for as yet the laurel does not exist, +into which Daphne is changed soon after, while flying from Phoebus. On +this taking place, the other rivers repair to her father Peneus, either +to congratulate or to console him; but Inachus is not there, as he is +grieving for his daughter Io, whom Jupiter, having first ravished her, +has changed into a cow. She is entrusted by Juno to the care of Argus; +Mercury having first related to him the transformation of the Nymph +Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on which his eyes are placed by Juno in +the tail of the peacock. Io, having recovered human shape, becomes the +mother of Epaphus. + + +BOOK II. + +Epaphus, having accused Phaëton of falsely asserting that Phoebus is his +father, Phaëton requests Phoebus, as a proof of his affection towards his +child, to allow him the guidance of the chariot of the Sun for one day. +This being granted, the whole earth is set on fire by him, and the +Æthiopians are turned black by the heat. Jupiter strikes Phaëton with a +thunderbolt, and while his sisters and his kinsman Cyenus are lamenting +him, the former are changed into trees, and Cyenus into a swan. On +visiting the earth, that he may repair the damage caused by the +conflagration, Jupiter sees Calisto, and, assuming the form of Diana, he +debauches her. Juno, being enraged, changes Calisto into a bear; and her +own son Arcas being about to pierce her with an arrow, Jupiter places +them both among the Constellations. Juno having complained of this to +Oceanus, is borne back to the heavens by her peacocks, who have so +lately changed their colour; a thing which has also happened to the +raven, which has been lately changed from white to black, he having +refused to listen to the warnings of the crow (who relates the story of +its own transformation, and of that of Nyctimene into an owl), and +having persisted in informing Phoebus of the intrigues of Coronis. Her +son Æsculapius being cut out of the womb of Coronis and carried to the +cave of Chiron the Centaur, Ocyrrhoë, the daughter of Chiron, is changed +into a mare, while she is prophesying. Her father in vain invokes the +assistance of Apollo, for he, in the guise of a shepherd, is tending his +oxen in the country of Elis. He neglecting his herd, Mercury takes the +opportunity of stealing it; after which he changes Battus into a +touchstone, for betraying him. Flying thence, Mercury beholds Herse, the +daughter of Cecrops, and debauches her. Her sister Aglauros, being +envious of her, is changed into a rock. Mercury returns to heaven, on +which Jupiter orders him to drive the herds of Agenor towards the shore; +and then, assuming the form of a bull, he carries Europa over the sea to +the isle of Crete. + + +BOOK III. + +Agenor commands his son Cadmus to seek his sister Europa. While he is +doing this, he slays a dragon in Boeotia; and having sowed its teeth in +the earth, men are produced, with whose assistance he builds the walls +of Thebes. His first cause of grief is the fate of his grandson Actæon, +who, being changed into a stag, is torn to pieces by his own hounds. +This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, who hates not only Semele, the +daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of Jupiter, but all the house of +Agenor as well. Assuming the form of Beroë, she contrives the +destruction of Semele by the lightnings of Jupiter; while Bacchus, being +saved alive from his mother's womb, is brought up on the earth. Jupiter +has a discussion with Juno on the relative pleasures of the sexes, and +they agree to refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both +sexes. He gives his decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno +deprives him of sight; and, by way of recompense, Jupiter bestows on him +the gift of prophesy. His first prediction is fulfilled in the case of +Narcissus, who, despising the advances of all females (in whose number +is Echo, who has been transformed into a sound), at last pines away with +love for himself, and is changed into a flower which bears his name. +Pentheus, however, derides the prophet; who predicts his fate, and his +predictions are soon verified; for, on the celebration of the orgies, +Bacchus having assumed a disguise, is brought before him; and having +related to Pentheus the story of the transformation of the Etrurian +sailors into dolphins, he is thrown into prison. On this, Pentheus is +torn in pieces by the Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid +to the rites of Bacchus. + + +BOOK IV. + +Still Alcithoë and her sisters, neglecting the rites, attend to their +spinning, during the festivities, and pass the time in telling stories; +and, among others, that of Pyramus and Thisbe, by whose blood the +mulberry is turned from white to black, and that of the discovery of the +intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the information of the Sun. They also +tell how the Sun assumed the form of Eurynome, that he might enjoy her +daughter Leucothoë; how Clytie, becoming jealous of her sister, was +transformed into a sun-flower; and how Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had +become united into one body. After this, through the agency of Bacchus, +the sisters are transformed into bats, and their webs are changed into +vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, in her hatred and indignation, sends +one of the Furies to her, who causes her to be struck with insanity, on +which she leaps into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but by +the intercession of Venus, they become sea Deities, and their Sidonian +attendants, who are bewailing them as dead, are changed into rocks. +Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies +to Illyria, together with his wife, where they are both transformed into +serpents. Of those who despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the +grandfather of Perseus, who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon +Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a +mountain, and having liberated Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into +coral, and afterwards marries her. + + +BOOK V. + +A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims +Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him; and together with Proetus, he +and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now +leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The +Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were +transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the +subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of +animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of +Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an +owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa into a spring, of +Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptolemus. + + +BOOK VI. + +Influenced by the example of the Muses, Pallas determines on the +destruction of Arachne. She enters with her into a contest for the +superiority in the art of weaving. Each represents various +transformations on her web, and then Arachne is changed into a spider. +Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from preferring her own lot to +that of Latona; on account of which, all her children are slain by +Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. On learning this, +while one person relates the transformation by Latona of the Lycian +rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was flayed by +Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of ivory. To +console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come from the +adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are attacked by +hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries Progne, the +daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, takes back +with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife's sister; and having +committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is transformed into +a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a nightingale, and Progne +becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these wondrous events dies of +grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, Orithyia, is ravished by +Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and Zethes, who are of the +number of the Argonauts on the following occasion. + + +BOOK VII. + +Jason, by the aid of Medea, having conquered the bulls that breathe +forth flames, having sowed the teeth of a serpent, from which armed men +are produced, and having lulled the dragon to sleep, recovers the Golden +Fleece. Medea, accompanying Jason to Greece, restores Æson to youth by +the aid of drugs; and promising the same to Pelias, having first, as a +specimen, changed a ram into a lamb, by stratagem she kills him. Passing +through many places made remarkable by various transformations, and +having slain her children, she marries Ægeus, when Theseus returns home, +and narrowly escapes being poisoned by her magic potions. Minos +interrupts the joy of Ægeus on the return of his son, and wages war +against him; having collected troops from all parts, even from Paros, +where Arne has been changed into a jackdaw. Minos endeavours to gain the +alliance of Æacus, who, however, refuses it, and sends the Myrmidons, +(who have been changed into ants from men after a severe pestilence), +under the command of Cephalus to assist Ægeus. Cephalus relates to +Phocus, the son of Æacus, how, being carried off by Aurora and assuming +another shape, he had induced his wife Procris to prove faithless; and +how he had received from her a dog and a javelin, the former of which, +together with a fox, was changed into stone; while the latter, by +inadvertence, caused the death of his wife. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [By Edward Brooks, Jr., from McKay edition.] + +P. Ovidius Naso--commonly known as Ovid--was born at Sulmo, about, +ninety miles from Rome, in the year 43 B.C. His father belonged to an +old equestrian family, and at an early age brought his son to Rome, +where he was educated under the most distinguished masters. Very little +is known of the poet's life, except that which is gathered from his own +writings. After finishing his education at home he visited Athens, in +company with the poet Macer, for the purpose of completing his studies, +and before returning visited the magnificent cities of Asia Minor and +spent nearly a year in Sicily. + +Although as a young man Ovid showed a natural taste and inclination for +poetical composition, he was by no means encouraged to indulge in this +pursuit. His father thought that the profession of law was much more apt +to lead to distinction and political eminence than the vocation of a +poet. He therefore dissuaded his son from writing poetry and urged him +to devote himself to the legal profession. Compliance with his father's +wishes led him to spend much time in the forum, and for a while poetry +was abandoned. Upon attaining his majority, he held several minor +offices of state; but neither his health nor his inclinations would +permit him to perform the duties of public life. Poetry was his love, +and in spite of the strong objections of his father, he resolved to +abandon the law courts and devote himself to a more congenial +occupation. He sought the society of the most distinguished poets of the +day, and his admiration for them amounted almost to reverence. He +numbered among his intimate friends the poets Macer, Propertius, +Ponticus and Bassus, while Æmilius Macer, Virgil's contemporary, used to +read his compositions to him, and even the fastidious Horace, it is +said, occasionally delighted the young man's ear with the charm of his +verse. + +Ovid was married three times. His first wife he married when little more +than a boy, and the union does not seem to have been a happy one, though +it was probably due to no fault of the wife. His second wife seems also +to have been of blameless character, but his love for her was of short +duration. His third wife was a lady of the great Fabian house and a +friend of the Empress Livia. She appears to have been a woman in every +way worthy of the great and lasting love which the poet lavished upon +her to the day of his death. + +Up to the age of fifty Ovid had lived a life of prosperity and +happiness. Though not a wealthy man, his means were such as to permit +him to indulge in the luxuries of refined life, and his attainments as a +poet had surrounded him with a circle of most desirable friends and +admirers. He had even obtained the favor and patronage of the royal +family. About the year 8 A.D. he, however, incurred the great +displeasure of Augustus, and was ordered by him to withdraw from Rome +and dwell in the colony of Tomi, on the shore of the Euxine sea. Leaving +behind him a wife to whom he was devotedly attached he obeyed the edict +of his emperor and entered upon an exile from which he was destined +never to return. He died in banishment at Tomi in the year 18 A.D. + +The exact reason for Ovid's banishment has never been clear, though +there have been many conjectures as to the cause. About two years +previous to his exile Ovid had published a composition which had greatly +displeased Augustus, on account of its immoral tendency. Almost +coincident with this publication was the discovery of the scandal +relating to Julia, daughter of the emperor. It is probable that the +proximity of these two events tended to intensify the imperial +displeasure, and when some time later there was made public the intrigue +of the emperor's granddaughter, the indignation of Augustus gave itself +vent in the banishment of Ovid. + +The writings of Ovid consist of the _Amores_ in three books; the _Heroic +Epistles_, twenty-one in number; the _Ars Amatoria_; the _Remedia +Amoris_; the _Metamorphoses_, in fifteen books; the _Fasti_, in six +books; the _Tristia_, in five books; the _Epistles_, in four books, and +a few minor poems. In the following pages will be found a translation of +the _Metamorphoses_. + + + + + + +THE METAMORPHOSES. + + + + +BOOK THE FIRST. + + +THE ARGUMENT. [I.1-4] + +My design leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies.[1] Ye +Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) favor my attempts,[2] and bring +down the lengthened narrative from the very beginning of the world, +{even} to my own times.[3] + + [Footnote 1: _Forms changed into new bodies._--Ver. 1. Some + commentators cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being + used for 'corpora mutata in novas formas,' 'bodies changed into + new forms;' and they fancy that there is a certain beauty in the + circumstance that the proposition of a subject which treats of the + changes and variations of bodies should be framed with a + transposition of words. This supposition is perhaps based rather + on the exuberance of a fanciful imagination than on solid grounds, + as if it is an instance of Hypallage, it is most probably quite + accidental; while the passage may be explained without any + reference to Hypallage, as the word 'forma' is sometimes used to + signify the thing itself; thus the words 'formæ deorum' and + 'ferarum' are used to signify 'the Gods,' or 'the wild beasts' + themselves.] + + [Footnote 2: _Favor my attempts._--Ver. 3. This use of the word + 'adspirate' is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they + fill the ship's sails, were properly said 'adspirare.' It has been + remarked, with some justice, that this invocation is not + sufficiently long or elaborate for a work of so grave and + dignified a nature as the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 3: _To my own times._--Ver. 4. That is, to the days of + Augustus Cæsar.] + + +FABLE I. [I.5-31] + + God reduces Chaos into order. He separates the four elements, and + disposes the several bodies, of which the universe is formed, into + their proper situations. + +At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, +were the only face of nature throughout the whole universe, which men +have named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass,[4] and nothing {more} than +an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not harmonizing, +heaped together in the same spot. No Sun[5] as yet gave light to the +world; nor did the Moon,[6] by increasing, recover her horns anew. The +Earth did not {as yet} hang in the surrounding air, balanced by its own +weight, nor had Amphitrite[7] stretched out her arms along the +lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also +was the sea and the air; {and} thus was the earth without firmness, the +sea unnavigable, the air void of light; in no one {of them} did its +{present} form exist. And one was {ever} obstructing the other; because +in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the moist with the +dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with {those} devoid of +weight. + +To this discord God and bounteous Nature[8] put an end; for he separated +the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and +distinguished the clear heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after he +had unravelled these {elements}, and released them from {that} confused +heap, he combined them, {thus} disjoined, in harmonious unison, {each} +in {its proper} place. The element of the vaulted heaven,[9] fiery and +without weight, shone forth, and selected a place for itself in the +highest region; next after it, {both} in lightness and in place, was the +air; the Earth was more weighty than these, and drew {with it} the more +ponderous atoms, and was pressed together by its own gravity. The +encircling waters sank to the lowermost place,[10] and surrounded the +solid globe. + + [Footnote 4: _A rude and undigested mass._--Ver. 7. This is very + similar to the words of the Scriptures, 'And the earth was without + form and void,' Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.] + + [Footnote 5: _No Sun._--Ver. 10. Titan. The Sun is so called, on + account of his supposed father, Hyperion, who was one of the + Titans. Hyperion is thought to have been the first who, by + assiduous observation, discovered the course of the Sun, Moon, and + other luminaries. By them he regulated the time for the seasons, + and imparted this knowledge to others. Being thus, as it were, the + father of astronomy, he has been feigned by the poets to have been + the father of the Sun and the Moon.] + + [Footnote 6: _The Moon._--Ver. 11. Phoebe. The Moon is so called + from the Greek +phoibos+, 'shining,' and as being the sister of + Phoebus, Apollo, or the Sun.] + + [Footnote 7: _Amphitrite._--Ver. 14. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Doris, and the wife of Neptune, God of the Sea. Being + the Goddess of the Ocean, her name is here used to signify the + ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 8: _Nature._--Ver. 21. 'Natura' is a word often used by + the Poet without any determinate signification, and to its + operations are ascribed all those phenomena which it is found + difficult or impossible to explain upon known and established + principles. In the present instance it may be considered to mean + the invisible agency of the Deity in reducing Chaos into a form of + order and consistency. 'Et' is therefore here, as grammarians term + it, an expositive particle; as if the Poet had said, 'Deus sive + natura,' 'God, or in other words, nature.'] + + [Footnote 9: _The element of the vaulted heaven._--Ver. 26. This + is a periphrasis, signifying the regions of the firmament or upper + air, in which the sun and stars move; which was supposed to be of + the purest fire and the source of all flame. The heavens are + called 'convex,' from being supposed to assume the same shape as + the terrestrial globe which they surround.] + + [Footnote 10: _The lowermost place._--Ver. 31. 'Ultima' must not + be here understood in the presence of 'infima,' or as signifying + 'last,' or 'lowest,' in a strict philosophical sense, for that + would contradict the account of the formation of the world given + by Hesiod, and which is here closely followed by Ovid; indeed, it + would contradict his own words,--'Circumfluus humor coercuit + solidum orbem.' The meaning seems to be, that the waters possess + the lowest place only in respect to the earth whereon we tread, + and not relatively to the terrestrial globe, the supposed centre + of the system, inasmuch as the external surface of the earth in + some places rises considerably, and leaves the water to subside in + channels.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient philosophers, unable to comprehend how something could be + produced out of nothing, supposed a matter pre-existent to the Earth + in its present shape, which afterwards received form and order from + some powerful cause. According to them, God was not the Creator, but + the Architect of the universe, in ranging and disposing the elements + in situations most suitable to their respective qualities. This is the + Chaos so often sung of by the poets, and which Hesiod was the first to + mention. + + It is clear that this system was but a confused and disfigured + tradition of the creation of the world, as mentioned by Moses; and + thus, beneath these fictions, there lies some faint glimmering of + truth. The first two chapters of the book of Genesis will be found to + throw considerable light on the foundation of this Mythological system + of the world's formation. + + Hesiod, the most ancient of the heathen writers who have enlarged upon + this subject, seems to have derived much of his information from the + works of Sanchoniatho, who is supposed to have borrowed his ideas + concerning Chaos from that passage in the second verse of the first + Chapter of Genesis, which mentions the darkness that was spread over + the whole universe--'and darkness was upon the face of the deep'--for + he expresses himself almost in those words. Sanchoniatho lived before + the Trojan war, and professed to have received his information + respecting the original construction of the world from a priest of + 'Jehovah,' named Jerombaal. He wrote in the Phoenician language; but + we have only a translation of his works, by Philo Judæus, which is by + many supposed to be spurious. It is, however, very probable, that from + him the Greeks borrowed their notions regarding Chaos, which they + mingled with fables of their own invention. + + +FABLE II. [I.32-88] + + After the separation of matter, God gives form and regularity to the + universe; and all other living creatures being produced, Prometheus + moulds earth tempered with water, into a human form, which is animated + by Minerva. + +When thus he, whoever of the Gods he was,[11] had divided the mass {so} +separated, and reduced it, so divided, into {distinct} members; in the +first place, that it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up +into the form of a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured +around it, and to grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround +the shores of the Earth, encompassed {by it}; he added also springs, and +numerous pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed +downwards, with slanting banks. These, different in {different} places, +are some of them swallowed up[12] by {the Earth} itself; some of them +reach the ocean, and, received in the expanse of waters that take a +freer range, beat against shores instead of banks. + +He commanded the plains,[13] too, to be extended, the valleys to sink +down, the woods to be clothed with green leaves, the craggy mountains to +arise; and, as on the right-hand side,[14] two Zones intersect the +heavens, and as many on the left; {and as} there is a fifth hotter than +these, so did the care of the Deity distinguish this enclosed mass {of +the Earth} by the same number, and as many climates are marked out upon +the Earth. Of these, that which is the middle one[15] is not habitable +on account of the heat; deep snow covers two[16] {of them}. Between +either these he placed as many more,[17] and gave them a temperate +climate, heat being mingled with cold. + +Over these hangs the air, which is heavier than fire, in the same degree +that the weight of water is lighter than the weight of the earth. Here +he ordered vapors, here too, the clouds to take their station; the +thunder, too, to terrify the minds of mortals, and with the lightnings, +the winds that bring on cold. The Contriver of the World did not allow +these indiscriminately to take possession of the sky. Even now, +(although they each of them govern their own blasts in a distinct tract) +they are with great difficulty prevented from rending the world asunder, +so great is the discord of the brothers.[18] Eurus took his way[19] +towards {the rising of} Aurora and the realms of Nabath[20] and Persia, +and the mountain ridges exposed to the rays of the morning. The Evening +star, and the shores which are warm with the setting sun, are bordering +upon Zephyrus.[21] The terrible Boreas invaded Scythia,[22] and the +regions of the North. The opposite quarter is wet with continual clouds, +and the drizzling South Wind.[23] Over these he placed the firmament, +clear and devoid of gravity, and not containing anything of the dregs of +earth. + +Scarcely had he separated all these by fixed limits, when the stars, +which had long lain hid, concealed beneath that mass {of Chaos}, began +to glow through the range of the heavens. And that no region might be +destitute of its own {peculiar} animated beings, the stars and the forms +of the Gods[24] possess the tract of heaven; the waters fell to be +inhabited by the smooth fishes;[25] the Earth received the wild beasts, +{and} the yielding air the birds. + +{But} an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to receive +higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest,[26] was still +wanting. {Then} Man was formed. Whether it was that the Artificer of all +things, the original of the world in its improved state, framed him from +divine elements;[27] or whether, the Earth, being newly made, and but +lately divided from the lofty æther, still retained some atoms of its +kindred heaven, which, tempered with the waters of the stream, the son +of Iapetus fashioned after the image of the Gods, who rule over all +things. And, whereas other animals bend their looks downwards upon the +Earth, to Man he gave a countenance to look on high and to behold the +heavens, and to raise his face erect to the stars. Thus, that which had +been lately rude earth, and without any regular shape, being changed, +assumed the form of Man, {till then} unknown. + + [Footnote 11: _Whoever of the Gods he was._--Ver. 32. By this + expression the Poet perhaps may intend to intimate that the God + who created the world was some more mighty Divinity than those who + were commonly accounted Deities.] + + [Footnote 12: _Are some of them swallowed up._--Ver. 40. He here + refers to those rivers which, at some distance from their sources, + disappear and continue their course under ground. Such was the + stream of Arethusa, the Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in Argolis, + the Alpheus in Peloponnesus, the Arcas in Spain, and the Rhone in + France. Most of these, however, after descending into the earth, + appear again and discharge their waters into the sea.] + + [Footnote 13: _He commanded the plains._--Ver. 43. The use here of + the word 'jussit,' signifying 'ordered,' or 'commanded,' is + considered as being remarkably sublime and appropriate, and + serving well to express the ease wherewith an infinitely powerful + Being accomplishes the most difficult works. There is the same + beauty here that was long since remarked by Longinus, one of the + most celebrated critics among the ancients, in the words used by + Moses, 'And God said, Let there be light, and there was light,' + Genesis, ch. i. ver. 3.] + + [Footnote 14: _On the right-hand side._--Ver. 45. The "right hand" + here refers to the northern part of the globe, and the "left hand" + to the southern. He here speaks of the zones. Astronomers have + divided the heavens into five parallel circles. First, the + equinoctial, which lies in the middle, between the poles of the + earth, and obtains its name from the equality of days and nights + on the earth while the sun is in its plane. On each side are the + two tropics, at the distance of 23 deg. 30 min., and described by + the sun when in his greatest declination north and south, or at + the summer and winter solstices. That on the north side of the + equinoctial is called the tropic of Cancer, because the sun + describes it when in that sign of the ecliptic; and that on the + south side is, for a similar reason, called the tropic of + Capricorn. Again, at the distance of 23½ degrees from the poles + are two other parallels called the polar circles, either because + they are near to the poles, or because, if we suppose the whole + frame of the heavens to turn round on the plane of the + equinoctial, these circles are marked out by the poles of the + ecliptic. By means of these parallels, astronomers have divided + the heavens into four zones or tracks. The whole space between the + two tropics is the middle or torrid zone, which the equinoctial + divides into two equal parts. On each side of this are the + temperate zones, which extend from the tropics to the two polar + circles. And lastly, the portions enclosed by the polar circles + make up the frigid zones. As the planes of these circles produced + till they reached the earth, would also impress similar parallels + upon it, and divide it in the same manner as they divide the + heavens, astronomers have conceived five zones upon the earth, + corresponding to those in the heavens, and bounded by the same + circles.] + + [Footnote 15: _That which is the middle one._--Ver. 49. The + ecliptic in which the sun moves, cuts the equator in two opposite + points, at an angle of 23½ degrees; and runs obliquely from one + tropic to another, and returns again in a corresponding direction. + Hence, the sun, which in the space of a year, performs the + revolution of this circle, must in that time be twice vertical to + every place in the torrid zone, except directly under the tropics, + and his greatest distance from their zenith at noon, cannot exceed + 47 degrees. Thus his rays being often perpendicular, or nearly so, + and never very oblique, must strike more forcibly, and cause more + intense heat in that spot. Being little acquainted with the extent + and situation of the earth, the ancients believed it + uninhabitable. Modern discovery has shown that this is not the + case as to a considerable part of the torrid zone, though with + some parts of it our acquaintance is still very limited.] + + [Footnote 16: _Deep snow covers two._--Ver. 50. The two polar or + frigid zones. For as the sun never approaches these nearer than + the tropic on that side, and is, during one part of the year, + removed by the additional extent of the whole torrid zone, his + rays must be very oblique and faint, so as to leave these tracts + exposed to almost perpetual cold.] + + [Footnote 17: _He placed as many more._--Ver. 51. The temperate + zones, lying between the torrid and the frigid, partake of the + character of each in a modified degree, and are of a middle + temperature between hot and cold. Here, too, the distinction of + the seasons is manifest. For in either temperate zone, when the + sun is in that tropic, which borders upon it, being nearly + vertical, the heat must be considerable, and produce summer; but + when he is removed to the other tropic by a distance of 47 + degrees, his rays will strike but faintly, and winter will be the + consequence. The intermediate spaces, while he is moving from one + tropic to the other, make spring and autumn.] + + [Footnote 18: _The brothers._--Ver. 60. That is, the winds, who, + according to the Theogony of Hesiod, were the sons of Astreus, the + giant, and Aurora.] + + [Footnote 19: _Eurus took his way._--Ver. 61. The Poet, after + remarking that the air is the proper region of the winds, proceeds + to take notice that God, to prevent them from making havoc of the + creation, subjected them to particular laws, and assigned to each + the quarter whence to direct his blasts. Eurus is the east wind, + being so called from its name, because it blows from the east. As + Aurora, or the morning, was always ushered in by the sun, who + rises eastward, she was supposed to have her habitation in the + eastern quarter of the world; and often, in the language of + ancient poetry, her name signifies the east.] + + [Footnote 20: _The realms of Nabath._--Ver. 61. From Josephus we + learn that Nabath, the son of Ishmael, with his eleven brothers, + took possession of all the country from the river Euphrates to the + Red Sea, and called it Nabathæa. Pliny the Elder and Strabo speak + of the Nabatæi as situated between Babylon and Arabia Felix, and + call their capital Petra. Tacitus, in his Annals (Book ii. + ch. 57), speaks of them as having a king. Perhaps the term + 'Nabathæa regna' implies here, generally, the whole of Arabia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Are bordering upon Zephyrus._--Ver. 63. The region + where the sun sets, that is to say, the western part of the world, + was assigned by the ancients to the Zephyrs, or west winds, so + called by a Greek derivation because they cherish and enliven + nature.] + + [Footnote 22: _Boreas invaded Scythia._--Ver. 34. Under the name + of Scythia, the ancients generally comprehended all the countries + situate in the extreme northern regions. 'Septem trio,' meaning + the northern region of the world, is so called from the 'Triones,' + a constellation of seven stars, near the North Pole, known also as + the Ursa Major, or Greater Bear, and among the country people of + our time by the name of Charles's Wain. Boreas, one of the names + of 'Aquilo,' or the 'north wind,' is derived from a Greek word, + signifying 'an eddy.' This name was probably given to it from its + causing whirlwinds occasionally by its violence.] + + [Footnote 23: _The drizzling South Wind._--Ver. 66. The South Wind + is especially called rainy, because, blowing from the + Mediterranean sea on the coast of France and Italy, it generally + brings with it clouds and rain.] + + [Footnote 24: _The forms of the Gods._--Ver. 73. There is some + doubt what the Poet here means by the 'forms of the Gods.' Some + think that the stars are meant, as if it were to be understood + that they are forms of the Gods. But it is most probably only a + poetical expression for the Gods themselves, and he here assigns + the heavens as the habitation of the Gods and the stars; these + last, according to the notion of the Platonic philosophers being + either intelligent beings, or guided and actuated by such.] + + [Footnote 25: _Inhabited by the smooth fishes._--Ver. 74. + 'Cesserunt nitidis habitandæ piscibus;' Clarke translates 'fell + to the neat fishes to inhabit.'] + + [Footnote 26: _Could rule over the rest._--Ver. 77. This strongly + brings to mind the words of the Creator, described in the first + chapter of Genesis, ver. 28. 'And God said unto them--_have + dominion_ over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, + and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'] + + [Footnote 27: _Framed him from divine elements._--Ver. 78. We have + here strong grounds for contending that the ancient philosophers, + and after them the poets, in their account of the creation of the + world followed a tradition that had been copied from the Books of + Moses. The formation of man, in Ovid, as well as in the Book of + Genesis, is the last work of the Creator, and was, for the same + purpose, that man might have dominion over the other animated + works of the creation.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Ovid, as in the book of Genesis, man is the last work of + the Creator. The information derived from Holy Writ is here presented + to us, in a disfigured form. Prometheus, who tempers the earth, and + Minerva, who animates his workmanship, is God, who formed man, and + 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.' + + Some writers have labored to prove that this Prometheus, of the + heathen Mythology, was a Scriptural character. Bochart believes him to + have been the same with Magog, mentioned in the book of Genesis. + Prometheus was the son of Iapetus, and Magog was the son of Japhet, + who, according to that learned writer, was identical with Iapetus. He + says, that as Magog went to settle in Scythia, so did Prometheus; as + Magog either invented, or improved, the art of founding metals, and + forging iron, so, according to the heathen poets, did Prometheus. + Diodorus Siculus asserts that Prometheus was the first to teach + mankind how to produce fire from the flint and steel. + + The fable of Prometheus being devoured by an eagle, according to some, + is founded on the name of Magog, which signifies 'a man devoured by + sorrow.' Le Clerc, in his notes on Hesiod, says, that Epimetheus, the + brother of Prometheus, was the same with the Gog of Scripture, the + brother of Magog. Some writers, again, have exerted their ingenuity to + prove that Prometheus is identical with the patriarch Noah. + + +FABLE III. [I.89-112] + + The formation of man is followed by a succession of the four ages of + the world. The first is the Golden Age, during which Innocence and + Justice alone govern the world. + +The Golden Age was first founded, which, without any avenger, of its own +accord, without laws, practised both faith and rectitude. Punishment, +and the fear {of it}, did not exist, and threatening decrees were not +read upon the brazen {tables},[28] fixed up {to view}, nor {yet} did the +suppliant multitude dread the countenance of its judge; but {all} were +in safety without any avenger. The pine-tree, cut from its {native} +mountains, had not yet descended to the flowing waves, that it might +visit a foreign region; and mortals were acquainted with no shores +beyond their own. Not as yet did deep ditches surround the towns; no +trumpets of straightened, or clarions of crooked brass,[29] no helmets, +no swords {then} existed. Without occasion for soldiers, the minds {of +men}, free from care, enjoyed an easy tranquillity. + +The Earth itself, too, in freedom, untouched by the harrow, and wounded +by no ploughshares, of its own accord produced everything; and men, +contented with the food created under no compulsion, gathered the fruit +of the arbute-tree, and the strawberries of the mountain, and cornels, +and blackberries adhering to the prickly bramble-bushes, and acorns +which had fallen from the wide-spreading tree of Jove. {Then} it was an +eternal spring; and the gentle Zephyrs, with their soothing breezes, +cherished the flowers produced without any seed. Soon, too, the Earth +unploughed yielded crops of grain, and the land, without being renewed, +was whitened with the heavy ears of corn. Then, rivers of milk, then, +rivers of nectar were flowing, and the yellow honey was distilled from +the green holm oak. + + [Footnote 28: _Read upon the brazen tables._--Ver. 91. It was the + custom among the Romans to engrave their laws on tables of brass, + and fix them in the Capitol, or some other conspicuous place, that + they might be open to the view of all.] + + [Footnote 29: _Clarions of crooked brass._--Ver. 98. 'Cornu' seems + to have been a general name for the horn or trumpet; whereas the + "tuba" was a straight trumpet, while the 'lituus' was bent into a + spiral shape. Lydus says that the 'lituus' was the sacerdotal + trumpet, and that it was employed by Romulus when he proclaimed + the title of his newly-founded city. Acro says that it was + peculiar to the cavalry, while the 'tuba' belonged to the + infantry. The notes of the 'lituus' are usually described as harsh + and shrill.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The heathen poets had learned, most probably from tradition, that our + first parents lived for some time in peaceful innocence; that, without + tillage, the garden of Eden furnished them with fruit and food in + abundance; and that the animals were submissive to their commands: + that after the fall the ground became unfruitful, and yielded nothing + without labor; and that nature no longer spontaneously acknowledged + man for its master. The more happy days of our first parents they seem + to have styled the Golden Age, each writer being desirous to make his + own country the scene of those times of innocence. The Latin writers, + for instance, have placed in Italy, and under the reign of Saturn and + Janus, events, which, as they really happened, the Scriptures relate + in the histories of Adam and of Noah. + + +FABLE IV. [I.113-150] + + In the Silver Age, men begin not to be so just, nor, consequently, so + happy, as in the Golden Age. In the Brazen Age, which succeeds, they + become yet less virtuous; but their wickedness does not rise to its + highest pitch until the Iron Age, when it makes its appearance in all + its deformity. + +Afterwards (Saturn being driven into the shady realms of Tartarus), the +world was under the sway of Jupiter; {then} the Silver Age succeeded, +inferior to {that of} gold, but more precious than {that of} yellow +brass. Jupiter shortened the duration of the former spring, and divided +the year into four periods by means of winters, and summers, and +unsteady autumns, and short springs. Then, for the first time, did the +parched air glow with sultry heat, and the ice, bound up by the winds, +was pendant. Then, for the first time, did men enter houses; {those} +houses were caverns, and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with +bark. Then, for the first time, were the seeds of Ceres buried in long +furrows, and the oxen groaned, pressed by the yoke {of the ploughshare}. + +The Age of Brass succeeded, as the third {in order}, after these; +fiercer in disposition, and more prone to horrible warfare, but yet free +from impiety. The last {Age} was of hard iron. Immediately every species +of crime burst forth, in this age of degenerated tendencies;[30] +modesty, truth, and honor took flight; in their place succeeded fraud, +deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering for acquisition. +The sailor now spread his sails to the winds, and with these, as yet, he +was but little acquainted; and {the trees}, which had long stood on the +lofty mountains, now, {as} ships bounded[31] through the unknown waves. +The ground, too, hitherto common as the light of the sun and the +breezes, the cautious measurer marked out with his lengthened boundary. + +And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due +sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the Earth; and +riches were dug up, the incentives to vice, which the Earth had hidden, +and had removed to the Stygian shades.[32] Then destructive iron came +forth, and gold, more destructive than iron; then War came forth, that +fights through the means of both,[33] and that brandishes in his +blood-stained hands the clattering arms. Men live by rapine; the guest +is not safe from his entertainer, nor the father-in-law from the +son-in-law; good feeling, too, between brothers is a rarity. The husband +is eager for the death of the wife, she {for that} of her husband. +Horrible stepmothers {then} mingle the ghastly wolfsbane; the son +prematurely makes inquiry[34] into the years of his father. Piety lies +vanquished, and the virgin Astræa[35] is the last of the heavenly +{Deities} to abandon the Earth, {now} drenched in slaughter. + + [Footnote 30: _Age of degenerated tendencies._--Ver. 128. 'Vena' + signifies among other things, a vein or track of metal as it lies + in the mine. Literally, 'venæ pejoris' signifies 'of inferior + metal.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Now as ships bounded._--Ver. 134. 'Insultavere + carinæ.' This line is translated by Clarke, 'The keel-pieces + bounced over unknown waves.'] + + [Footnote 32: _To the Stygian shades._--Ver. 139. That is, in deep + caverns, and towards the centre of the earth; for Styx was feigned + to be a river of the Infernal Regions, situate in the depths of + the earth.] + + [Footnote 33: _Through the means of both._--Ver. 142. Gold forms, + perhaps, more properly the sinews of war than iron. The history of + Philip of Macedon gives a proof of this, as he conquered Greece + more by bribes than the sword, and used to say, that he deemed no + fortress impregnable, where there was a gate large enough to admit + a camel laden with gold.] + + [Footnote 34: _Prematurely makes inquiry._--Ver. 148. Namely, by + inquiring of the magicians and astrologers, that by their skill in + casting nativities, they might inform them the time when their + parents were likely to die, and to leave them their property.] + + [Footnote 35: _Astræa._--Ver. 150. She was the daughter of Astræus + and Aurora, or of Jupiter and Themis, and was the Goddess of + Justice. On leaving the earth, she was supposed to have taken her + place among the stars as the Constellation of the Virgin.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Poet here informs us, that during the Golden Age, a perpetual + spring reigned on the earth, and that the division of the year into + seasons was not known until the Silver Age. This allusion to Eden is + very generally to be found in the works of the heathen poets. The + Silver Age is succeeded by the Brazen, and that is followed by the + Iron Age, which still continues. The meaning is, that man gradually + degenerated from his primeval innocence, and arrived at that state of + wickedness and impiety, of which the history of all ages, ancient and + modern, presents us with so many lamentable examples. + + The limited nature of their views, and the fact that their exuberant + fancy was the source from which they derived many of their alleged + events, naturally betrayed the ancient writers into great + inconsistencies. For in the Golden Age of Saturn, we find wars waged, + and crimes committed. Saturn expelled his father, and seized his + throne; Jupiter, his son, treated Saturn as he had done his father + Uranus; and Jupiter, in his turn, had to wage war against the Giants, + in their attempt to dispossess him of the heavens. + + +FABLE V. [I.151-162] + + The Giants having attempted to render themselves masters of heaven, + Jupiter buries them under the mountains which they have heaped + together to facilitate their assault; and the Earth, animating their + blood, forms out of it a cruel and fierce generation of men. + +And that the lofty {realms of} æther might not be more safe than the +Earth, they say that the Giants aspired to the sovereignty of Heaven, +and piled the mountains, heaped together, even to the lofty stars. Then +the omnipotent Father, hurling his lightnings, broke through +Olympus,[36] and struck Ossa away from Pelion, that lay beneath it. +While the dreadful carcasses lay overwhelmed beneath their own +structure, they say that the Earth was wet, drenched with the plenteous +blood of her sons, and that she gave life to the warm gore; and that, +lest no memorial of this ruthless race should be surviving, she shaped +them into the form of men. But that generation, too, was a despiser of +the Gods above, and most greedy of ruthless slaughter, and full of +violence: you might see that they derived their origin from blood. + + [Footnote 36: _Olympus._--Ver. 154. Olympus was a mountain between + Thessaly and Macedonia. Pelion was a mountain of Thessaly, towards + the Pelasgic gulf; and Ossa was a mountain between Olympus and + Pelion. These the Giants are said to have heaped one on another, + in order to scale heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The war of the giants, which is here mentioned, is not to be + confounded with that between Jupiter and the Titans, who were + inhabitants of heaven. The fall of the angels, as conveyed by + tradition, probably gave rise to the story of the Titans; while, + perhaps, the building of the tower of Babel may have laid the + foundation of that of the attempt by the giants to reach heaven. + Perhaps, too, the descendants of Cain, who are probably the persons + mentioned in Scripture as the children 'of men' and 'giants,' were the + race depicted under the form of the Giants, and the generation that + sprung from their blood. See Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 2, 4. + + +FABLE VI. [I.163-215] + + Jupiter, having seen the crimes of this impious race of men, calls a + council of the Gods, and determines to destroy the world. + +When the Father {of the Gods}, the son of Saturn, beheld this from his +loftiest height, he groaned aloud; and recalling to memory the polluted +banquet on the table of Lycaon, not yet publicly known, from the crime +being but lately committed, he conceives in his mind vast wrath, and +such as is worthy of Jove, and calls together a council; no delay +detains them, thus summoned. + +There is a way on high,[37] easily seen in a clear sky, and which, +remarkable for its very whiteness, receives the name of the Milky {Way}. +Along this is the way for the Gods above to the abode of the great +Thunderer and his royal palace. On the right and on the left side the +courts of the ennobled Deities[38] are thronged, with open gates. The +{Gods of} lower rank[39] inhabit various places; in front {of the Way}, +the powerful and illustrious inhabitants of Heaven have established +their residence. This is the place which, if boldness may be allowed to +my expression, I should not hesitate to style the palatial residence of +Heaven. When, therefore, the Gods above had taken their seats in the +marble hall of assembly; he himself, elevated on his seat, and leaning +on his sceptre of ivory, three or four times shook the awful locks[40] +of his head, with which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to +tremble. Then, after such manner as this, did he open his indignant +lips:-- + +"Not {even} at that time was I more concerned for the empire of the +universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavoring to lay +his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a +dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock, and sprang from a +single origin. Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever +Nereus[41] roars on all sides of the earth; {this} I swear by the Rivers +of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the earth. All methods +have been already tried; but a wound that admits of no cure, must be cut +away with the knife, that the sound parts may not be corrupted. I have +{as subjects}, Demigods, and I have the rustic Deities, the Nymphs,[42] +and the Fauns, and the Satyrs, and the Sylvans, the inhabitants of the +mountains; these, though as yet, we have not thought them worthy of the +honor of Heaven, let us, at least, permit to inhabit the earth which we +have granted them. And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will +be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has formed +a plot against {even} me, who own and hold sway over the thunder and +yourselves?" + +All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for +vengeance on one who dared such {crimes}. Thus, when an impious band[43] +{madly} raged to extinguish the Roman name in the blood of Cæsar, the +human race was astonished with sudden terror at ruin so universal, and +the whole earth shook with horror. Nor was the affectionate regard, +Augustus, of thy subjects less grateful to thee, than that was to +Jupiter. Who, after he had, by means of his voice and his hand, +suppressed their murmurs, all of them kept silence. Soon as the clamor +had ceased, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter again broke +silence in these words: + +"He, indeed, (dismiss your cares) has suffered {dire} punishment; but +what was the offence and what the retribution, I will inform you. The +report of the iniquity of the age had reached my ears; wishing to find +this not to be the truth, I descended from the top of Olympus, and, +a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. 'Twere an endless task to +enumerate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered; the +report itself was below the truth." + + [Footnote 37: _There is a way on high._--Ver. 168. The Poet here + gives a description of the court of heaven; and supposing the + galaxy, or Milky Way, to be the great road to the palace of + Jupiter, places the habitations of the Gods on each side of it, + and adjoining the palace itself. The mythologists also invented a + story, that the Milky Way was a track left in the heavens by the + milk of Juno flowing from the mouth of Hercules, when suckled by + her. Aristotle, however, suspected what has been since confirmed + by the investigations of modern science, that it was formed by the + light of innumerable stars.] + + [Footnote 38: _The ennobled Deities._--Ver. 172. These were the + superior Deities, who formed the privy councillors of Jupiter, and + were called 'Di majorum gentium,' or, 'Di consentes.' Reckoning + Jupiter as one, they were twelve in number, and are enumerated by + Ennius in two limping hexameter lines:-- + + 'Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, + Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.'] + + [Footnote 39: _The Gods of lower rank._--Ver. 173. These were the + 'Dii minorum gentium,' or inferior Deities.] + + [Footnote 40: _Shook the awful locks._--Ver. 179. This awful nod + of Jupiter, the sanction by which he confirms his decrees, is an + idea taken from Homer; by whom it is so vividly depicted at the + end of the first book of the Iliad, that Phidias, in his statue of + that God, admired for the awful majesty of its looks, is said to + have derived his conception of the features from that description. + Virgil has the same idea in the Æneid, book x; 'Annuit, et totum + metu tremefecit Olympum.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Nereus._--Ver. 187. He was one of the most ancient + of the Deities of the sea, and was the son of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 42: _The Nymphs._--Ver. 192. The terrestrial Nymphs were + the Dryads and Hamadryads, who haunting the woods, and the + duration of their existence depending upon the life of particular + trees, derived their name from the Greek word +drus+, 'an oak.' + The Oreades were nymphs who frequented the mountains, while the + Napeæ lived in the groves and valleys. There were also Nymphs of + the sea and of the rivers; of which, the Nereids were so called + from their father Nereus, and the Oceanitides, from Oceanus. There + were also the Naiads, or nymphs of the fountains, and many + others.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thus when an impious band._--Ver. 200. It is a + matter of doubt whether he here refers to the conspiracies of + Brutus and Cassius against Julius Cæsar, or whether to that + against Augustus, which is mentioned by Suetonius, in the + nineteenth chapter of his History. As Augustus survived the latter + conspiracy, and the parallel is thereby rendered more complete, + probably this is the circumstance here alluded to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is to be presumed, that Ovid here follows the prevailing tradition + of his time; and it is surprising how closely that tradition adheres + to the words of Scripture, relative to the determination of the + Almighty to punish the earth by a deluge, as disclosed in the sixth + chapter of Genesis. The Poet tells us, that the King of heaven calls + the Gods to a grand council, to deliberate upon the punishment of + mankind, in retribution for their wickedness. The words of Scripture + are, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, + and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil + continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the + earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, 'I will + destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man + and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it + repenteth me that I have made them.'" --Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 5, 6, 7. + + Tradition seems to have faithfully carried down the fact, that, amid + this universal corruption, there was still at least one just man, and + here it attributes to Deucalion the merit that belonged to Noah. + + +FABLE VII. [I.216-243] + + Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in order to discover if it is Jupiter himself + who has come to lodge in his palace, orders the body of an hostage, + who had been sent to him, to be dressed and served up at a feast. The + God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf. + +I had {now} passed Mænalus, to be dreaded for its dens of beasts of +prey, and the pine-groves of cold Lycæus, together with Cyllene.[44] +After this, I entered the realms and the inhospitable abode of the +Arcadian tyrant, just as the late twilight was bringing on the night. +I gave a signal that a God had come, and the people commenced to pay +their adorations. In the first place, Lycaon derided their pious +supplications. Afterwards, he said, I will make trial, by a plain proof, +whether this is a God, or whether he is a mortal; nor shall the truth +remain a matter of doubt. He then makes preparations to destroy me, when +sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death; this mode of testing the truth +pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the +throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the +Molossians,[45] and then softens part of the quivering limbs, in boiling +water, and part he roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had +placed these on the table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house +upon the household Gods,[46] worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself +takes to flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he +howls aloud, and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from +himself, and through its {usual} desire for slaughter, it is directed +against the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are +changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and he still +retains vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same, +the same violence {appears} in his features; his eyes are bright as +before; {he is still} the same image of ferocity. + +"Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish; +wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys[47] reigns. You would +suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel +that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my +determination." + + [Footnote 44: _Together with Cyllene._--Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or + Cyllene, was a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was + hence called by the poets Cyllenius. Lycæus was also a mountain of + Arcadia, sacred to Pan, and was covered with groves of + pine-trees.] + + [Footnote 45: _Of the Molossians._--Ver. 226. The Molossi were a + people of Epirus, on the eastern side of the Ambracian gulf. Ovid + here commits a slight anachronism, as the name was derived from + Molossus, the son of Neoptolemus, long after the time of Lycaon. + Besides, as Burmann observes, who could believe that 'wars could + be waged at such an early period between nations so distant as the + Molossi and the Arcadians?' Apollodorus says, that it was a child + of the same country, whose flesh Lycaon set before Jupiter. Other + writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his + grandson, that was slain by him.] + + [Footnote 46: _Upon the household Gods._--Ver. 231. This + punishment was awarded to the Penates, or household Gods of + Lycaon, for taking such a miscreant under their protection.] + + [Footnote 47: _The savage Erinnys._--Ver. 241. Erinnys was a + general name given to the Furies by the Greeks. They were three in + number--Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megæra. These were so called, + either from the Greek +eris nou+, 'the discord of the mind,' or + from +en tê era naiein+, 'their inhabiting the earth,' watching + the actions of men.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If Ovid is not here committing an anachronism, and making Jupiter, + before the deluge, relate the story of a historical personage, who + existed long after it, the origin of the story of Lycaon must be + sought in the antediluvian narrative. It is just possible that the + guilty Cain may have been the original of Lycaon. The names are not + very dissimilar: they are each mentioned as the first murderer; and + the fact, that Cain murdered Abel at the moment when he was offering + sacrifice to the Almighty, may have given rise to the tradition that + Lycaon had set human flesh before the king of heaven. The Scripture, + too, tells us, that Cain was personally called to account by the + Almighty for his deed of blood. + + The punishment here inflicted on Lycaon was not very dissimilar to + that with which Cain was visited. Cain was sentenced to be a fugitive + and a wanderer on the face of the earth; and such is essentially the + character of the wolf, shunned by both men and animals. Of course, + there are many points to which it is not possible to extend the + parallel. Some of the ancient writers tell us, that there were two + Lycaons, the first of whom was the son of Phoroneus, who reigned in + Arcadia about the time of the patriarch Jacob; and the second, who + succeeded him, polluted the festivals of the Gods by the sacrifice of + the human race; for, having erected an altar to Jupiter, at the city + of Lycosura, he slew human victims on it, whence arose the story + related by the Poet. This solution is given by Pausanias, in his + Arcadica. We are also told by that historian, and by Suidas, that + Lycaon was, notwithstanding, a virtuous prince, the benefactor of his + people, and the promoter of improvement. + + +FABLE VIII. [I.244-312] + + Jupiter, not thinking the punishment of Lycaon sufficient to strike + terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, on account of the universal + corruption, to extirpate them by a universal deluge. + +Some, by their words approve the speech of Jupiter, and give spur to +him, {indignantly} exclaiming; others, by {silent} assent fulfil their +parts. Yet the {entire} destruction of the human race is a cause of +grief to them all, and they inquire what is to be the form of the earth +in future, when destitute of mankind? who is to place frankincense[48] +on the altars? and whether it is his design to give up the nations for a +prey to the wild beasts? The ruler of the Gods forbids them making these +enquiries, to be alarmed (for that the rest should be his care); and he +promises, {that} from a wondrous source {he will raise} a generation +unlike the preceding race. + +And now he was about to scatter his thunder over all lands; but he was +afraid lest, perchance, the sacred æther might catch fire, from so many +flames, and the extended sky might become inflamed. He remembers, too, +that it was in the {decrees of} Fate, that a time should come,[49] at +which the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven, seized {by the +flames}, should be burned, and the laboriously-wrought fabric of the +universe should be in danger of perishing. The weapons forged by the +hands of the Cyclops are laid aside; a different {mode of} punishment +pleases him: to destroy mankind beneath the waves, and to let loose the +rains from the whole tract of Heaven. At once he shuts the North Wind in +the caverns of Æolus, and {all} those blasts which dispel the clouds +drawn over {the Earth}; and {then} he sends forth the South Wind. With +soaking wings the South Wind flies abroad, having his terrible face +covered with pitchy darkness; his beard {is} loaded with showers, the +water streams down from his hoary locks, clouds gather upon his +forehead, his wings and the folds of his robe[50] drip with wet; and, as +with his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds, a crash arises, and +thence showers are poured in torrents from the sky. Iris,[51] the +messenger of Juno, clothed in various colors, collects the waters, and +bears a supply {upwards} to the clouds. + +The standing corn is beaten down, and the expectations of the +husbandman, {now} lamented by him, are ruined, and the labors of a long +year prematurely perish. Nor is the wrath of Jove satisfied with his own +heaven; but {Neptune}, his azure brother, aids him with his auxiliary +waves. He calls together the rivers, which, soon as they had entered the +abode of their ruler, he says, "I must not now employ a lengthened +exhortation; pour forth {all} your might, so the occasion requires. Open +your abodes, and, {each} obstacle removed, give full rein to your +streams." {Thus} he commanded; they return, and open the mouths of their +fountains,[52] and roll on into the ocean with unobstructed course. He +himself struck the Earth with his trident, {on which} it shook, and with +a tremor laid open the sources of its waters. The rivers, breaking out, +rush through the open plains, and bear away, together with the standing +corn, the groves, flocks, men, houses, and temples, together with their +sacred {utensils}. If any house remained, and, not thrown down, was able +to resist ruin so vast, yet the waves, {rising} aloft, covered the roof +of that {house}, and the towers tottered, overwhelmed beneath the +stream. And now sea and land had no mark of distinction; everything now +was ocean; and to that ocean shores were wanting. One man takes +possession of a hill, another sits in a curved boat, and plies the oars +there where he had lately ploughed; another sails over the standing +corn, or the roof of his country-house under water; another catches a +fish on the top of an elm-tree. An anchor (if chance so directs) is +fastened in a green meadow, or the curving keels come in contact with +the vineyards, {now} below them; and where of late the slender goats had +cropped the grass, there unsightly sea-calves are now reposing their +bodies. + +The Nereids wonder at the groves, the cities, and the houses under +water; dolphins get into the woods, and run against the lofty branches, +and beat against the tossed oaks. The wolf swims[53] among the sheep; +the wave carries along the tawny lions; the wave carries along the +tigers. Neither does the powers of his lightning-shock avail the wild +boar, nor his swift legs the stag, {now} borne away. The wandering bird, +too, having long sought for land, where it may be allowed to light, its +wings failing, falls down into the sea. The boundless range of the sea +had overwhelmed the hills, and the stranger waves beat against the +heights of the mountains. The greatest part is carried off by the water: +those whom the water spares, long fastings overcome, through scantiness +of food. + + [Footnote 48: _To place frankincense._--Ver. 249. In those early + ages, corn or wheaten flour, was the customary offering to the + Deities, and not frankincense, which was introduced among the + luxuries of more refined times. Ovid is consequently guilty of an + anachronism here.] + + [Footnote 49: _That a time should come._--Ver. 256. Lactantius + informs us that the Sibyls predicted that the world should perish + by fire. Seneca also, in his consolation to Marcia, and in his + Quæstiones Naturales, mentions the same destined termination of + the present state of the universe. It was a doctrine of the Stoic + philosophers, that the stars were nurtured with moisture, and that + on the cessation of this nourishment the conflagration of the + universe would ensue.] + + [Footnote 50: _The folds of his robe._--Ver. 267. 'Rorant pennæ + sinusque,' is quaintly translated by Clarke, 'his wings and the + plaits of his coat drop.'] + + [Footnote 51: _Iris._--Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess + of the rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot + fail to remind us of the 'bow set in the cloud, for a token of the + covenant between God and the earth,' on the termination of Noah's + flood.--Gen. x. 14.] + + [Footnote 52: _The mouths of their fountains._--Ver. 281. The + expressions in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words + of the 11th verse of the 7th chapter of Genesis, 'The fountains of + the great deep were broken up.'] + + [Footnote 53: _The wolf swims._--Ver. 304. One commentator remarks + here, that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf + swimming among the sheep without devouring them. Seneca is, + however, too severe upon our author in saying that he is trifling + here, in troubling himself on so serious an occasion with what + sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely means to say, that the + beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that they forget their + carnivorous propensities.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated + happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last + Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have + overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative + the tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have + preserved. He says, that the sea joined its waters to those falling + from heaven. The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), 'All the + fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven + were opened.' In speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left + uncovered, the tradition here followed by Ovid probably referred to + Mount Ararat, where Noah's ark rested. Noah and his family are + represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Both Noah and Deucalion were + saved for their virtuous conduct; when Noah went out of the ark, he + offered solemn sacrifices to God; and Pausanias tells us that + Deucalion, when saved, raised an altar to Jupiter the Liberator. The + Poet tells us, that Deucalion's deluge was to be the last: God + promised the same thing to Noah. Josephus, in his Antiquities, Book + i., tells us, that the history of the universal deluge was written by + Nicolas of Damascus, Berosus, Mnaseas, and other ancient writers, from + whom the Greeks and Romans received it. + + +FABLE IX. [I.313-366] + + Neptune appeases the angry waves; and he commands Triton to sound his + shell, that the sea may retire within its shores, and the rivers + within their banks. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved + from the deluge. + +Phocis separates the Aonian[54] from the Actæan region; a fruitful land +while it was a land; but at that time {it had become} a part of the sea, +and a wide plain of sudden waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards +the stars, with two tops, by name Parnassus,[55] and advances beyond the +clouds with its summit. When here Deucalion (for the sea had covered all +other places), borne in a little ship, with the partner of his couch, +{first} rested; they adored the Corycian Nymphs,[56] and the Deities of +the mountain, and the prophetic Themis,[57] who at that time used to +give out oracular responses. No man was there more upright than he, nor +a greater lover of justice, nor was any woman more regardful of the +Deities than she. + +Soon as Jupiter {beholds} the world overflowed by liquid waters, and +sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and sees +that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both +guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; +and the showers being removed by the North Wind, he both lays open the +earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. The rage, too, of +the sea does not continue; and his three-forked trident {now} laid +aside, the ruler of the deep assuages the waters, and calls upon the +azure Triton standing above the deep, and having his shoulders covered +with the native purple shells;[58] and he bids him blow[59] his +resounding trumpet, and, the signal being given, to call back the waves +and the streams. The hollow-wreathed trumpet[60] is taken up by him, +which grows to a {great} width from its lowest twist; the trumpet, +which, soon as it receives the air in the middle of the sea, fills with +its notes the shores lying under either sun. Then, too, as soon as it +touched the lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being +blown, sounded the bidden retreat;[61] it was heard by all the waters +both of earth and sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was +heard. Now the sea[62] {again} has a shore; their channels receive the +full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The +ground rises, places increase {in extent} as the waters decrease; and +after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain the +mud left upon their branches. + +The world was restored; which when Deucalion beheld to be empty, and how +the desolate Earth kept a profound silence, he thus addressed Pyrrha, +with tears bursting forth:--"O sister, O wife, O thou, the only woman +surviving, whom a common origin,[63] and a kindred descent, and +afterwards the marriage tie has united to me, and {whom} now dangers +themselves unite to me; we two are the whole people of the earth, +whatever {both} the East and the West behold; of all the rest, the sea +has taken possession. And even now there is no certain assurance of our +lives; even yet do the clouds terrify my mind. What would now have been +thy feelings, if without me thou hadst been rescued from destruction, +O thou deserving of compassion? In what manner couldst thou have been +able alone to support {this} terror? With whom for a consoler, {to +endure} these sorrows? For I, believe me, my wife, if the sea had only +carried thee off, should have followed thee, and the sea should have +carried me off as well. Oh that I could replace the people {that are +lost} by the arts of my father,[64] and infuse the soul into the moulded +earth! Now the mortal race exists in us two {alone}. Thus it has seemed +good to the Gods, and we remain as {mere} samples of mankind." + + [Footnote 54: _The Aonian._--Ver. 313. Aonia was a mountainous + region of Boeotia; and Actæa was an ancient name of Attica, from + +aktê+, the sea-shore.] + + [Footnote 55: _By name Parnassus._--Ver. 317. Mount Parnassus has + two peaks, of which the one was called 'Tichoreum,' and was sacred + to Bacchus; and the other 'Hypampeum,' and was devoted to Apollo + and the Muses.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Corycian Nymphs._--Ver. 320. The Corycian + Nymphs were so called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount + Parnassus; they were fabled to be the daughters of Plistus, + a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia, + in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to + have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She + was the daughter of Coelus and Terra, and was the first to instruct + men to ask of the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she + took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, 'that which is + just and right.'] + + [Footnote 58: _The native purple shells._--Ver. 332. 'Murex' was + the name of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much + valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the + meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the + purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the + Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with + the shells of the murex, perhaps as a substitute for scales.] + + [Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several + Tritons, or minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief + Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who + always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was + wont to proclaim by the sound of his shell. He was usually + represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body + resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated + with the tail of a fish.] + + [Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The + 'Buccina,' or, as we call it, 'the conch shell,' was a kind of + horn, or trumpet, made out of a shell, called 'buccinum.' It was + sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining + the original form of the shell. The twisted form of the shell was + one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later + times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the + shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the + watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence + called 'buccina prima,' 'secunda,' etc. It was also blown at + funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down + to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding + 'buccinæ' were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.] + + [Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. 'Canere receptus' + was 'to sound the retreat,' as the signal for the soldiers to + cease fighting, and to resume their march.] + + [Footnote 62: _Now the sea._--Ver. 343. This and the two following + lines are considered as entitled to much praise for their + terseness and brevity, as depicting by their short detached + sentences the instantaneous effect produced by the commands of + Neptune in reducing his dominions to a state of order.] + + [Footnote 63: _A common origin._--Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was + the father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and + Epimetheus being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense + that he styles her 'sister,' she being really his cousin.] + + [Footnote 64: _The arts of my father._--Ver. 363. He alludes to + the story of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay, + and animated them with fire stolen from heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three brothers, + kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each retaining + his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world divided + between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of Neptune. + Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the seas; and + Ovid here represents him as being so employed. + + +FABLE X. [I.367-415] + + Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth by casting stones behind + them, in the manner prescribed by the Goddess Themis, whose oracle + they had consulted. + +He {thus} spoke, and they wept. They resolved to pray to the Deities of +Heaven, and to seek relief through the sacred oracles. There is no +delay; together they repair to the waters of Cephisus,[65] though not +yet clear, yet now cutting their wonted channel. Then, when they have +sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes[66] and their heads, they +turn their steps to the temple of the sacred Goddess, the roof of which +was defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were standing without +fires. Soon as they reached the steps of the temple, each of them fell +prostrate on the ground, and, trembling, gave kisses to the cold +pavement. And thus they said: + +"If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, if +the wrath of the Gods is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by what art +the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy assistance, O most +gentle {Goddess} to our ruined fortunes." The Goddess was moved, and +gave this response: "Depart from my temple, and cover your heads,[67] +and loosen the garments girt {around you}, and throw behind your backs +the bones of your great mother." For a long time they are amazed; and +Pyrrha is the first by her words to break the silence, and {then} +refuses to obey the commands of the Goddess; and begs her, with +trembling lips, to grant her pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of +her mother by casting her bones. In the meantime they reconsider the +words of the response given, {but} involved in dark obscurity, and they +ponder them among themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes +the daughter of Epimetheus with {these} gentle words, and says, "Either +is my discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no +sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones in +the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to throw +behind our backs." Although she, descended from Titan,[68] is moved by +this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in doubt; +so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm will +it do to try? + +They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, and +cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who could +have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness {of the thing?}) began +to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and by degrees to +become soft; and when softened, to assume a {new} form. Presently after, +when they were grown larger, a milder nature, too, was conferred on +them, so that some shape of man might be seen {in them}, yet though but +imperfect; and as if from the marble commenced {to be wrought}, not +sufficiently distinct, and very like to rough statues. Yet that part of +them which was humid with any moisture, and earthy, was turned into +{portions adapted for} the use of the body. That which is solid, and +cannot be bent, is changed into bones; that which was just now a vein, +still remains under the same name.[69] And in a little time, by the +interposition of the Gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of the +man, took the shape of a man, and the female {race} was renewed by the +throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able to +endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are sprung. + + [Footnote 65: _The waters of Cephisus._--Ver. 369. The river + Cephisus rises on Mount Parnassus, and flows near Delphi.] + + [Footnote 66: _Poured on their clothes._--Ver. 371. It was the + custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to + sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among + the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of + worship, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch, + that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby + interrupt the performance of the rites.] + + [Footnote 68: _Descended from Titan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the + race of the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of + Titan and Terra.] + + [Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual + propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word 'vena,' + as signifying either 'a vein' of the body, or a 'streak' or 'vein' + in stone, according to the context.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river + Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so + great a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed. + Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they + remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were + preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable, + probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word + 'Eben,' or 'Aben,' which signifies either 'a stone,' or 'a child.' The + Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word +laos+, which means + people, formerly also signified 'a stone.' + + The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have + added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from + stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to + Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted sacrifices + in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when + Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the + reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife + Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he + received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity. + + +FABLE XI. [I.416-451] + + The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many + monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with + his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he institutes the + Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius. + +The Earth of her own accord brought forth other animals of different +forms; after that the former moisture was thoroughly heated by the rays +of the sun, and the mud and the wet fens fermented with the heat; and +the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in the +womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, assumed some {regular} +shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile[70] has forsaken the oozy +fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the +fresh mud has been heated with the æthereal sun, the laborers, on +turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some +just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see +{still} imperfect, and {as yet} destitute of {some} of their limbs; and +often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part is coarse +earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due mixture, +they conceive; and all things arise from these two. + +And although fire is the antagonist of heat, {yet} a moist vapor creates +all things, and this discordant concord is suited for generation; when, +therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late deluge, was +thoroughly heated by the æthereal sunshine and a penetrating warmth, it +produced species {of creatures} innumerable; and partly restored the +former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, indeed, might +have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, thou enormous +Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a {source of} terror to this +new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain didst thou occupy. + +The God that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, +but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed +with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, {as} the +venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time +might not efface the fame of the deed, he instituted sacred games,[71] +with contests famed {in story}, called "Pythia," from the name of the +serpent {so} conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered +in boxing, in running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a +crown of beechen leaves.[72] As yet the laurel existed not, and Phoebus +used to bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with {garlands from} +any tree. + + [Footnote 70: _The seven-streamed Nile._--Ver. 423. The river Nile + discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable + for its inundations, which happen regularly every year, and + overflow the whole country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the + extraordinary fertility of the soil of that country; for when the + waters subside, they leave behind them great quantities of mud, + which, settling upon the land, enrich it, and continually + reinvigorate it.] + + [Footnote 71: _Instituted sacred games._--Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias, + in his Corinthiaca, tells us that they were instituted by + Diomedes; others, again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and + others, by Amphictyon, or Adrastus. The Pythian games were + celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissæan plain, which contained a + race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre, in + which the musical contests took place. They were once held at + Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, because the + Ætolians were in possession of the passes round Delphi. They + were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were + perhaps only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn + in honor of the Pythian God, accompanied by the music of the + cithara. In later times, gymnastic and equestrian games and + exercises were introduced there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad, + the Pythian games had been celebrated at the end of every eighth + year; after that period they were held at the end of every fourth + year. When they ceased to be solemnized is unknown; but in the + time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held.] + + [Footnote 72: _Crown of beechen leaves._--Ver. 449. This was the + prize which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian + games. In later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor + was a laurel chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of + his victory.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical + principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated + the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles, + which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately + disappeared. + + If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it + is probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the + neighborhood of Parnassus, and molested those who passed that way for + the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the name + of Apollo, or being a priest of that God, by his destruction liberated + that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the + institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi. + Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and + instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The + event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened + much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was + not known at Delphi. The Goddess Themis then delivered oracles there, + which, previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth. + + +FABLE XII. [I.452-567] + + Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river Peneus, + she flies from him. He pursues her; on which, the Nymph, imploring the + aid of her father, is changed into a laurel. + +Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, was the first love of Phoebus; whom, not +blind chance, but the vengeful anger of Cupid assigned to him. + +The Delian {God},[73] proud of having lately subdued the serpent, had +seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, "What +hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that +{better} befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring wounds to +the wild beasts, {wounds} to the enemy, who lately slew with arrows +innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres {of land} +with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to excite I know not +what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to praises {properly} +my own." + +To him the son of Venus replies, "Let thy bow shoot all things, Phoebus; +my bow {shall shoot} thee; and as much as all animals fall short of +thee, so much is thy glory less than mine." He {thus} said; and cleaving +the air with his beating wings, with activity he stood upon the shady +heights of Parnassus, and drew two weapons out of his arrow-bearing +quiver, of different workmanship; the one repels, the other excites +desire. That which causes {love} is of gold, and is brilliant, with a +sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and contains lead beneath +the reed. This one the God fixed in the Nymph, the daughter of Peneus, +but with the other he wounded the {very} marrow of Apollo, through his +bones pierced {by the arrow}. Immediately the one is in love; the other +flies from the {very} name of a lover, rejoicing in the recesses of the +woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken {in hunting}, and becomes +a rival of the virgin Phoebe. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put +up without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not +able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the +solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what +love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, "My +daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;" many a time did her father say, +"My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren." She, utterly abhorring the +nuptial torch,[76] as though a crime, has her beauteous face covered +with the blush of modesty; and clinging to her father's neck, with +caressing arms, she says, "Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy +perpetual virginity; her father, in times, bygone, granted this to +Diana." + +He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids thee to be what thou +wishest, and the charms of thy person are an impediment to thy desires. +Phoebus falls in love, and he covets an alliance with Daphne, {now} seen +by him, and what he covets he hopes for, and his own oracles deceive +him; and as the light stubble is burned, when the ears of corn are taken +off, and as hedges are set on fire by the torches, which perchance a +traveller has either held too near them, or has left {there}, now about +the break of day, thus did the God burst into a flame; thus did he burn +throughout his breast, and cherish a fruitless passion with his hopes. +He beholds her hair hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, "And +what would {it be} if it were arranged?" He sees her eyes, like stars, +sparkling with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have +{merely} seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her arms +and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden from +view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light wind +she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her +back: + +"O Nymph, daughter of Peneus, stay, I entreat thee! I am not an enemy +following thee. In this way the lamb {flies} from the wolf; thus the +deer {flies} from the lion; thus the dove flies from the eagle with +trembling wing; {in this way} each {creature flies from} its enemy: love +is the cause of my following thee. Ah! wretched me! shouldst thou fall +on thy face, or should the brambles tear thy legs, that deserve not to +be injured, and should I prove the cause of pain to thee. The places are +rugged, through which thou art {thus} hastening; run more leisurely, +I entreat thee, and restrain thy flight; I myself will follow more +leisurely. And yet, inquire whom thou dost please; I am not an +inhabitant of the mountains, I am not a shepherd; I am not here, in rude +guise,[77] watching the herds or the flocks. Thou knowest not, rash +girl, thou knowest not from whom thou art flying, and therefore it is +that thou dost fly. The Delphian land, Claros and Tenedos,[78] and the +Pataræan palace pays service to me. Jupiter is my sire; by me, what +shall be, what has been, and what is, is disclosed; through me, songs +harmonize with the strings. My own {arrow}, indeed, is unerring; yet one +there is still more unerring than my own, which has made this wound in +my heart, {before} unscathed. The healing art is my discovery, and +throughout the world I am honored as the bearer of help, and the +properties of simples are[79] subjected to me. Ah, wretched me![80] that +love is not to be cured by any herbs; and that those arts which afford +relief to all, are of no avail for their master." + +The daughter of Peneus flies from him, about to say still more, with +timid step, and together with him she leaves his unfinished address. +Then, too, she appeared lovely; the winds exposed her form to view, and +the gusts meeting her fluttered about her garments, as they came in +contact, and the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks; +and {thus}, by her flight, was her beauty increased. But the youthful +God[81] has not patience any longer to waste his blandishments; and as +love urges him on, he follows her steps with hastening pace. As when the +greyhound[82] has seen the hare in the open field, and the one by {the +speed of} his legs pursues his prey, the other {seeks} her safety; the +one is like as if just about to fasten {on the other}, and now, even +now, hopes to catch her, and with nose outstretched plies upon the +footsteps {of the hare}. The other is in doubt whether she is caught +{already}, and is delivered from his very bite, and leaves behind the +mouth {just} touching her. {And} so is the God, and {so} is the +virgin;[83] he swift with hopes, she with fear. + +Yet he that follows, aided by the wings of love, is the swifter, and +denies her {any} rest; and is {now} just at her back as she flies, and +is breathing upon her hair scattered upon her neck. Her strength being +{now} spent, she grows pale, and being quite faint, with the fatigue of +so swift a flight, looking upon the waters of Peneus, she says, "Give +me, my father, thy aid, if you rivers have divine power. Oh Earth, +either yawn {to swallow me}, or by changing it, destroy that form, by +which I have pleased too much, and which causes me to be injured." + +Hardly had she ended her prayer, {when} a heavy torpor seizes her limbs; +{and} her soft breasts are covered with a thin bark. Her hair grows into +green leaves, her arms into branches; her feet, the moment before so +swift, adhere by sluggish roots; a {leafy} canopy overspreads her +features; her elegance alone[84] remains in her. This, too, Phoebus +admires, and placing his right hand upon the stock, he perceives that +the breast still throbs beneath the new bark; and {then}, embracing the +branches as though limbs in his arms, he gives kisses to the wood, {and} +yet the wood shrinks from his kisses. To her the God said: "But since +thou canst not be my wife, at least thou shalt be my tree; my hair, my +lyre,[85] my quiver shall always have thee, oh laurel! Thou shalt be +presented to the Latian chieftains, when the joyous voice of the +soldiers shall sing the song of triumph,[86] and the long procession +shall resort to the Capitol. Thou, the same, shalt stand as a most +faithful guardian at the gate-posts of Augustus before his doors,[87] +and shalt protect the oak placed in the centre; and as my head is {ever} +youthful with unshorn locks, do thou, too, always wear the lasting +honors of thy foliage." + +Pæan had ended {his speech}; the laurel nodded assent with its new-made +boughs, and seemed to shake its top just like a head. + + [Footnote 73: _The Delian God._--Ver. 454. Apollo is so called, + from having been born in the Isle of Delos, in the Ægean Sea. The + Peneus was a river of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 74: _A fillet tied together._--Ver. 477. The 'vitta' was + a band encircling the head, and served to confine the tresses of + the hair. It was worn by maidens and by married women also; but + the 'vitta' assumed on the day of marriage was of a different form + from that used by virgins. It was not worn by women of light + character, or even by the 'libertinæ,' or female slaves who had + been liberated; so that it was not only deemed an emblem of + chastity, but of freedom also. It was of various colors: white and + purple are mentioned. In the later ages the 'vitta' was sometimes + set with pearls.] + + [Footnote 75: _Hymen._--Ver. 480. Hymen, or Hymenæus, was one of + the Gods of Marriage; hence the name 'Hymen' was given to the + union of two persons in marriage.] + + [Footnote 76: _The nuptial torch._--Ver. 483. Plutarch tells us, + that it was the custom in the bridal procession to carry five + torches before the bride, on her way to the house of her husband. + Among the Romans, the nuptial torch was lighted at the parental + hearth of the bride, and was borne before her by a boy, whose + parents were alive. The torch was also used at funerals, for the + purpose of lighting the pile, and because funerals were often + nocturnal ceremonies. Hence the expression of Propertius,-- + 'Vivimus inter utramque facem,' 'We are living between the two + torches.' Originally, the 'tædæ' seem to have been slips or + lengths of resinous pine wood: while the 'fax' was formed of a + bundle of wooden staves, either bound by a rope drawn round them + in a spiral form, or surrounded by circular bands at equal + distances. They were used by travellers and others, who were + forced to be abroad after sunset; whence the reference in line 493 + to the hedge ignited through the carelessness of the traveller, + who has thrown his torch there on the approach of morning.] + + [Footnote 77: _Here in rude guise._--Ver. 514. 'Non hic armenta + gregesve Horridus observo' is quaintly translated by Clarke, 'I do + not here in a rude pickle watch herds or flocks.'] + + [Footnote 78: _Claros and Tenedos._--Ver. 516. Claros was a city + of Ionia, famed for a temple and oracle of Apollo, and near which + there was a mountain and a grove sacred to him. There was an + island in the Myrtoan Sea of that name, to which some suppose that + reference is here made. Tenedos was an island of the Ægean Sea, in + the neighborhood of Troy. Patara was a city of Lycia, where Apollo + gave oracular responses during six months of the year. It was from + Patara that St. Paul took ship for Phoenicia, Acts, xxi. 1, 2.] + + [Footnote 79: _The properties of simples._--Ver. 522. The first + cultivators of the medical art pretended to nothing beyond an + acquaintance with the medicinal qualities of herbs and simples; it + is not improbable that inasmuch as the vegetable world is + nourished and raised to the surface of the earth in a great degree + by the heat of the sun, a ground was thereby afforded for + allegorically saying that Apollo, or the Sun, was the discoverer + of the healing art.] + + [Footnote 80: _Ah! wretched me!_--Ver. 523. A similar expression + occurs in the Heroides, v. 149, 'Me miseram, quod amor non est + medicabilis herbis.'] + + [Footnote 81: _The youthful God._--Ver. 531. Apollo was always + represented as a youth, and was supposed never to grow old. The + Scholiast on the Thebais of Statius, b. i., v. 694, says, 'The + reason is, because Apollo is the Sun; and because the Sun is fire, + which never grows old.' Perhaps the youthfulness of the Deity is + here mentioned, to account for his ardent pursuit of the flying + damsel.] + + [Footnote 82: _As when the greyhound._--Ver. 533. The comparison + here of the flight of Apollo after Daphne, to that of the + greyhound after the hare, is considered to be very beautifully + drawn, and to give an admirable illustration of the eagerness with + which the God pursues on the one hand, and the anxiety with which + the Nymph endeavors to escape on the other. Pope, in his Windsor + Forest, has evidently imitated this passage, where he describes + the Nymph Lodona pursued by Pan, and transformed into a river. His + words are-- + + 'Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, + When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; + Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, + When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves; + As from the God she flew with furious pace, + Or as the God more furious urged the chase. + Now fainting, sinking, pale, the nymph appears; + Now close behind, his sounding steps she hears; + And now his shadow reach'd her as she run, + His shadow lengthened by the setting sun; + And now his shorter breath, with sultry air, + Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.' + + The greyhound was probably called 'canis Gallicus,' from having + been originally introduced into Italy from Gaul. 'Vertagus' was + their Gallic name, which we find used by Martial, and Gratian in + his Cynegeticon, ver. 203.] + + [Footnote 83: _And so is the virgin._--Ver. 539. 'Sic Deus et + virgo est' is translated by Clarke, 'So is the God and the young + lady;' indeed, he mostly translates 'virgo,' 'young lady.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Her elegance alone._--Ver. 552. Clarke translates + 'Remanet nitor unus in illa,' 'her neatness alone continues in + her.'] + + [Footnote 85: _My lyre._--Ver. 559. The players of the cithara, + the instrument of Apollo, were crowned with laurel, in the scenic + representations of the stage.] + + [Footnote 86: _The song of triumph._--Ver. 560. The Poet here pays + a compliment to Augustus and the Roman people. The laurel was the + emblem of victory among the Romans. On such occasions the 'fasces' + of the general and the spears and javelins of the soldiers were + wreathed with laurel; and after the time of Julius Cæsar, the + Roman general, when triumphing, wore a laurel wreath on his head, + and held a branch of laurel in his hand.] + + [Footnote 87: _Before his doors._--Ver. 562. He here alludes to + the civic crown of oak leaves which, by order of the Senate, was + placed before the gate of the Palatium, where Augustus Cæsar + resided, with branches of laurel on either side of it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To explain this Fable, it must be laid down as a principle that there + were originally many Jupiters, and Apollos, and Mercuries, whose + intrigues being, in lapse of time, attributed to but one individual, + that fact accounts for the great number of children which claimed + those respective Gods for their fathers. + + Some prince probably, for whom his love of learning had acquired the + name of Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, pursued her to the brink + of the river Peneus, into which, being accidentally precipitated, she + perished in her lover's sight. Some laurels growing near the spot, + perhaps gave rise to the story of her transformation; or possibly the + etymology of the word 'Daphne,' which in Greek signifies a laurel, was + the foundation of the Fable. Pausanias, however, in his Arcadia, gives + another version of this story. He says that Leucippus, son of Oenomaus, + king of Pisa, falling in love with Daphne, disguised himself in female + apparel, and devoted himself to her service. He soon procured her + friendship and confidence; but Apollo, who was his rival, having + discovered his fraud, one day redoubled the heat of the sun. Daphne + and her companions going to bathe, obliged Leucippus to follow their + example, on which, having discovered his stratagem, they killed him + with the arrows which they carried for the purposes of hunting. + + Diodorus Siculus tells us that Daphne was the same with Manto, the + daughter of Tiresias, who was banished to Delphi, where she delivered + oracles, of the language of which Homer availed himself in the + composition of his poems. The inhabitants of Antioch asserted that the + adventure here narrated happened in the suburbs of their city, which + thence derived its name of Daphne. + + +FABLE XIII. [I.568-600] + + Jupiter, pursuing Io, the daughter of Inachus, covers the earth with + darkness, and ravishes the Nymph. + +There is a grove of Hæmonia,[88] which a wood, placed on a craggy rock, +encloses on every side. They call it Tempe;[89] through this the river +Peneus, flowing from the bottom of {mount} Pindus,[90] rolls along with +its foaming waves, and in its mighty fall, gathers clouds that scatter +{a vapor like} thin smoke,[91] and with its spray besprinkles the tops +of the woods, and wearies places, far from near to it, with its noise. +This is the home, this the abode, these are the retreats of the great +river; residing here in a cavern formed by rocks, he gives law to the +waters, and to the Nymphs that inhabit those waters. The rivers of that +country first repair thither, not knowing whether they should +congratulate, or whether console the parent; the poplar-bearing +Spercheus,[92] and the restless Enipeus,[93] the aged Apidanus,[94] the +gentle Amphrysus,[95] and Æas,[96] and, soon after, the other rivers, +which, as their current leads them, carry down into the sea their waves, +wearied by wanderings. Inachus[97] alone is absent, and, hidden in his +deepest cavern, increases his waters with his tears, and in extreme +wretchedness bewails his daughter Io as lost; he knows not whether she +{now} enjoys life, or whether she is among the shades below; but her, +whom he does not find anywhere, he believes to be nowhere, and in his +mind he dreads the worst. + +Jupiter had seen Io as she was returning from her father's stream, and +had said, "O maid, worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know not whom +happy in thy marriage, repair to the shades of this lofty grove (and he +pointed at the shade of the grove) while it is warm, and {while} the Sun +is at his height, in the midst of his course. But if thou art afraid to +enter the lonely abodes of the wild beasts alone, thou shalt enter the +recesses of the groves, safe under the protection of a God, and {that} a +God of no common sort; but {with me}, who hold the sceptre of heaven in +my powerful hand; {me}, who hurl the wandering lightnings--Do not fly +from me;" for {now} she was flying. And now she had left behind the +pastures of Lerna,[98] and the Lircæan plains planted with trees, when +the God covered the earth far and wide with darkness overspreading, and +arrested her flight, and forced her modesty. + + [Footnote 88: _A grove of Hæmonia._--Ver. 568. Hæmonia was an + ancient name of Thessaly, so called from its king, Hæmon, a son of + Pelasgus, and father of Thessalus, from which it received its + later name.] + + [Footnote 89: _Call it Tempe._--Ver. 569. Tempe was a valley of + Thessaly, proverbial for its pleasantness and the beauty of its + scenery. The river Peneus ran through it, but not with the + violence which Ovid here depicts; for Ælian tells us that it runs + with a gentle sluggish stream, more like oil than water.] + + [Footnote 90: _Mount Pindus._--Ver. 570. Pindus was a mountain + situate on the confines of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 91: _Like thin smoke._--Ver. 571. He speaks of the + spray, which in the fineness of its particles resembles smoke.] + + [Footnote 92: _Spercheus._--Ver. 579. The Spercheus was a rapid + stream, flowing at the foot of Mount Æta into the Malian Gulf, + and on whose banks many poplars grew.] + + [Footnote 93: _Enipeus._--Ver. 579. The Enipeus rises in Mount + Othrys, and runs through Thessaly. Virgil (Georgics, iv. 468) + calls it 'Altus Enipeus,' the deep Enipeus.] + + [Footnote 94: _Apidanus._--Ver. 580. The Apidanus, receiving the + stream of the Enipeus at Pharsalia, flows into the Peneus. It is + supposed by some commentators to be here called 'senex,' aged, + from the slowness of its tide. But where it unites the Enipeus it + flows with violence, so that it is probably called 'senex,' as + having been known and celebrated by the poets from of old.] + + [Footnote 95: _Amphrysus._--Ver. 580. This river ran through that + part of Thessaly known by the name of Phthiotis.] + + [Footnote 96: _Æas._--Ver. 580. Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23) + calls this river Aous. It was a small limpid stream, running + through Epirus and Thessaly, and discharging itself into the + Ionian sea.] + + [Footnote 97: _Inachus._--Ver. 583. This was a river of Argolis, + now known as the Naio. It took its rise either in Lycæus or + Artemisium, mountains of Arcadia. Stephens, however, thinks that + Lycæus was a mountain of Argolis.] + + [Footnote 98: _Lerna._--Ver. 597. This was a swampy spot on the + Argive territory, where the poets say that the dragon with seven + heads, called Hydra, which was slain by Hercules, had made his + haunt. It is not improbable that the pestilential vapors of this + spot were got rid of by means of its being drained under the + superintendence of Hercules, on which fact the story was founded. + Some commentators, however, suppose the Lerna to have been a + flowing stream.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Greeks frequently embellished their mythology with narratives of + Phoenician or Egyptian origin. The story of Io probably came from + Egypt. Isis was one of the chief divinities of that country, and her + worship naturally passed, with their colonies, into foreign countries. + Greece received it when Inachus went to settle there, and in lapse of + time Isis, under the name of Io, was supposed to have been his + daughter, and the fable was invented which is here narrated by Ovid. + + The Greek authors, Apollodorus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and + Pausanias, say that Io was the daughter of Inachus, the first king of + Argos; that Jupiter carried her away to Crete; and that by her he had + a son named Epaphus, who went to reign in Egypt, whither his mother + accompanied him. They also tell us that she married Apis, or Osiris, + who, after his death, was numbered among the Deities of Egypt by the + name of Serapis. From them we also learn that Juno, being actuated by + jealousy, on the discovery of the intrigue, put Io under the care of + her uncle Argus, a man of great vigilance, but that Jupiter having + slain him, placed his mistress on board of a vessel which had the + figure of a cow at its head; from which circumstance arose the story + of the transformation of Io. The Greek writers also state, that the + Bosphorus, a part of the Ægean sea, derived its name from the passage + of Io in the shape of a cow. + + +FABLE XIV. [I.601-688] + + Jupiter, having changed Io into a cow, to conceal her from the + jealousy of Juno, is obliged to give her to that Goddess, who commits + her to the charge of the watchful Argus. Jupiter sends Mercury with an + injunction to cast Argus into a deep sleep, and to take away his life. + +In the meantime Juno looked down upon the midst of the fields, and +wondering that the fleeting clouds had made the appearance of night +under bright day, she perceived that they were not {the vapors} from a +river, nor were they raised from the moist earth, and {then} she looked +around {to see} where her husband was, as being one who by this time was +full well acquainted with the intrigues of a husband {who had been} so +often detected.[99] After she had found him not in heaven, she said, +"I am either deceived, or I am injured;" and having descended from the +height of heaven, she alighted upon the earth, and commanded the mists +to retire. He had foreseen the approach of his wife, and had changed the +features of the daughter of Inachus into a sleek heifer.[100] As a cow, +too, {she} is beautiful. The daughter of Saturn, though unwillingly, +extols the appearance of the cow; and likewise inquires, whose it is, +and whence, or of what herd it is, as though ignorant of the truth. +Jupiter falsely asserts that it was produced out of the earth, that the +owner may cease to be inquired after. The daughter of Saturn begs her of +him as a gift. What can {he} do? It is a cruel thing to deliver up his +{own} mistress, {and} not to give her up is a cause of suspicion. It is +shame which persuades him on the one hand, love dissuades him on the +other. His shame would have been subdued by his love; but if so trifling +a gift as a cow should be refused to the sharer of his descent and his +couch, she might {well} seem not to be a cow. + +The rival now being given up {to her}, the Goddess did not immediately +lay aside all apprehension; and she was {still} afraid of Jupiter, and +was fearful of her being stolen, until she gave her to Argus, the son of +Aristor, to be kept {by him}. Argus had his head encircled with a +hundred eyes. Two of them used to take rest in their turns, the rest +watched, and used to keep on duty.[101] In whatever manner he stood, he +looked towards Io; although turned away, he {still} used to have Io +before his eyes. In the daytime he suffers her to feed; but when the sun +is below the deep earth, he shuts her up, and ties a cord round her neck +undeserving {of such treatment}. She feeds upon the leaves of the arbute +tree, and bitter herbs, and instead of a bed the unfortunate {animal} +lies upon the earth, that does not always have grass {on it}, and drinks +of muddy streams. And when, too, she was desirous, as a suppliant, to +stretch out her arms to Argus, she had no arms to stretch out to Argus; +and she uttered lowings from her mouth, {when} endeavoring to complain. +And at {this} sound she was terrified, and was affrighted at her own +voice. + +She came, too, to the banks, where she was often wont to sport, the +banks of {her father}, Inachus; and soon as she beheld her new horns in +the water, she was terrified, and, astonished, she recoiled from +herself. The Naiads knew her not, and Inachus himself knew her not, who +she was; but she follows her father, and follows her sisters, and +suffers herself to be touched, and presents herself to them, as they +admire {her}. The aged Inachus held her some grass he had plucked; she +licks his hand, and gives kisses to the palms of her father. Nor does +she restrain her tears; and if only words would follow, she would +implore his aid, and would declare her name and misfortunes. Instead of +words, letters, which her foot traced in the dust, completed the sad +discovery of the transformation of her body. "Ah, wretched me!" exclaims +her father Inachus; and clinging to the horns and the neck of the +snow-white cow, as she wept, he repeats, "Ah, wretched me! and art thou +my daughter, that hast been sought for by me throughout all lands? While +undiscovered, thou wast a lighter grief {to me}, than {now, when} thou +art found. Thou art silent, and no words dost thou return in answer to +mine; thou only heavest sighs from the depth of thy breast, and what +alone thou art able to do, thou answerest in lowings to my words. But I, +in ignorance {of this}, was preparing the bridal chamber, and the +{nuptial} torches for thee; and my chief hope was that of a son-in-law, +my next was that of grandchildren. But now must thou have a mate from +the herd, now, {too}, an offspring of the herd. Nor is it possible for +me to end grief so great by death; but it is a detriment to be a God; +and the gate of death being shut against me, extends my grief to eternal +ages." + +While thus he lamented, the starry Argus removed her away, and carried +the daughter, {thus} taken from her father, to distant pastures. He +himself, at a distance, occupies the lofty top of a mountain, whence, as +he sits, he may look about on all sides. + +Nor can the ruler of the Gods above, any longer endure so great miseries +of the granddaughter of Phoroneus;[102] and he calls his son {Mercury}, +whom the bright Pleiad, {Maia},[103] brought forth, and orders him to +put Argus to death. There is {but} little delay to take wings upon his +feet, and his soporiferous wand[104] in his hand, and a cap for his +hair.[105] After he had put these things in order, the son of Jupiter +leaps down from his father's high abode upon the earth, and there he +takes off his cap, and lays aside his wings; his wand alone was +retained. With this, as a shepherd, he drives some she-goats through the +pathless country, taken up as he passed along, and plays upon oaten +straws joined together. + +The keeper appointed by Juno, charmed by the sound of this new +contrivance, says, "Whoever thou art, thou mayst be seated with me upon +this stone; for, indeed, in no {other} place is the herbage more +abundant for thy flock; and thou seest, too, that the shade is +convenient for the shepherds." The son of Atlas sat down, and with much +talking he occupied the passing day with his discourse, and by playing +upon his joined reeds he tried to overpower his watchful eyes. Yet {the +other} strives hard to overcome soft sleep; and although sleep was +received by a part of his eyes, yet with a part he still keeps watch. He +inquires also (for the pipe had been {but} lately invented) by what +method it had been found out. + + [Footnote 99: _So often detected._--Ver. 606. Clarke translates + 'deprensi toties mariti' by the expression, 'who had been so often + catched in his roguery.'] + + [Footnote 100: _Into a sleek heifer._--Ver. 611. Clarke renders + the words, 'nitentem juvencam,' a neat heifer.] + + [Footnote 101: _To keep on duty._--Ver. 627. 'In statione + manebant.' This is a metaphorical expression, taken from military + affairs, as soldiers in turns relieve each other, and take their + station, when they keep watch and ward.] + + [Footnote 102: _Phoroneus._--Ver. 668. He was the father of Jasius + and of Inachus, the parent of Io. Some accounts, however, say that + Inachus was the father of Phoroneus, and the son of Oceanus.] + + [Footnote 103: _Pleiad Maia._--Ver. 670. Maia was one of the seven + daughters of Atlas, who were styled Pleiädes after they were + received among the constellations.] + + [Footnote 104: _Soporiferous wand._--Ver. 671. This was the + 'caduceus,' or staff, with which Mercury summoned the souls of the + departed from the shades, induced slumber, and did other offices + pertaining to his capacity as the herald and messenger of Jupiter. + It was represented as an olive branch, wreathed with two snakes. + In time of war, heralds and ambassadors, among the Greeks, carried + a 'caduceus.' It was not used by the Romans.] + + [Footnote 105: _A cap for his hair._--Ver. 672. This was a cap + called 'Petasus.' It had broad brims, and was not unlike the + 'causia,' or Macedonian hat, except that the brims of the latter + were turned up at the sides.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the Metamorphosis of Io has been already enlarged upon in + the Explanation of the preceding Fable. It may, however, not be + irrelevant to observe, that myths, or mythological stories or fables, + are frequently based upon some true history, corrupted by tradition in + lapse of time. The poets, too, giving loose to their fancy in their + love of the marvellous, have still further disfigured the original + story; so that it is in most instances extremely difficult to trace + back the facts to their primitive simplicity, by a satisfactory + explanation of each circumstance attending them, either upon a + philosophical, or an historical principle of solution. + + +FABLE XV. [I.689-712] + + Pan, falling in love with the Nymph Syrinx, she flies from him; on + which he pursues her. Syrinx, arrested in her flight by the waves of + the river Ladon, invokes the aid of her sisters, the Naiads, who + change her into reeds. Pan unites them into an instrument with seven + pipes, which bears the name of the Nymph. + +Then the God says, "In the cold mountains of Arcadia, among the +Hamadryads of Nonacris,[106] there was one Naiad very famous; the Nymphs +called her Syrinx. And not once {alone} had she escaped the Satyrs as +they pursued, and whatever Gods either the shady grove or the fruitful +fields have {in them}. In her pursuits and her virginity itself she used +to devote herself to the Ortygian Goddess;[107] and being clothed after +the fashion of Diana, she might have deceived one, and might have been +supposed to be the daughter of Latona, if she had not had a bow of +cornel wood, the other, {a bow} of gold; and even then did she +{sometimes} deceive {people}. Pan spies her as she is returning from the +hill of Lycæus, and having his head crowned with sharp pine leaves, he +utters such words as these;" it remained {for Mercury} to repeat the +words, and how that the Nymph, slighting his suit, fled through pathless +spots, until she came to the gentle stream of sandy Ladon;[108] and that +here, the waters stopping her course, she prayed to her watery sisters, +that they would change her; and {how} that Pan, when he was thinking +that Syrinx was now caught by him, had seized hold of some reeds of the +marsh, instead of the body of the Nymph; and {how}, while he was sighing +there, the winds moving amid the reeds had made a murmuring noise, and +like one complaining; and {how} that, charmed by this new discovery and +the sweetness of the sound, he had said, "This mode of converse with +thee shall ever remain with me;" and that accordingly, unequal reeds +being stuck together among themselves by a cement of wax, had {since} +retained the name of the damsel. + + [Footnote 106: _Nonacris._--Ver. 690. Nonacris was the name of + both a mountain and a city of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 107: _The Ortygian Goddess._--Ver. 694. Diana is called + "Ortygian," from the isle of Delos, where she was born, one of + whose names was Ortygia, from the quantity of quails, +ortuges+, + there found.] + + [Footnote 108: _Ladon._--Ver. 702. This was a beautiful river of + Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus: its banks were covered with + vast quantities of reeds. Ovid here calls its stream 'placidum;' + whereas in the fifth book of the Fasti, l. 89, he calls it + 'rapax,' 'violent;' and in the second book of the Fasti, l. 274, + its waters are said to be 'citæ aquæ,' swift waters. Some + commentators have endeavored to reconcile these discrepancies; but + the probability is, that Ovid, like many other poets, used his + epithets at random, or rather according to the requirements of the + measure for the occasion.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This appears to have been an Egyptian fable, imported into the works + of the Grecian poets. Pan was probably a Divinity of the Egyptians, + who worshipped nature under that name, as we are told by Herodotus and + Diodorus Siculus. As, however, according to Nonnus, there were not + less than twelve Pans, it is possible that the adventure here related + may have been supposed to have happened to one of them who was a + native of Greece. He was most probably the inventor of the Syrinx, or + Pandæan pipe, and, perhaps, formed his first instrument from the + produce of the banks of the River Ladon, from which circumstance + Syrinx may have been styled the daughter of that river. + + +FABLE XVI. [I.713-723] + + Mercury, having lulled Argus to sleep, cuts off his head, and Juno + places his eyes in the peacock's tail. + +The Cyllenian God[109] being about to say such things, perceived that +all his eyes were sunk in sleep, and that his sight was wrapped[110] in +slumber. At once he puts an end to his song, and strengthens his +slumbers, stroking his languid eyes with his magic wand. There is no +delay; he wounds him, as he nods, with his crooked sword, where the head +is joined to the neck; and casts him, all blood-stained, from the rock, +and stains the craggy cliff with his gore. + +Argus, thou liest low, and the light which thou hadst in so many eyes is +{now} extinguished; and one night takes possession of a {whole} hundred +eyes. The daughter of Saturn takes them, and places them on the feathers +of her own bird, and she fills its tail with starry gems. + + [Footnote 109: _The Cyllenian God._--Ver. 713. Mercury is so + called from Cyllene, in Arcadia, where he was born.] + + [Footnote 110: _That his sight was wrapped._--Ver. 714. Clarke + translates 'Adopertaque lumina somno,' 'and his peepers covered + with sleep.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient writers, Asclepiades and Pherecydes, tell us, that Argus + was the son of Arestor. He is supposed by some to have been the fourth + king of Argos after Inachus, and to have been a person of great wisdom + and penetration, on account of which he was said to have a hundred + eyes. Io most probably was committed to his charge, and he watched + over her with the greatest care. + + It is impossible to divine the reason why his eyes were said to have + been set by Juno in the tail of the peacock; though, perhaps, the + circumstance has no other foundation than the resemblance of the human + eye to the spots in the tail of that bird, which was consecrated to + Juno. Besides, if Juno is to be considered the symbol of Air, or + Æther, through which light is transmitted to us, it is not surprising + that the ancients bestowed so many eyes upon the bird which was + consecrated to her. + + +FABLE XVII. [I.724-779] + + Io, terrified and maddened with dreadful visions, runs over many + regions, and stops in Egypt, when Juno, at length, being pacified, + restores her to her former shape, and permits her to be worshipped + there, under the name of Isis. + +Immediately, she was inflamed with rage, and deferred not the time of +{expressing} her wrath; and she presented a dreadful Fury before the +eyes and thoughts of the Argive mistress,[111] and buried in her bosom +invisible stings, and drove her, in her fright, a wanderer through the +whole earth. Thou, O Nile, didst remain, as the utmost boundary of her +long wanderings. Soon as she arrived there, she fell upon her knees, +placed on the edge of the bank, and raising herself up, with her neck +thrown back, and casting to Heaven those looks which then alone she +could, by her groans, and her tears, and her mournful lowing, she seemed +to be complaining of Jupiter, and to be begging an end of her sorrows. + +He, embracing the neck of his wife with his arms, entreats her, at +length, to put an end to her punishment; and he says, "Lay aside thy +fears for the future; she shall never {more} be the occasion of any +trouble to thee;" and {then} he bids the Stygian waters to hear this +{oath}. As soon as the Goddess is pacified, {Io} receives her former +shape, and she becomes what she was before; the hairs flee from off of +her body, her horns decrease, and the orb of her eye becomes less; the +opening of her jaw is contracted; her shoulders and her hands return, +and her hoof, vanishing, is disposed of into five nails; nothing of the +cow remains to her, but the whiteness of her appearance; and the Nymph, +contented with the service of two feet, is raised erect {on them}; and +{yet} she is afraid to speak, lest she should low like a cow, and +timorously tries again the words {so long} interrupted. Now, as a +Goddess, she is worshipped by the linen-wearing throng[112] {of Egypt}. + +To her, at length, Epaphus[113] is believed to have been born from the +seed of great Jove, and throughout the cities he possesses temples +joined to {those of} his parent. Phaëton, sprung from the Sun, was equal +to him in spirit and in years; whom formerly, as he uttered great +boasts, and yielded not {at all} to him, and proud of his father, +Phoebus, the grandson of Inachus could not endure; and said, "Thou, +{like} a madman, believest thy mother in all things, and art puffed up +with the conceit of an imaginary father." + +Phaëton blushed, and in shame repressed his resentment; and he reported +to his mother, Clymene,[114] the reproaches of Epaphus; and said, +"Mother, to grieve thee still more, I, the free, the bold {youth}, was +silent; I am ashamed both that these reproaches can be uttered against +us, and that they cannot be refuted; but do thou, if only I am born of a +divine race, give me some proof of so great a descent, and claim me for +heaven." {Thus} he spoke, and threw his arms around the neck of his +mother; and besought her, by his own head and by that of Merops,[115] +and by the nuptial torches of his sisters, that she would give him some +token of his real father. + +It is a matter of doubt whether Clymene was more moved by the entreaties +of Phaëton, or by resentment at the charge made against her; and she +raised both her arms to heaven, and, looking up to the light of the Sun, +she said, "Son, I swear to thee, by this beam, bright with shining rays, +which both hears and sees us, that thou, that thou, {I say}, wast +begotten by this Sun, which thou beholdest; by this {Sun}, which governs +the world. If I utter an untruth, let him deny himself to be seen by me, +and let this light prove the last for my eyes. Nor will it be any +prolonged trouble for thee to visit thy father's dwelling; the abode +where he arises is contiguous to our regions.[116] If only thy +inclination disposes thee, go forth, and thou shalt inquire of himself." + +Phaëton immediately springs forth, overjoyed, upon these words of his +mother, and reaches the skies in imagination; and he passes by his own +Æthiopians, and the Indians situate beneath the rays of the Sun,[117] +and briskly wends his way to the rising of his sire. + + [Footnote 111: _The Argive mistress._--Ver. 726. Clarke renders + 'Pellicis Argolicæ,' 'of the Grecian miss.'] + + [Footnote 112: _The linen-wearing throng._--Ver. 747. The priests, + and worshippers of Isis, with whom Io is here said to be + identical, paid their adoration to her clothed in linen vestments. + Probably, Isis was the first to teach the Egyptians the + cultivation of flax.] + + [Footnote 113: _Epaphus._--Ver. 748. Herodotus, in his second + book, tells us, that this son of Jupiter, by Io, was the same as + the Egyptian God, Apis. Eusebius, quoting from Apollodorus, says + that Epaphus was the son of Io, by Telegonus, who married her.] + + [Footnote 114: _Clymene._--Ver. 756. She was a Nymph of the sea, + the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 115: _Merops._--Ver. 763. He was king of Ethiopia, and + marrying the Nymph Clymene, was either the stepfather of Phaëton, + or, as some writers say, his putative father.] + + [Footnote 116: _To our regions._--Ver. 773. Ethiopia, which, in + the time of Ovid, was generally looked upon as one of the regions + of the East.] + + [Footnote 117: _The rays of the Sun._--Ver. 778. 'Ignibus + sidereis,' means here the 'heat,' or 'fire of the sun,' the sun + being considered as a 'sidus,' or 'luminous heavenly body.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To the elucidation of this narrative, already given, we will only add, + that some of the mythologists inform us, that when Mercury had lulled + Argus to sleep, a youth named Hierax awoke him; on which Mercury + killed Argus with a stone, and turned Hierax into a spar-hawk. + + + + +BOOK THE SECOND. + + +FABLE I. [II.1-303] + + Phaëton, insulted by Epaphus, goes to the Palace of Apollo, to beseech + him to give some token that he is his son. Apollo, having sworn, by + the river Styx, to refuse him nothing that he should desire, he + immediately asks to guide his chariot for one day. He is unsuccessful + in the attempt, and, the horses running away, the world is in danger + of being consumed. + +The palace of the Sun was raised high, on stately columns, bright with +radiant gold, and carbuncle that rivals the flames; polished ivory +covered its highest top, {and} double folding doors shone with the +brightness of silver. The workmanship {even} exceeded the material; for +there Mulciber had carved the sea circling round the encompassed Earth; +and the orb of the Earth, and the Heavens which hang over that orb. +{There} the waves have {in them} the azure Deities, both Triton, +sounding {with his shell}, and the changing Proteus, and Ægeon,[1] +pressing the huge backs of whales with his arms; Doris,[2] too, and her +daughters, part of whom appear to be swimming, part, sitting on the +bank, to be drying their green hair; some {are seen} borne upon fishes. +The features in all are not the same, nor, however, {remarkably} +different: {they are} such as those of sisters ought to be. The Earth +has {upon it} men and cities, and woods, and wild beasts, and rivers, +and Nymphs, and other Deities of the country. Over these is placed the +figure of the shining Heaven, and there are six Signs {of the Zodiac} on +the right door, and as many on the left. + +Soon as the son of Clymene had arrived thither by an ascending path, +and entered the house of his parent, {thus} doubted of; he immediately +turned his steps to the presence of his father, and stood at a distance, +for he could not bear the refulgence nearer. Arrayed in a purple +garment, Phoebus was seated on a throne sparkling with brilliant +emeralds. On his right hand, and on his left, the Days, the Months, +the Years, the Ages, and the Hours were arranged, at corresponding +distances, and the fresh Spring was standing, crowned with a chaplet of +blossoms; Summer was standing naked, and wearing garlands made of ears +of corn; Autumn, too, was standing besmeared with the trodden-out +grapes; and icy Winter, rough with his hoary hair. + +Then the Sun, from the midst of this place, with those eyes with which +he beholds all things, sees the young man struck with fear at the +novelty of {these} things, and says, "What is the occasion of thy +journey {hither}? What dost thou seek, Phaëton, in this {my} palace, +a son not to be denied by his parent?" + +He answers, "O thou universal Light of the unbounded World, Phoebus, my +father, if thou grantest me the use of that name; and if Clymene is not +concealing an error under a {false} pretext, give me, my parent, some +token, by which I may be believed to be really thy progeny; and remove +this uncertainty from my mind." Thus he spoke; but his parent took off +the rays shining all around his head, and commanded him to come nearer; +and, having embraced him, he says, "{And} neither art thou deserving to +be denied to be mine, and Clymene has told thee thy true origin; and +that thou mayst have the less doubt, ask any gift thou mayst please, +that thou mayst receive it from me bestowing it. Let the lake, by which +the Gods are wont to swear, and which is unseen, {even} by my eyes, be +as a witness of my promise." + +Hardly had he well finished, when he asks for his father's chariot, and +for the command and guidance of the wing-footed horses for one day. His +father repented that he had {so} sworn, and shaking his splendid head +three or four times, he said, "By thine have my words been made rash. +I wish I were allowed not to grant what I have promised! I confess, my +son, that this alone I would deny thee. {Still}, I may dissuade thee: +thy desire is not attended with safety. Thou desirest, Phaëton, a gift +{too} great, and {one} which is suited neither to thy strength, nor to +such youthful years. Thy lot is that of a mortal; that which thou +desirest, belongs not to mortals. {Nay}, thou aimest, in thy ignorance, +at even more than it is allowed the Gods above to obtain. Let every one +be self-satisfied, {if he likes}; still, with the exception of myself, +no one is able to take his stand upon the fire-bearing axle-tree. Even +the Ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with his +terrific right hand, cannot guide this chariot; and {yet}, what have we +greater than Jupiter? The first {part of the} road is steep, and such as +the horses, {though} fresh in the morning, can hardly climb. In the +middle of the heavens it is high aloft, from whence it is often a +{source of} fear, {even} to myself, to look {down} upon the sea and the +earth, and my breast trembles with fearful apprehensions. The last stage +is a steep descent, and requires a sure command {of the horses}. Then, +too, Tethys[3] herself, who receives me in her waves, extended below, is +often wont to fear, lest I should be borne headlong {from above}. +Besides, the heavens are carried round[4] with a constant rotation, and +carry {with them} the lofty stars, and whirl them with rapid revolution. +Against this I have to contend; and that force which overcomes {all} +other things, {does} not {overcome} me; and I am carried in a contrary +direction to the rapid world. Suppose the chariot given {to thee}; what +couldst thou do? Couldst thou proceed, opposed to the whirling poles, so +that the rapid heavens should not carry thee away? Perhaps, too, thou +dost fancy in thy mind that there are groves, and cities of the Gods, +and temples enriched with gifts; {whereas}, the way is through dangers, +and the forms of wild beasts;[5] and though thou shouldst keep on thy +road, and be drawn aside by no wanderings, still thou must pass amid the +horns of the threatening Bull, and the Hæmonian[6] bow, and {before} the +visage of the raging Lion, and the Scorpion, bending his cruel claws +with a wide compass, and the Crab, that bends his claws in a different +manner; nor is it easy for thee to govern the steeds spirited by those +fires which they have in their breasts, and which they breathe forth +from their mouths and their nostrils. Hardly are they restrained by me, +when their high-mettled spirit is {once} heated, and their necks +struggle against the reins. But do thou have a care, my son, that I be +not the occasion of a gift fatal to thee, and while the matter {still} +permits, alter thy intentions. Thou askest, forsooth, a sure proof that +thou mayst believe thyself sprung from my blood? I give thee a sure +proof in {thus} being alarmed {for thee}; and by my paternal +apprehensions, I am shown to be thy father. Lo, behold my countenance! +I wish, too, that thou couldst direct thy eyes into my breast, and +discover my fatherly concern within! Finally, look around thee, upon +whatever the rich world contains, and ask for anything out of the +blessings, so many and so great, of heaven, of earth, and of sea; {and} +thou shalt suffer no denial. In this one thing alone I beg to be +excused, which, {called} by its right name, is a penalty, and not an +honor; thou art asking, Phaëton, a punishment instead of a gift. Why, in +thy ignorance, art thou embracing my neck with caressing arms? Doubt +not; whatever thou shalt desire shall be granted thee (by the Stygian +waves I have sworn it); but do thou make thy desire more considerately." + +He had finished his admonitions; and yet {Phaëton} resists his advice, +and presses his point, and burns with eagerness for the chariot. +Wherefore, his parent having delayed as long as he could, leads the +young man to the lofty chariot, the gift of Vulcan. The axle-tree was of +gold, the poles were of gold; the circumference of the exterior of the +wheel was of gold; the range of the spokes was of silver. Chrysolites +and gems placed along the yoke in order, gave a bright light from the +reflected sun. And while the aspiring Phaëton is admiring these things, +and is examining the workmanship, behold! the watchful Aurora opened her +purple doors in the ruddy east, and her halls filled with roses. The +stars disappear, the troops whereof Lucifer gathers, and moves the last +from his station in the heavens. But the father Titan, when he beheld +the earth and the universe growing red, and the horns of the far-distant +Moon, as if about to vanish, orders the swift Hours to yoke the horses. +The Goddesses speedily perform his commands, and lead forth the steeds +from the lofty stalls, snorting forth flames, and filled with the juice +of Ambrosia; and {then} they put on the sounding bits. + +Then the father touched the face of his son with a hallowed drug, and +made it able to endure the burning flames, and placed the rays upon his +locks, and fetching from his troubled heart sighs presaging his sorrow, +he said: "If thou canst here at least, my boy, obey the advice of thy +father, be sparing of the whip, and use the bridle with nerve. Of their +own accord they are wont to hasten on; the difficulty is to check them +in their full career. And let not the way attract thee through the five +direct circles.[7] There is a track cut obliquely, with a broad +curvature, and bounded by the extremities of three zones, and {so} it +shuns the South pole, and the Bear united to the North. Let thy way be +here; thou wilt perceive distinct traces of the wheels. And that heaven +and earth may endure equal heat, neither drive too low, nor urge the +chariot along the summit of the sky. Going forth too high, thou wilt set +on fire the signs of the heavens; too low, the earth; in the middle +course thou will go most safely. Neither let the right wheel bear thee +off towards the twisted Serpent, nor let the left lead thee to the low +Altar; hold thy course between them. The rest I leave to Fortune, who, +I pray, may aid thee, and take more care of thee, than thou dost of +thyself. Whilst I am speaking, the moist Night has touched the goals +placed on the Western shores; delay is not allowed me. I am required; +the Morning is shining forth, the darkness being dispersed. Seize the +reins with thy hands; or if thou hast a mind capable of change, make use +of my advice, {and} not my chariot, while thou art {still} able, and art +even yet standing upon solid ground; and while thou art not yet in thy +ignorance filling the chariot that thou didst so unfortunately covet." + +The other leaps into the light chariot with his youthful body, and +stands aloft, and rejoices to take in his hand the reins presented {to +him}, and then gives thanks to his reluctant parent. In the meantime the +swift Pyroeis, and Eoüs and Æthon, the horses of the sun, and Phlegon, +{making} the fourth, fill the air with neighings, sending forth flames, +and beat the barriers with their feet. After Tethys, ignorant of the +destiny of her grandson, had removed these, and the scope of the +boundless universe was given them, they take the road, and moving their +feet through the air, they cleave the resisting clouds, and raised aloft +by their wings, they pass by the East winds that had arisen from the +same parts. But the weight was light; and such as the horses of the sun +could not feel; and the yoke was deficient of its wonted weight. And as +the curving ships, without proper ballast, are tossed about, and +unsteady, through their too great lightness, are borne through the sea, +so does the chariot give bounds[8] in the air, unimpeded by its usual +burden, and is tossed on high, and is just like an empty one. + +Soon as the steeds have perceived this, they rush on, and leave the +beaten track, and run not in the order in which {they did} before. He +himself becomes alarmed; and knows not which way to turn the reins +entrusted {to him}, nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he did +know, could he control them. Then, for the first time, did the cold +Triones grow warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in +the sea that was forbidden {to them}. And the Serpent which is situate +next to the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and formidable to +no one, grew warm, and regained new rage from the heat. They say, +too,[9] that thou, Boötes, being disturbed, took to flight; although +thou wast {but} slow, and thy wain impeded thee. But when, from the +height of the skies, the unhappy Phaëton looked down upon the earth, +lying far, very far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook with a +sudden terror; and in a light so great, darkness overspread his eyes. +And now he could wish that he had never touched the horses of his +father; and now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and that he +prevailed in his request; now desiring to be called the son of Merops. +He is borne along, just as a ship driven by the furious Boreas, to which +its pilot has given up the overpowered helm, {and} which he has resigned +to the Gods and {the effect of} his supplications. What can he do? much +of heaven is left behind his back; still more is before his eyes. Either +{space} he measures in his mind; and at one moment he is looking forward +to the West, which it is not allowed him by fate to reach; {and} +sometimes he looks back upon the East. Ignorant what to do, he is +stupefied; and he neither lets go the reins, nor is he able to retain +them; nor does he know the names of the horses. In his fright, too, he +sees strange objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the +heavens, and the forms of huge wild beasts. There is a spot where the +Scorpion bends his arms into two curves, and with his tail and claws +bending on either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two +signs {of the Zodiac}. As soon as the youth beheld him wet with the +sweat of black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point {of +his tail}, bereft of sense, he let go the reins, in a chill of horror. +Soon as they, falling down, have touched the top of their backs, the +horses range at large: and no one restraining them, they go through the +air of an unknown region; and where their fury drives them thither, +without check, do they hurry along, and they rush on to the stars fixed +in the sky, and drag the chariot through pathless places. One while they +are mounting aloft, and now they are borne through steep places, and +{along} headlong paths in a tract nearer to the earth. + +The Moon, too, wonders that her brother's horses run lower than her own, +and the scorched clouds send forth smoke. As each region is most +elevated, it is caught by the flames, and cleft, it makes {vast} chasms, +and becomes dry, its moisture being carried away. The grass grows pale; +the trees, with their foliage, are burnt up; and the dry standing corn +affords fuel for its own destruction. {But} I am complaining of trifling +{ills}. Great cities perish, together with their fortifications, and the +flames turn whole nations, with their populations, into ashes; woods, +together with mountains, are on fire. Athos[10] burns, and the Cilician +Taurus,[11] and Tmolus,[12] and Oeta,[13] and Ida,[14] now dry, {but} +once most famed for its springs; and Helicon,[15] the resort of the +Virgin {Muses}, and Hæmus,[16] not yet {called} Oeagrian. Ætna[17] burns +intensely with redoubled flames, and Parnassus, with its two summits, +and Eryx,[18] and Cynthus,[19] and Othrys, and Rhodope,[20] at length to +be despoiled of its snows, and Mimas,[21] and Dindyma,[22] and +Mycale,[23] and Cithæron,[24] created for {the performance of} sacred +rites. Nor does its cold avail {even} Scythia; Caucasus[25] is on fire, +and Ossa with Pindus, and Olympus, greater than them both, and the lofty +Alps,[26] and the cloud-bearing Apennines.[27] + +Then, indeed, Phaëton beholds the world set on fire on all sides, and he +cannot endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth scorching +air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own chariot to be +on fire. And neither is he able now to bear the ashes and the emitted +embers; and, on every side, he is involved in heated smoke. Covered with +a pitchy darkness, he knows not whither he is going, nor where he is, +and is hurried away at the pleasure of the winged steeds. They believe +that it was then that the nations of the Æthiopians contracted their +black hue,[28] the blood being attracted into the surface of the body. +Then was Libya[29] made dry by the heat, the moisture being carried off; +then, with dishevelled hair, the Nymphs lamented the springs and the +lakes. Boeotia bewails Dirce,[30] Argos Amymone,[31] and Ephyre[32] the +waters of Pirene. Nor do rivers that have got banks distant in +situation, remain {secure}; Tanais[33] smokes in the midst of its +waters, and the aged Peneus, and Teuthrantian Caïcus,[34] and rapid +Ismenus,[35] with Phocean Erymanthus,[36] and Xanthus[37] again to burn, +and yellow Lycormas,[38] and Mæander,[39] which sports with winding +streams, and the Mygdonian Melas,[40] and the Tænarian Eurotas.[41] The +Babylonian Euphrates, too, was on fire, Orontes[42] was in flames, and +the swift Thermodon[43] and Ganges,[44] and Phasis,[45] and Ister.[46] +Alpheus[47] boils; the banks of Spercheus burn; and the gold which +Tagus[48] carries with its stream, melts in the flames. The river birds +too, which made famous the Mæonian[49] banks {of the river} with their +song, grew hot in the middle of Caÿster. The Nile, affrighted, fled to +the remotest parts of the earth, and concealed his head, which still +lies hid; his seven last mouths are empty, {become} seven {mere} +channels, without any stream. The same fate dries up the Ismarian +{rivers}, Hebrus together with Strymon,[50] and the Hesperian[51] +streams, the Rhine, and the Rhone, and the Po, and the Tiber, to which +was promised the sovereignty of the world. + +All the ground bursts asunder; and through the chinks, the light +penetrates into Tartarus, and startles the Infernal King with his +spouse. The Ocean too, is contracted, and that which lately was sea, is +a surface of parched sand; and the mountains which the deep sea had +covered, start up and increase {the number of} the scattered +Cyclades.[52] The fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked Dolphins do +not care to raise themselves on the surface into the air, as usual. The +bodies of sea calves float lifeless on their backs, on the top of the +water. The story, too, is, that {even} Nereus himself, and Doris and +their daughters, lay hid in the heated caverns. Three times had Neptune +ventured, with a stern countenance, to thrust his arms out of the water; +three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat of the air. +However, the genial Earth, as she was surrounded with sea, amid the +waters of the main, and the springs, dried up on every side, which had +hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, burnt-up, +lifted up her all-productive face[53] as far as her neck, and placed her +hands to her forehead, and shaking all things with a vast trembling, she +sank down a little, and retired below the spot where she is wont to be, +and thus she spoke, with a parched voice: "O sovereign of the Gods, if +thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings +linger? Let me, {if} doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by +thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune, by being the author {of it}. +With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words;" (the +vapor had oppressed her utterance.) "Behold my scorched hair, and such a +quantity of ashes over my eyes, so much {too}, over my features. And +dost thou give this as my recompense? this, as the reward of my +fertility and of my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked +plough and harrows, and am harassed all the year through? In that I +supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food for +mankind, and frankincense for yourselves? But still, suppose that I am +deserving of destruction, why have the waves {deserved this}? Why has +thy brother deserved it? Why do the seas, delivered to him by lot, +decrease, and why do they recede still further from the sky? But if +regard for neither thy brother nor for myself influences thee, still +have consideration for thy own skies; look around, on either side, {how} +each pole is smoking; if the fire shall injure them, thy palace will +fall in ruins. See! Atlas[54] himself is struggling, and hardly can he +bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. If the sea, if the earth +perishes, if the palace of heaven, we are thrown[55] into the confused +state of ancient chaos. Save it from the flames, if aught still +survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe." + +Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the +vapor, nor say more; and she withdrew her face within herself, and the +caverns neighboring to the shades below. + + [Footnote 1: _Ægeon._--Ver. 10. Homer makes him to be the same + with Briareus. According to another account, which Ovid here + follows, he was a sea God, the son of Oceanus and Terra.] + + [Footnote 2: _Doris._--Ver. 11. She was the daughter of Oceanus, + the wife of Nereus, and the mother of the fifty Nereids.] + + [Footnote 3: _Tethys._--Ver. 69. She was the daughter of Coelus and + Terra, and the wife of Oceanus. Her name is here used to signify + the ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 4: _Are carried round._--Ver. 70. Clarke thus renders + this line,--"Add, too, that the heaven was whisked round with a + continual rolling."] + + [Footnote 5: _Wild beasts._--Ver. 78. The signs of the Zodiac.] + + [Footnote 6: _Hæmonian._--Ver. 81. Or Thessalian. He here alludes + to the Thessalian Chiron, the Centaur, who, according to Ovid and + other writers, was placed in the Zodiac as the Constellation + Sagittarius: while others say that Crotus, or Croto, the son of + Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses, was thus honored.] + + [Footnote 7: _Through the five direct circles._--Ver. 129. There + is some obscurity in this passage, arising from the mode of + expression. Phoebus here counsels Phaëton what track to follow, and + tells him to pursue his way by an oblique path, and not directly + in the plane of the equator. This last is what he calls 'directos + via quinque per arcus.' These five arcs, or circles, are the five + parallel circles by which astronomers distinguish the heavens, + namely, the two polar circles, the two tropics, and the + equinoctial. The latter runs exactly in the middle, between the + other two circles, so that the expression must be understood to + mean, 'pursue not your way directly through that circle which is + the middlemost of the five, but observe the track that cuts it + obliquely.'] + + [Footnote 8: _The chariot give bounds._--Ver. 165-6. Clarke thus + renders these lines.--'Thus does the chariot give jumps into the + air without its usual weight, and is kicked up on high, and is + like one empty.'] + + [Footnote 9: _They say, too._--Ver. 176-7. The following is + Clarke's translation of these two lines,--'They say, too, that + you, Boötes, scowered off in a mighty bustle, although you were + but slow, and thy cart hindered thee.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Athos._--Ver. 217. Athos (now Monte Santo) was a + mountain of Macedonia, so lofty that its shadow was said to extend + even to the Isle of Lemnos, which was eighty-seven miles distant.] + + [Footnote 11: _Taurus._--Ver. 217. This was an immense mountain + range which ran through the middle of Cilicia, in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 12: _Tmolus._--Ver. 217. Tmolus (now Bozdaz) was a + mountain of Lydia, famed for its wines and saffron. Pactolus, + a stream with sands reputed to be golden, took its rise there.] + + [Footnote 13: _Oeta._--Ver. 217. This was a mountain chain, which + divided Thessaly from Doris and Phocis; famed for the death of + Hercules on one of its ridges.] + + [Footnote 14: _Ida._--Ver. 218. There were two mountains of the + name of Ide, or Ida; one in Crete, the other near Troy. The latter + is here referred to, as being famed for its springs.] + + [Footnote 15: _Helicon._--Ver. 219. This was a mountain of Boeotia, + sacred to the Virgin Muses.] + + [Footnote 16: _Hæmus._--Ver. 219. This, which is now called the + Balkan range, was a lofty chain of mountains running through + Thrace. Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and Calliope, was there torn in + pieces by the Mænades, or Bacchanalian women, whence the mountain + obtained the epithet of 'Oeagrian.'] + + [Footnote 17: _Ætna._--Ver. 220. This is the volcanic mountain of + Sicily; the flames caused by the fall of Phaëton, added to its + own, caused them to be redoubled.] + + [Footnote 18: _Eryx._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Sicily, + now called San Juliano. On it, a magnificent temple was erected, + in honor of Venus.] + + [Footnote 19: _Cynthus._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Delos, + on which Apollo and Diana were said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 20: _Rhodope._--Ver. 222. It was a high mountain, capped + with perpetual snows, in the northern part of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 21: _Mimas._--Ver. 222. A mountain of Ionia, near the + Ionian Sea. It was of very great height; whence Homer calls it + +hupsikrêmnos+.] + + [Footnote 22: _Dindyma._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + Phrygia, near Troy, sacred to Cybele, the mother of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 23: _Mycale._--Ver. 223. A mountain of Caria, opposite + to the Isle of Samos.] + + [Footnote 24: _Cithæron._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + Boeotia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus, there celebrated. In its + neighborhood, Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Mænades, for + slighting the worship of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Caucasus._--Ver. 224. This was a mountain chain in + Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas.] + + [Footnote 26: _Alps._--Ver. 226. This mountain range divides + France from Italy.] + + [Footnote 27: _Apennines._--Ver. 226. This range of mountains runs + down the centre of Italy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Their black hue._--Ver. 235. The notion that the + blackness of the African tribes was produced by the heat of the + sun, is borrowed by the Poet from Hesiod. Hyginus, too, says, 'the + Indians, because, by the proximity of the fire, their blood was + turned black by the heat thereof, became of black appearance + themselves.' Notwithstanding the learned and minute investigations + of physiologists on the subject, this question is still involved + in considerable obscurity.] + + [Footnote 29: _Libya._--Ver. 237. This was a region between + Mauritania and Cyrene. The Greek writers, however, often use the + word to signify the whole of Africa. Servius gives a trifling + derivation for the name, in saying that Libya was so called, + because +leipei ho huetos+, 'it is without rain.'] + + [Footnote 30: _Dirce._--Ver. 239. Dirce was a celebrated fountain + of Boeotia, into which it was said that Dirce, the wife of Lycus, + king of Thebes, was transformed.] + + [Footnote 31: _Amymone._--Ver. 240. It was a fountain of Argos, + near Lerna, into which the Nymph, Amymone, the daughter of Lycus, + king of the Argives, was said to have been transformed.] + + [Footnote 32: _Ephyre._--Ver. 240. It was the most ancient name of + Corinth, in the citadel of which, or the Acrocorinthus, was the + spring Pyrene, of extreme brightness and purity and sacred to the + Muses.] + + [Footnote 33: _Tanais._--Ver. 242. This river, now the Don, after + a long winding course, discharges itself into the 'Palus Mæotis,' + now the sea of 'Azof.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Caïcus._--Ver. 243. This is a river of Mysia, here + called 'Teuthrantian,' from Mount Teuthras, in its vicinity.] + + [Footnote 35: _Ismenus._--Ver. 244. Ismenus was a river of Boeotia, + that flowed past Thebes into the Euripus.] + + [Footnote 36: _Erymanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of + Arcadia, which, rising in a mountain of that name, fell into the + Alpheus.] + + [Footnote 37: _Xanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of Troy; here + spoken of as destined to behold flames a second time, in the + conflagration of that city.] + + [Footnote 38: _Lycormas._--Ver. 245. This was a rapid river of + Ætolia, which was afterwards known by the name of Evenus.] + + [Footnote 39: _Mæander._--Ver. 246. This was a river of Phrygia, + flowing between Lydia and Caria; it was said to have 600 windings + in its course.] + + [Footnote 40: _Melas._--Ver. 247. This name was given to many + rivers of Thrace, Thessaly, and Asia, on account of the darkness + of the color of their waters; the name was derived from the Greek + word +melas+, 'black.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Tænarian Eurotas._--Ver. 247. The Eurotas was a + river of Laconia, which flowed under the walls of the city of + Sparta, and discharged itself into the sea near the promontory of + Tænarus, now called Cape Matapan. The Eurotas is now called + 'Basilipotamo,' or 'king of streams.'] + + [Footnote 42: _Orontes._--Ver. 248. The Orontes was a river of + Asia Minor, which flowed near Antioch.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thermodon._--Ver. 249. This was a river of + Cappadocia, near which the Amazons were said to dwell.] + + [Footnote 44: _Ganges._--Ver. 249. This is one of the largest + rivers in Asia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf; and + not, as Gierig says, in his note on this passage, in the Red Sea.] + + [Footnote 45: _Phasis._--Ver. 249. This was a river of Colchis, + falling into the Euxine Sea.] + + [Footnote 46: _Ister._--Ver. 249. The Danube had that name from + its source to the confines of Germany; and thence, in its course + through Scythia to the sea, it was called by the name of 'Ister.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Alpheus._--Ver. 250. It was a river of Arcadia, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 48: _Tagus._--Ver. 251. This was a river of Spain, which + was said to bring down from the mountains great quantities of + golden sand. The Poet here feigns this to be melted by the heat of + the sun, and in that manner to be carried along by the current of + the river.] + + [Footnote 49: _Mæonian._--Ver. 252. Mæonia was so called from the + river Mæon, and was another name of Lydia. The Caÿster, famous for + its swans, flowed through Lydia.] + + [Footnote 50: _Strymon._--Ver. 257. The Hebrus and the Strymon + were rivers of Thrace. Ismarus was a mountain of that country, + famous for its vines.] + + [Footnote 51: _Hesperian._--Ver. 258. Hesperia, or 'the western + country,' was a general name of not only Spain and Gaul, but even + Italy. The Rhine is a river of France and Germany, the Rhone of + France. The Padus, or Po, and the Tiber, are rivers of Italy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Cyclades._--Ver. 264. The Cyclades were a cluster + of islands in the Ægean Sea, surrounding Delos as though with a + circle, whence their name.] + + [Footnote 53: _Her all-productive face._--Ver. 275. The earth was + similarly called by the Greeks +pammêtôr+, 'the mother of all + things.' So Virgil calls it 'omniparens.'] + + [Footnote 54: _Atlas._--Ver. 296. This was a mountain of + Mauritania, which, by reason of its height, was said to support + the heavens.] + + [Footnote 55: _We are thrown._--Ver. 299. Clarke translates, 'In + chaos antiquum confundimur,' 'We are then jumbled into the old + chaos again.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If we were to regard this fable solely as an allegory intended to + convey a moral, we should at once perceive that the adventure of + Phaëton represents the wilful folly of a rash young man, who consults + his own inclination, rather than the dictates of wisdom and prudence. + Some ancient writers tell us that Phaëton was the son of Phoebus and + Clymene, while others make the nymph Rhoda to have been his mother. + Apollodorus, following Hesiod, says that Herse, the daughter of + Cecrops, king of Athens, was the mother of Cephalus, who was carried + away by Aurora; which probably means that he left Greece for the + purpose of settling in the East. Cephalus had a son named Tithonus, + the father of Phaëton. Thus Phaëton was the fourth in lineal descent + from Cecrops, who reigned at Athens about 1580, B.C. The story is most + probably based upon the fact of some excessive heat that happened in + his time. Aristotle supposes that at that period flames fell from + heaven, which ravaged several countries. Possibly the burning of the + cities of the plain, or the stay of the sun in his course at the + command of Joshua, may have been the foundation of the story. St. + Chrysostom suggests that it is based upon an imperfect version of the + ascent of Elijah in a chariot of fire; that name, or rather 'Elias,' + the Greek form of it, bearing a strong resemblance to +Hêlios+, the + Greek name of the sun. Vossius suggests that this is an Egyptian + history, and considers the story of the grief of Phoebus for the loss + of his son to be another version of the sorrows of the Egyptians for + the death of Osiris. The tears of the Heliades, or sisters of Phaëton, + he conceives to be identical with the lamentations of the women who + wept for the death of Thammuz. The Poet, when he tells us that Phaëton + abandoned his chariot on seeing The Scorpion, probably intends to show + that the event of which he treats happened in the month in which the + sun enters that sign. + + Plutarch and Tzetzes tell us that Phaëton was a king of the + Molossians, who drowned himself in the Po; that he was a student of + astronomy, and foretold an excessive heat which happened in his reign, + and laid waste his kingdom. Lucian, also, in his Discourse on + Astronomy, gives a similar explanation of the story, and says that + this prince dying very young, left his observations imperfect, which + gave rise to the fable that he did not know how to drive the chariot + of the sun to the end of its course. + + +FABLE II. [II.305-324] + + Jupiter, to save the universe from being consumed, hurls his thunder + at Phaëton, on which he falls headlong into the river Eridanus. + +But the omnipotent father, having called the Gods above to witness, and +him, too, who had given the chariot {to Phaëton}, that unless he gives +assistance, all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft to the +highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds over the +spacious earth; from which he moves his thunders, and hurls the +brandished lightnings. But then, he had neither clouds that he could +draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky. +He thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right ear +against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both of his +life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the flames. The +horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in an opposite direction, +they shake the yoke from off their necks, and disengage themselves from +the torn harness. In one place lie the reins; in another, the axle-tree +wrenched away from the pole; in another part {are} the spokes of the +broken wheels; and the fragments of the chariot torn in pieces are +scattered far and wide. But Phaëton, the flames consuming his yellow +hair, is hurled headlong, and is borne in a long tract through the air; +as sometimes a star from the serene sky may appear to fall, although it +{really} has not fallen. Him the great Eridanus receives, in a part of +the world far distant from his country, and bathes his foaming face. + + +FABLE III. [II.325-366] + + The sisters of Phaëton are changed into poplars, and their tears + become amber distilling from those trees. + +The Hesperian Naiads[56] commit his body, smoking from the three-forked +flames, to the tomb, and inscribe these verses on the stone:--"Here is +Phaëton buried, the driver of his father's chariot, which if he did not +manage, still he miscarried in a great attempt." But his wretched father +had hidden his face, overcast with bitter sorrow, and, if only we can +believe it, they say that one day passed without the sun.[57] The flames +afforded light; and {so far}, there was some advantage in that disaster. +But Clymene, after she had said whatever things were to be said amid +misfortunes so great, traversed the whole earth, full of woe, and +distracted, and tearing her bosom. And first seeking his lifeless limbs, +{and} then his bones, she found his bones, however, buried on a foreign +bank. She laid herself down on the spot; and bathed with tears the name +she read on the marble, and warmed it with her open breast. The +daughters of the Sun mourn no less, and give tears, an unavailing gift, +to his death; and beating their breasts with their hands, they call +Phaëton both night and day, who is doomed not to hear their sad +complaints; and they lie scattered about the tomb. + +The Moon had four times filled her disk, by joining her horns; they, +according to their custom (for use had made custom), uttered +lamentations; among whom Phaëthusa, the eldest of the sisters, when she +was desirous to lie on the ground, complained that her feet had grown +stiff; to whom the fair Lampetie attempting to come, was detained by a +root suddenly formed. A third, when she is endeavoring to tear her hair +with her hands, tears off leaves; one complains that her legs are held +fast by the trunk of a tree, another that her arms are become long +branches. And while they are wondering at these things, bark closes upon +their loins; and by degrees, it encompasses their stomachs, their +breasts, their shoulders, and their hands; and only their mouths are +left uncovered, calling upon their mother. What is their mother to do? +but run here and there, whither frenzy leads her, and join her lips +{with theirs}, while {yet} she may? That is not enough; she tries to +pull their bodies out of the trunks {of the trees}, and with her hands +to tear away the tender branches; but from thence drops of blood flow as +from a wound. Whichever {of them} is wounded, cries out, "Spare me, +mother, O spare me, I pray; in the tree my body is being torn. And now +farewell." The bark came over the last words. + +Thence tears flow forth; and amber distilling from the new-formed +branches, hardens in the sun; which the clear river receives and sends +to be worn by the Latian matrons. + + [Footnote 56: _The Hesperian Naiads._--Ver. 325. These were the + Naiads of Italy. They were by name Phaëthusa, Lampetie, and + Phoebe.] + + [Footnote 57: _Passed without the sun._--Ver. 331. There is, + perhaps, in this line some faint reference to a tradition of the + sun having, in the language of Scripture, 'stood still upon + Gibeon, in his course, by the command of Joshua, when dispensing + the divine vengeance upon the Amorites,' Joshua, x. 13. Or of the + time when 'the shadow returned ten degrees backward', by the + sun-dial of Ahaz, 2 Kings, xx. 11.] + + +FABLE IV. [II.367-400] + + Cycnus, king of Liguria, inconsolable for the death of Phaëton, is + transformed into a swan. + +Cycnus, the son of Sthenelus,[58] was present at this strange event; +who, although he was related to thee, Phaëton, on his mother's side, was +yet more nearly allied in affection. He having left his kingdom (for he +reigned over the people and the great cities of the Ligurians[59]) was +filling the verdant banks and the river Eridanus, and the wood, {now} +augmented by the sisters, with his complaints; when the man's voice +became shrill, and gray feathers concealed his hair. A long neck, too, +extends from his breast, and a membrane joins his reddening toes; +feathers clothe his sides, {and} his mouth holds a bill without a point. +Cycnus becomes a new bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens or +the air, as being mindful of the fire unjustly sent from thence. He +frequents the pools and the wide lakes, and abhorring fire, he chooses +the streams, the {very} contrary of flames. + +Meanwhile, the father of Phaëton, in squalid garb, and destitute of his +comeliness, just as he is wont to be when he suffers an eclipse of his +disk, abhors both the light, himself, and the day; and gives his mind up +to grief, and adds resentment to his sorrow, and denies his services to +the world. "My lot," says he, "has been restless enough from the {very} +beginning of time, and I am tired of labors endured by me, without end +and without honor. Let any one else drive the chariot that carries the +light. If there is no one, and all the Gods confess that they cannot do +it, let {Jupiter} himself drive it; that, at least, while he is trying +my reins, he may for a time lay aside the lightnings that bereave +fathers. Then he will know, having made trial of the strength of the +flame-footed steeds, that he who did not successfully guide them, did +not deserve death." + +All the Deities stand around the Sun, as he says such things; and they +entreat him, with suppliant voice, not to determine to bring darkness +over the world. Jupiter, as well, excuses the hurling of his lightnings, +and imperiously adds threats to entreaties. Phoebus calls together his +steeds, maddened and still trembling with terror, and, subduing them, +vents his fury both with whip and lash; for he is furious, and upbraids +them with his son, and charges {his death} upon them. + + [Footnote 58: _Sthenelus._--Ver. 367. He was a king of Liguria. + Commentators have justly remarked that it was not very likely that + a king of Liguria should be related to Clymene, a queen of the + Ethiopians, as Ovid, in the next line, says was the case. This + story was probably invented by some writer, who fancied that there + were two persons of the name of Phaëton; one the subject of eastern + tradition, and the other a personage of the Latin mythology.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Ligurians._--Ver. 370. These were a people + situate on the eastern side of Etruria, between the rivers Var and + Macra. The Grecian writers were in the habit of styling the whole + of the north of Italy Liguria.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch places the tomb of Phaëton on the banks of the river Po; and + it is not improbable that his mother and sisters, grieving at his + fate, ended their lives in the neighborhood of his tomb, being + overcome with grief, which gave rise to the story that they were + changed into the poplars on its banks, which distilled amber. Some + writers say, that they were changed into larch trees, and not poplars. + Hesiod and Pindar also make mention of this tradition. Possibly, + Cycnus, being a friend of Phaëton, may have died from grief at his + loss, on which the poets graced his attachment with the story that he + was changed into a swan. Apollodorus mentions two other persons of the + name of Cycnus. One was the son of Mars, and was killed before Troy; + the other, as Hesiod tells us, was killed by Hercules. Lucian, in his + satirical vein, tells us, that inquiring on the banks of the Po for + the swans, and the poplars distilling amber, he was told that no such + things had ever been seen there; and that even the tradition of + Phaëton and his sisters was utterly unknown to the inhabitants of + those parts. + + +FABLE V. [II.401-465] + + Jupiter, while taking a survey of the world, to extinguish the remains + of the fire, falls in love with Calisto, whom he sees in Arcadia; and, + in order to seduce that Nymph, he assumes the form of Diana. Her + sister Nymphs disclose her misfortune before the Goddess, who drives + her from her company, on account of the violation of her vow of + chastity. + +But the omnipotent father surveys the vast walls of heaven, and +carefully searches, that no part, impaired by the violence of the fire, +may fall to ruin. After he has seen them to be secure and in their own +{full} strength, he examines the earth, and the works of man; yet a care +for his own Arcadia is more particularly his object. He restores, too, +the springs and the rivers, that had not yet dared to flow, he gives +grass to the earth: green leaves to the trees; and orders the injured +forests again to be green. While {thus} he often went to and fro, he +stopped short on {seeing} a virgin of Nonacris, and the fires engendered +within his bones received {fresh} heat. It was not her employment to +soften the wool by teasing, nor to vary her tresses in their +arrangement; while a buckle fastened her garment, and a white fillet her +hair, carelessly flowing; and at one time she bore in her hand a light +javelin, at another, a bow. She was a warrior of Phoebe; nor did any +{Nymph} frequent Mænalus, more beloved by Trivia,[60] than she; but no +influence is of long duration. The lofty Sun had {now} obtained a +position beyond the mid course, when she enters a grove which no +generation had {ever} cut. Here she puts her quiver off from her +shoulders, and unbends her pliant bow, and lies down on the ground, +which the grass had covered, and presses her painted quiver, with her +neck laid on it. When Jupiter saw her {thus} weary, and without a +protector, he said, "For certain, my wife will know nothing of this +stolen embrace; or, if she should chance to know, is her scolding, is +it, {I say}, of such great consequence?" + +Immediately he puts on the form and dress of Diana, and says, "O Virgin! +one portion of my train, upon what mountains hast thou been hunting?" +The virgin raises herself from the turf, and says, "Hail, Goddess! {that +art}, in my opinion, greater than Jove, even if he himself should hear +it." He both smiles and he hears it, and is pleased at being preferred +to himself; and he gives her kisses, not very moderate, nor such as +would be given by a virgin. He stops her as she is preparing to tell him +in what wood she has been hunting, by an embrace, and he does not betray +himself without the commission {of violence}. She, indeed, on the other +hand, as far as a woman could do (would that thou hadst seen her, +daughter of Saturn, {then} thou wouldst have been more merciful), she, +indeed, {I say}, resists; but what damsel, or who {besides}, could +prevail against Jupiter? Jove, {now} the conqueror, seeks the heavens +above; the grove and the conscious wood is {now} her aversion. Making +her retreat thence, she is almost forgetting to take away her quiver +with her arrows, and the bow which she had hung up. + +Behold, Dictynna,[61] attended by her train, as she goes along the lofty +Mænalus, and exulting in the slaughter of the wild beasts, beholds her, +and calls her, thus seen. Being so called, she drew back, and at first +was afraid lest Jupiter might be under her {shape}; but after she saw +the Nymphs walking along with her, she perceived that there was no +deceit,[62] and she approached their train. Alas! how difficult it is +not to betray a crime by one's looks! She scarce raises her eyes from +the ground, nor, as she used to do, does she walk by the side of the +Goddess, nor is she the foremost in the whole company; but she is +silent, and by her blushes she gives signs of her injured honor. And +Diana, but {for the fact}, that she is a virgin, might have perceived +her fault by a thousand indications; the Nymphs are said to have +perceived it. + +The horns of the Moon were {now} rising again in her ninth course, when +the hunting Goddess, faint from her brother's flames, lighted on a cool +grove, out of which a stream ran, flowing with its murmuring noise, and +borne along the sand worn fine {by its action}. When she had approved of +the spot, she touched the surface of the water with her foot; and +commending it as well, she says, "All overlookers are far off; let us +bathe our bodies, with the stream poured over them." She of +Parrhasia[63] blushed; they all put off their clothes; she alone sought +{an excuse for} delay. Her garment was removed as she hesitated, which +being put off, her fault was exposed with her naked body. Cynthia said +to her, in confusion, and endeavoring to conceal her stomach with her +hands, "Begone afar hence! and pollute not the sacred springs;" and she +ordered her to leave her train. + + [Footnote 60: _Trivia._--Ver. 416. This was an epithet of Diana, + as presiding over and worshipped in the places where three roads + met, which were called 'trivia.' Being known as Diana on earth, + the Moon in the heavens, and Proserpine in the infernal regions, + she was represented at these places with three faces; those of a + horse, a dog, and a female; the latter being in the middle.] + + [Footnote 61: _Dictynna._--Ver. 441. Diana was so called from the + Greek word +diktus+, 'a net,' which was used by her for the + purposes of hunting.] + + [Footnote 62: _There was no deceit._--Ver. 446. Clarke translates + 'sensit abesse dolos,' 'she was convinced there was no roguery in + the case.'] + + [Footnote 63: _She of Parrhasia._--Ver. 460. Calisto is so called + from Parrhasia, a region of Arcadia. Parrhasius was the name of a + mountain, a grove, and a city of that country and was derived from + the name of Parrhasus, a son of Lycaon.] + + +FABLES VI AND VII. [II.466-550] + + Juno, being jealous that Calisto has attracted Jupiter, transforms her + into a Bear. Her son, Arcas, not recognizing his mother in that shape, + is about to kill her; but Jupiter removes them both to the skies, + where they form the Constellations of the Great and the Little Bear. + The raven, as a punishment for his garrulity, is changed from white to + black. + +The spouse of the great Thunderer had perceived this some time before, +and had put off the severe punishment {designed for her}, to a proper +time. There is {now} no reason for delay; and now the boy Arcas (that, +too, was a grief to Juno) was born of the mistress {of her husband}. +Wherefore, she turned her thoughts, full of resentment, and her eyes +{upon her}, and said, "This thing, forsooth, alone was wanting, thou +adulteress, that thou shouldst be pregnant, and that my injury should +become notorious by thy labors, and that {thereby} the disgraceful +conduct of my {husband}, Jupiter, should be openly declared. Thou shalt +not go unpunished; for I will spoil that shape of thine, on which thou +pridest thyself, and by which thou, mischievous one,[64] dost charm my +husband." + +{Thus} she spoke; and seizing her straight in front by the hair,[65] +threw her on her face to the ground. She suppliantly stretched forth her +arms; those arms began to grow rough with black hair,[66] and her hands +to be bent, and to increase to hooked claws, and to do the duty of feet, +and the mouth, that was once admired by Jupiter, to become deformed with +a wide opening; and lest her prayers, and words not needed, should +influence her feelings, the power of speech is taken from her; an angry +and threatening voice, and full of terror, is uttered from her hoarse +throat. Still, her former understanding remains in her, even thus become +a bear; and expressing her sorrows by her repeated groans, she lifts up +her hands, such as they are, to heaven and to the stars, and she deems +Jove ungrateful, though she cannot call him so. Ah! how often, not +daring to rest in the lonely wood, did she wander about before her own +house, and in the fields once her own. Ah! how often was she driven over +the crags by the cry of the hounds; and, a huntress herself, she fled in +alarm, through fear of the hunters! Often, seeing the wild beasts, did +she lie concealed, forgetting what she was; and, a bear herself, dreaded +the he-bears seen on the mountains, and was alarmed at the wolves, +though her father was among them. + +Behold! Arcas, the offspring of the daughter of Lycaon, ignorant of who +is his parent, approaches her, thrice five birthdays being now nearly +past; and while he is following the wild beasts, while he is choosing +the proper woods, and is enclosing the Erymanthian forests[67] with his +platted nets, he meets with his mother. She stood still, upon seeing +Arcas, and was like one recognizing {another}. He drew back, and, in his +ignorance, was alarmed at her keeping her eyes fixed upon him without +ceasing; and, as she was desirous to approach still nearer, he would +have pierced her breast with the wounding spear. Omnipotent {Jove} +averted this, and removed both them and {such} wickedness; and placed +them, carried through vacant space with a rapid wind, in the heavens, +and made them neighboring Constellations. + +Juno swelled with rage after the mistress shone amid the stars, and +descended on the sea to the hoary Tethys, and the aged Ocean, a regard +for whom has often influenced the Gods; and said to them, inquiring the +reason of her coming, "Do you inquire why I, the queen of the Gods, am +come hither from the æthereal abodes? Another has possession of heaven +in my stead. May I be deemed untruthful, if, when the night has made the +world dark, you see not in the highest part of heaven stars but lately +{thus} honored to my affliction; there, where the last and most limited +circle surrounds the extreme part of the axis {of the world}. Is there, +then, {any ground} why one should hesitate to affront Juno, and dread my +being offended, who only benefit them by my resentment? See what a great +thing I have done! How vast is my power! I forbade her to be of human +shape; she has been made a Goddess; 'tis thus that I inflict punishment +on offenders; such is my mighty power! Let him obtain {for her} her +former shape, and let him remove this form of a wild beast; as he +formerly did for the Argive Phoronis. Why does he not marry her as well, +divorcing Juno, and place her in my couch, and take Lycaon for his +father-in-law? But if the wrong done to your injured foster-child +affects you, drive the seven Triones away from your azure waters, and +expel the stars received into heaven as the reward of adultery, that a +concubine may not be received into your pure waves." + +The Gods of the sea granted her request. The daughter of Saturn enters +the liquid air in her graceful chariot,[68] with her variegated +peacocks; peacocks just as lately tinted, upon the killing of Argus, as +thou, garrulous raven, hadst been suddenly transformed into {a bird +having} black wings, whereas thou hadst been white before. For this bird +was formerly of a silver hue, with snow-white feathers, so that he +equalled the doves entirely without spot; nor would he give place to the +geese that were to save the Capitol by their watchful voice, nor to the +swan haunting the streams. His tongue was the cause of his disgrace; his +chattering tongue being the cause, that the color which was white is now +the reverse of white. + +There was no one more beauteous in all Hæmonia than Larissæan[69] +Coronis. At least, she pleased thee, Delphian {God}, as long as she +continued chaste, or was not the object of remark. But the bird of +Phoebus found out her infidelity;[70] and the inexorable informer winged +his way to his master, that he might disclose the hidden offence. Him +the prattling crow follows, with flapping wings, to make all inquiries +of him. And having heard the occasion of his journey, she says, "Thou +art going on a fruitless errand; do not despise the presages of my +voice." + + [Footnote 64: _Thou, mischievous one._--Ver. 475. Clarke, rather + too familiarly, renders 'importuna,' 'plaguy baggage.'] + + [Footnote 65: _In front by the hair._--Ver. 476. 'Adversâ prensis + a fronte capillis,' is rendered by Clarke, 'seizing her fore-top.' + Had he been describing the combats of two fish-wives, such a + version would have been, perhaps, more appropriate than in the + present instance.] + + [Footnote 66: _With black hair._--Ver. 478. To the explanation + given at the end of the story, we may here add the curious one + offered by Palæphatus. He says that Calisto was a huntress who + entered the den of a bear, by which she was devoured; and that the + bear coming out, and Calisto being no more seen, it was reported + that she had been transformed into a bear.] + + [Footnote 67: _Erymanthian forests._--Ver. 499. Erymanthus was a + mountain of Arcadia, which was afterwards famous for the slaughter + there, by Hercules, of the wild boar, which made it his haunt.] + + [Footnote 68: _Graceful chariot._--Ver. 531. Clarke translates + 'habili curru,' 'her neat chariot.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Larissæan._--Ver. 542. Larissa was the chief city + of Thessaly, and was situate on the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Her infidelity._--Ver. 545. 'Sed ales sensit + adulterium Phoebeius,' is translated by Clarke, 'but the Phoeban + bird found out her pranks.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, Book iii.) tells us, that Lycaon + had a daughter who delighted in the chase, and that Jupiter, the + second of that name, the king of Arcadia, fell in love with her. This + was the ground on which she was said to have been a favorite of Diana. + The story of Calisto having been received into Heaven, and forming the + Constellation of the Bear, was perhaps grounded on the fact of Lycaon, + her father, having been the first known to take particular notice of + this Constellation. The story of the request of Juno, that Tethys will + not receive this new Constellation into the Ocean, is probably derived + from the circumstance, that the Bear, as well as the other stars + within the Arctic Circle, never sets. + + Possibly, Arcas, the son of Calisto, dying at a youthful age, may have + been the origin of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear. + + +FABLE VIII. [II.551-590] + + A virgin, the favorite of Apollo, of the same name with Coronis, is + changed into a crow, for a story which she tells Minerva, concerning + the basket in which Ericthonius was enclosed. + +"Consider what I was, and what I am, and inquire into my deserts. Thou +wilt find that my fidelity was my ruin. For once upon a time, Pallas had +enclosed Ericthonius, an offspring born without a mother, in a basket +made of Actæan twigs; and had given it to keep to the three virgins born +of the two-shaped[71] Cecrops, and had given them this injunction, that +they should not inquire into her secrets. I, being hidden among the +light foliage, was watching from a thick elm what they were doing. Two +{of them}, Pandrosos and Herse, observe their charge without {any} +treachery; Aglauros alone calls her sisters cowards, and unties the +knots with her hand; but within they behold a child, and a dragon +extended by him. I told the Goddess what was done; for which such a +return as this is made to me, that I am said to have been banished from +the protection of Minerva, and am placed after the bird of the night. My +punishment may warn birds not to incur dangers, by their chattering. But +I consider {that} she courted me with no inclination of my own, nor +asking for any such {favors}. This thou mayst ask of Pallas thyself; +although she is angry, she will not, with all her anger, deny this. For +Coroneus, one famous in the land of Phocis (I mention what is well +known) begot me: and {so} I was a virgin of royal birth, and was courted +by rich suitors ({so} despise me not). My beauty was the cause of my +misfortune; for while I was passing with slow steps along the sea-shore, +on the surface of the sand, as I was wont {to do}, the God of the Ocean +beheld me, and was inflamed; and when he had consumed his time to no +purpose, in entreating me with soft words, he prepared {to use} +violence, and followed me. I fled, and I left the firm shore, and +wearied myself in vain on the yielding sand. Then I invoked both Gods +and men; but my voice did not reach any mortal. A virgin was moved for a +virgin, and gave me assistance. I was extending my arms toward heaven; +{when those} arms began to grow black with light feathers. I struggled +to throw my garments from off my shoulders, but they were feathers, and +had taken deep root in my skin. I tried to beat my naked breast with my +hands, but I had now neither hands nor naked breast. I ran; and the sand +did not retard my feet as before, and I was lifted up from the surface +of the ground. After that, being lifted up, I was carried through the +air, and was assigned, as a faultless companion, to Minerva. Yet what +does this avail me, if Nyctimene, made a bird for a horrid crime, has +succeeded me in my honor?" + + [Footnote 71: _Two-shaped._--Ver. 555. Cecrops is here so called, + and in the Greek, +diphuês+ from the fact of his having been born + in Egypt, and having settled in Greece, and was thus to be + reckoned both as an Egyptian, and in the number of the Greeks.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Ericthonius was fabled to be the son, or foster-child, of Athene, or + Minerva, perhaps because he was the son of the daughter of Cranaus, + who had the name of Athene, by a priest of Vulcan, which Divinity was + said to have been his progenitor. St. Augustine alleges that he was + exposed, and found in a temple dedicated to Minerva and Vulcan. His + name being composed of two words, +eris+ and +chthôn+, signifying + 'contention,' and 'earth,' Strabo imagines that he was the son of + Vulcan and the Earth. But it seems that the real ground on which he + was called by that name was, that he disputed the right to the crown + of Athens with Amphictyon, on the death of Cranaus, the second king. + Amphictyon prevailed, but Ericthonius succeeded him. To hide his legs, + which were deformed, he is said to have invented chariots; though that + is not likely, as Egypt, from which Greece had received many colonies, + was acquainted with the use of them from the earliest times. He is + also said to have instituted the festival of the Panathenæa, at + Athens, whence, in process of time, it was adopted by the whole of + Greece. + + Hyginus tells us, that after his death he was received into heaven as + the constellation 'Auriga,' or 'the Charioteer;' and he further + informs us, that the deformity of his legs gave occasion to the + saying, that he was half man and half a serpent. Apollodorus says that + he was born in Attica; that he was the son of Cranaë, the daughter of + Attis; and that he dethroned Amphictyon, and became the fourth king of + Athens. + + +FABLE IX. [II.591-632] + + Nyctimene having entertained a criminal passion for her father, + Nycteus, the Gods, to punish her incest, transform her into an owl. + Apollo pierces the breast of Coronis with an arrow, on the raven + informing him of the infidelity of his mistress. + +"Has not the thing, which is very well known throughout the whole of +Lesbos,[72] been heard of by thee, that Nyctimene defiled the bed of her +father? She is a bird indeed; but being conscious of her crime, she +avoids {the human} gaze and the light, and conceals her shame in the +darkness; and by all {the birds} she is expelled entirely from the sky." + +The raven says to him, saying such things, "May this, thy calling of me +back, prove a mischief to thee, I pray; I despise the worthless omen." +Nor does he drop his intended journey; and he tells his master, that he +has seen Coronis lying down with a youth of Hæmonia. On hearing the +crime of his mistress, his laurel fell down; and at the same moment his +usual looks, his plectrum,[73] and his color, forsook the God. And as +his mind was {now} burning with swelling rage, he took up his wonted +arms, and levelled his bow bent from the extremities, and pierced, with +an unerring shaft, that bosom, that had been so oft pressed to his own +breast. Wounded, she uttered a groan, and, drawing the steel from out of +the wound, she bathed her white limbs with purple blood; and she said, +"I might {justly}, Phoebus, have been punished by thee, but {still I +might} have first brought forth; now we two shall die in one." Thus far +{she spoke}; and she poured forth her life, together with her blood. +A deadly coldness took possession of her body deprived of life. + +The lover, too late, alas! repents of his cruel vengeance, and blames +himself that he listened {to the bird, and} that he was so infuriated. +He hates the bird, through which he was forced to know of the crime and +the cause of his sorrow; he hates, too, the string, the bow, and his +hand; and together with his hand, {those} rash weapons, the arrows. He +cherishes her fallen to the ground, and by late resources endeavors to +conquer her destiny; and in vain he practices his physical arts. + +When he found that these attempts were made in vain, and that the +funeral pile was being prepared, and that her limbs were about to be +burnt in the closing flames, then, in truth, he gave utterance to sighs +fetched from the bottom of his heart (for it is not allowed the +celestial features to be bathed with tears). No otherwise than, as when +an axe, poised from the right ear {of the butcher}, dashes to pieces, +with a clean stroke, the hollow temples of the sucking calf, while the +dam looks on. Yet after Phoebus had poured the unavailing perfumes on her +breast, when he had given the {last} embrace and had performed the due +obsequies prematurely hastened, he did not suffer his own offspring to +sink into the same ashes; but he snatched the child from the flames and +from the womb of his mother, and carried him into the cave of the +two-formed Chiron. And he forbade the raven, expecting for himself the +reward of his tongue that told no untruth, to perch any longer among the +white birds. + + [Footnote 72: _Lesbos._--Ver. 591. This was an island in the Ægean + sea, lying to the south of Troy.] + + [Footnote 73: _Plectrum._--Ver. 601. This was a little rod, or + staff, with which the player used to strike the strings of the + lyre, or cithara, on which he was playing.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + History does not afford us the least insight into the foundation of + the story of Coronis transformed into a crow, for making too faithful + a report, nor that of the raven changed from white to black, for + talking too much. If they are based upon some events which really + happened, we must be content to acknowledge that these Fables refer to + the history of two persons entirely unknown to us, and who, perhaps, + lived as far back as the time of the daughters of Cecrops, to whom the + story seems to bear some relation. Coronis being the name of a crow as + well as of a Nymph, Lucian and other writers have fabled that her son, + Æsculapius, was produced from the egg of that bird, and was born in + the shape of a serpent, under which form he was very generally + worshipped. + + +FABLE X. [II.633-675] + + Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of the Centaur Chiron, attempting to predict + future events, tells her father the fate of the child Æsculapius, on + which the Gods transform her into a mare. + +In the meantime the half-beast {Chiron} was proud of a pupil of Divine +origin, and rejoiced in the honor annexed to the responsibility. Behold! +the daughter of the Centaur comes, having her shoulders covered with her +yellow hair; whom once the nymph Chariclo,[74] having borne her on the +banks of a rapid stream, called Ocyrrhoë. She was not contented to learn +her father's arts {only; but} she sang the secrets of the Fates. +Therefore, when she had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, +and grew warm with the God, whom she held confined within her breast, +she beheld the infant, and she said, "Grow on, child, the giver of +health to the whole world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their +{own existence} to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when +taken away; and daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, +thou wilt be hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any +more to grant that {boon}. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless +carcase; and a God {again}, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt +thou renew thy destiny. Thou likewise, dear father, now immortal, and +produced at thy nativity, on the condition of enduring for ever, wilt +then wish that thou couldst die, when thou shalt be tormented on +receiving the blood of a baneful serpent[75] in thy wounded limbs; and +the Gods shall make thee from an immortal {being}, subject to death, and +the three Goddesses[76] shall cut thy threads." + +Something still remained in addition to what she had said. She heaved a +sigh from the bottom of her breast, and the tears bursting forth, +trickled down her cheeks, and thus she said: "The Fates prevent me, and +I am forbidden to say any more, and the use of my voice is precluded. My +arts, which have brought the wrath of a Divinity upon me, were not of so +much value; I wish that I had not been acquainted with the future. Now +the human shape seems to be withdrawing from me; now grass pleases {me} +for my food; now I have a desire to range over the extended plains; I am +turned into a mare, and into a shape kindred {to that of my father}. But +yet, why entirely? For my father partakes of both forms." + +As she was uttering such words as these, the last part of her complaint +was but little understood; and her words were confused. And presently +neither {were} they words indeed, nor did it appear to be the voice of a +mare, but of one imitating a mare. And in a little time she uttered +perfect neighing, and stretched her arms upon the grass. Then did her +fingers grow together, and a smooth hoof united five nails in one +continued piece of horn. The length of her face and of her neck +increased; the greatest part of her long hair became a tail. And as the +hairs lay scattered about her neck, they were transformed into a mane +{lying} upon the right side; at once both her voice and her shape were +changed. And this wondrous change gave her the {new} name {of Enippe}. + + [Footnote 74: _Chariclo._--Ver. 636. She was the daughter of + Apollo, or of Oceanus, but is supposed not to have been the same + person that is mentioned by Apollodorus as the mother of the + prophet Tiresias.] + + [Footnote 75: _A baneful serpent._--Ver. 652. This happened when + one of the arrows of Hercules, dipped in the poison of the Lernæan + Hydra, pierced the foot of Chiron while he was examining it.] + + [Footnote 76: _The three Goddesses._--Ver. 654. Namely, Clotho, + Lachesis, and Atropos, the 'Parcæ,' or 'Destinies.'] + + +FABLE XI. [II.676-707] + + Mercury, having stolen the oxen of Apollo, and Battus having perceived + the theft, he engages him, by a present, to keep the matter secret. + Mistrusting, however, his fidelity, he assumes another shape, and + tempting him with presents, he succeeds in corrupting him. To punish + his treachery, the God changes him into a touchstone. + +The Philyrean[77] hero wept, and in vain, {God} of Delphi, implored thy +assistance; but neither couldst thou reverse the orders of great +Jupiter, nor, if thou couldst have reversed them wast thou then present; +{for then} thou wast dwelling in Elis and the Messenian[78] fields. This +was the time when a shepherd's skin garment was covering thee, and a +stick cut out of the wood was the burden of thy left hand, {and} of the +other, a pipe unequal with its seven reeds. And while love is thy +concern, while thy pipe is soothing thee, some cows are said to have +strayed unobserved into the plains of Pylos.[79] The son of Maia the +daughter of Atlas, observes them, and with his {usual} skill hides them, +driven off, in the woods. Nobody but an old man, well-known in that +country, had noticed the theft: all the neighborhood called him Battus. +He was keeping the forests and the grassy pastures, and the set of +fine-bred mares of the rich Neleus.[80] + +{Mercury} was afraid of him, and took him aside with a gentle hand, and +said to him, "Come, stranger, whoever thou art, if, perchance any one +should ask after these herds, deny that thou hast seen them; and, lest +no requital be paid thee for so doing, take a handsome cow as thy +reward;" and {thereupon} he gave {him one}. On receiving it, the +stranger returned this answer: "Thou mayst go in safety. May that stone +first make mention of thy theft;" and he pointed to a stone. The son of +Jupiter feigned to go away. {But} soon he returned, and changing his +form, together with his voice, he said, "Countryman, if thou hast seen +any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break silence about +the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull shall be presented +thee as a reward." But the old man,[81] after his reward was {thus} +doubled, said, "They will be beneath those hills;" and beneath those +hills they {really} were. The son of Atlas laughed and said, "Dost thou, +treacherous man, betray me to my own self? Dost betray me to myself?" +and {then} he turned his perjured breast into a hard stone, which even +now is called the "Touchstone;"[82] and this old disgrace is {attached} +to the stone that {really} deserves it not. + + [Footnote 77: _Philyrean._--Ver. 676. Chiron was the son of + Philyra, by Saturn.] + + [Footnote 78: _Messenian._--Ver. 679. Elis and Messenia were + countries of Peloponnesus; the former was on the northwest, and + the latter on the southwest side of it.] + + [Footnote 79: _Plains of Pylos._--Ver. 684. There were three + cities named Pylos in Peloponnesus. One was in Elis, another in + Messenia, and the third was situate between the other two. The + latter is supposed to have been the native place of Nestor, though + they all laid claim to that honor.] + + [Footnote 80: _Neleus._--Ver. 689. He was the king of Pylos, and + the father of Nestor.] + + [Footnote 81: _The old man._--Ver. 702. Clarke quaintly translates + 'at senior,' 'but then the old blade.'] + + [Footnote 82: _The 'Touchstone.'_--Ver. 706. It is a matter of + doubt among commentators whether 'index' here means a general term + for the touchstone, by which metals are tested; or whether it + means that Battus was changed into one individual stone, which + afterwards was called 'index.' Lactantius, by his words, seems to + imply that the latter was the case. He says, 'He changed him into + a stone, which, from this circumstance, is called "index" about + Pylos.' 'Index' was a name of infamy, corresponding with the Greek + word +sykophantês+, and with our term 'spy.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were + perhaps the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is + also probable that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame + by the knowledge he had acquired at a time and in a country where + learning was little cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first + promulgator of the utility of medicines, in which he was said to have + instructed his pupil Æsculapius. He was also considered to be an + excellent musician and a good astronomer, as we learn from Homer, + Diodorus Siculus, and other authors. Most of the heroes of that age, + and among them Hercules and Jason, studied under him. Very probably, + the only foundation for the story of the transformation of Ocyrrhoë, + was the skill and address which, under her father's instruction, she + acquired in riding and the management of horses. For if, as it seems + really was the case, the horsemen of that age were taken for monsters, + half men and half horses, it is not surprising to find the story that + the daughter of a Centaur was transformed into a mare. + + Chiron is generally supposed to have marked out the Constellations, + for the purpose of directing the Argonauts in their voyage for the + recovery of the Golden Fleece. + + +FABLE XII. [II.708-764] + + Mercury, falling in love with Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, + endeavors to engage Aglauros in his interest, and by her means, to + obtain access to her sister. She refuses to assist him, unless he + promises to present her with a large sum of money. + +Hence, the bearer of the caduceus raised himself upon equal wings; and +as he flew, he looked down upon the fields of Munychia,[83] and the land +pleasing to Minerva, and the groves of the well-planted Lycæus. On that +day, by chance, the chaste virgins were, in their purity, carrying the +sacred offerings in baskets crowned with flowers, upon their heads to +the joyful citadel of Pallas. The winged God beholds them returning +thence; and he does not shape his course directly forward, but wheels +round in the {same} circle. As that bird swiftest in speed, the kite, on +espying the entrails, while he is afraid, and the priests stand in +numbers around the sacrifice, wings his flight in circles, and yet +ventures not to go far away, and greedily hovers around {the object of} +his hopes with waving wings, so does the active Cyllenian {God} bend his +course over the Actæan towers, and circles round in the same air. As +much as Lucifer shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much +as the golden Phoebe {shines more brightly} than thee, O Lucifer, so much +superior was Herse, as she went, to all the {other} virgins, and was the +ornament of the solemnity and of her companions. The son of Jupiter was +astonished at her beauty; and as he hung in the air, he burned no +otherwise than as when the Balearic[84] sling throws forth the plummet +of lead; it flies and becomes red hot in its course, and finds beneath +the clouds the fires which it had not {before}. + +He alters his course, and, having left heaven, goes a different way; nor +does he disguise himself; so great is his confidence in his beauty. +This, though it is {every way} complete, still he improves by care, and +smooths his hair and {adjusts} his mantle,[85] that it may hang +properly, so that the fringe and all the gold may be seen; {and minds} +that his long smooth wand, with which he induces and drives away sleep, +is in his right hand, and that his wings[86] shine upon his beauteous +feet. + +A private part of the house had three bed-chambers, adorned with ivory +and with tortoiseshell, of which thou, Pandrosos, hadst the right-hand +one, Aglauros the left-hand, and Herse had the one in the middle. She +that occupied the left-hand one was the first to remark Mercury +approaching, and she ventured to ask the name of the God, and the +occasion of his coming. To her thus answered the grandson of Atlas and +of Pleione: "I am he who carries the commands of my father through the +air. Jupiter himself is my father. Nor will I invent pretences; do thou +only be willing to be attached to thy sister, and to be called the aunt +of my offspring. Herse is the cause of my coming; I pray thee to favor +one in love." Aglauros looks upon him with the same eyes with which she +had lately looked upon the hidden mysteries of the yellow-haired +Minerva, and demands for her agency gold of great weight; {and}, in the +meantime, obliges him to go out of the house. The warlike Goddess turned +upon her the orbs of her stern eyes, and drew a sigh from the bottom {of +her heart}, with so great a motion, that she heaved both her breast and +the Ægis placed before her valiant breast. It occurred {to her} that she +had laid open her secrets with a profane hand, at the time when she +beheld progeny created for {the God} who inhabits Lemnos,[87] without a +mother, {and} contrary to the assigned laws; and that she could now be +agreeable both to the God and to the sister {of Aglauros}, and that she +would be enriched by taking the gold, which she, in her avarice, had +demanded. Forthwith she repairs to the abode of Envy, hideous with black +gore. Her abode is concealed in the lowest recesses of a cave, wanting +sun, {and} not pervious to any wind, dismal and filled with benumbing +cold; and which is ever without fire, and ever abounding with darkness. + + [Footnote 83: _Munychia._--Ver. 709. Munychia was the name of a + promontory and harbor of Attica, between the Piræus and the + promontory of 'Sunium.' The spot was so called from Munychius, who + there built a temple in honor of Diana.] + + [Footnote 84: _Balearic._--Ver. 727. The Baleares were the islands + of Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza, in the Mediterranean, near the + coast of Spain. The natives of these islands were famous for their + skill in the use of the sling. That weapon does not appear to have + been used in the earliest times among the Greeks, as Homer does + not mention it; it had, however, been introduced by the time of + the war with Xerxes, though even then the sling was, perhaps, + rarely used as a weapon. The Acarnanians and the Achæans of Agium, + Patræ, and Dymæ were very expert in the use of the sling. That + used by the Achæans was made of three thongs of leather, and not + of one only, like those of other nations. The natives of the + Balearic isles are said to have attained their skill from the + circumstance of their mothers, when they were children, obliging + them to obtain their food by striking it, from a tree, with a + sling. While other slings were made of leather, theirs were made + of rushes. Besides stones, plummets of lead, called 'glandes,' + (as in the present instance), and +molubdides+, of a form between + acorns and almonds, were cast in moulds, to be thrown from slings. + They have been frequently dug up in various parts of Greece, and + particularly on the plains of Marathon. Some have the device of a + thunderbolt; while others are inscribed with +dexai+, 'take this.' + It was a prevalent idea with the ancients that the stone + discharged from the sling became red hot in its course, from the + swiftness of its motion.] + + [Footnote 85: _Adjusts his mantle._--Ver. 733. 'Chlamydemque ut + pendeat apte, Collocat,' etc., is translated by Clarke--'And he + places his coat that it might hang agreeably, that the border and + all its gold might appear.'] + + [Footnote 86: _That his wings._--Ver. 736. Clarke renders 'ut + tersis niteant talaria plantis,' 'that his wings shine upon his + spruce feet.'] + + [Footnote 87: _God who inhabits Lemnos._--Ver. 757. Being + precipitated from heaven for his deformity, Vulcan fell upon the + Isle of Lemnos, in the Ægean Sea, where he exercised the craft of + a blacksmith, according to the mythologists. The birth of + Ericthonius, by the aid of Minerva, is here referred to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero tells us, that there were several persons in ancient times + named Mercury. The probability is, that one of them fell in love with + Herse, one of the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens; and that + Aglauros becoming jealous of her, this tradition was built upon facts + of so ordinary a nature. + + +FABLE XIII. [II.765-832] + + Pallas commands Envy to make Aglauros jealous of her sister Herse. + Envy obeys the request of the Goddess; and Aglauros, stung with that + passion, continues obstinate in opposing Mercury's passage to her + sister's apartment, for which the God changes her into a statue. + +When the female warrior, to be dreaded in battle, came hither, she stood +before the abode (for she did not consider it lawful to go under the +roof), and she struck the door-posts with the end of the spear. The +doors, being shaken, flew open; she sees Envy within, eating the flesh +of vipers, the nutriment of her own bad propensities; and when she sees +her, she turns away her eyes. But the other rises sluggishly from the +ground, and leaves the bodies of the serpents half devoured, and stalks +along with sullen pace. And when she sees the Goddess graced with beauty +and with {splendid} arms, she groans, and fetches a deep sigh at her +appearance. A paleness rests on her face, {and} leanness in all her +body; she never looks direct on you; her teeth are black with rust; her +breast is green with gall; her tongue is dripping with venom. Smiles +there are none, except such as the sight of grief has excited. Nor does +she enjoy sleep, being kept awake with watchful cares; but sees with +sorrow the successes of men, and pines away at seeing them. She both +torments and is tormented at the same moment, and is {ever} her own +punishment. Yet, though Tritonia[88] hated her, she spoke to her briefly +in such words as these: "Infect one of the daughters of Cecrops with thy +poison; there is occasion so {to do}; Aglauros is she." + +Saying no more, she departed, and spurned the ground with her spear +impressed on it. She, beholding the Goddess as she departed, with a look +askance, uttered a few murmurs, and grieved at the success of Minerva; +and took her staff, which wreaths of thorns entirely surrounded; and +veiled in black clouds, wherever she goes she tramples down the blooming +fields, and burns up the grass, and crops the tops {of the flowers}. +With her breath, too, she pollutes both nations and cities, and houses; +and at last she descries the Tritonian[89] citadel, flourishing in arts +and riches, and cheerful peace. Hardly does she restrain her tears, +because she sees nothing to weep at. But after she has entered the +chamber of the daughter of Cecrops, she executes her orders; and touches +her breast with her hand stained with rust, and fills her heart with +jagged thorns. She breathes into her as well the noxious venom, and +spreads the poison black as pitch throughout her bones, and lodges it in +the midst of her lungs. + +And that these causes of mischief may not wander through too wide a +space, she places her sister before her eyes, and the fortunate marriage +of {that} sister, and the God under his beauteous appearance, and +aggravates each particular. By this, the daughter of Cecrops being +irritated, is gnawed by a secret grief, and groans, tormented by night, +tormented by day, and wastes away in extreme wretchedness, with a slow +consumption, as ice smitten upon by a sun often clouded. She burns at +the good fortune of the happy Herse, no otherwise than as when fire is +placed beneath thorny reeds, which do not send forth flames, and burn +with a gentle heat. Often does she wish to die, that she may not be a +witness to any such thing; often, to tell the matters, as criminal, to +her severe father. At last, she sat herself down in the front of the +threshold, in order to exclude the God when he came; to whom, as he +proffered blandishments and entreaties, and words of extreme kindness, +she said, "Cease {all this}; I shall not remove myself hence, until thou +art repulsed." "Let us stand to that agreement," says the active +Cyllenian {God}; and he opens the carved door with his wand. But in her, +as she endeavors to arise, the parts which we bend in sitting cannot be +moved, through their numbing weight. She, indeed, struggles to raise +herself, with her body, upright; but the joints of her knees are stiff, +and a chill runs through her nails, and her veins are pallid, through +the loss of blood. + +And as the disease {of} an incurable cancer is wont to spread in all +directions, and to add the uninjured parts to the tainted; so, by +degrees, did a deadly chill enter her breast, and stop the passages of +life, and her respiration. She did not endeavor to speak; but if she had +endeavored, she had no passage for her voice. Stone had now possession +of her neck; her face was grown hard, and she sat, a bloodless statue. +Nor was the stone white; her mind had stained it. + + [Footnote 88: _Tritonia._--Ver. 783. Minerva is said to have been + called Tritonia, either from the Cretan word +tritô+, signifying + 'a head,' as she sprang from the head of Jupiter; or from Trito, a + lake of Libya, near which she was said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 89: _Tritonian._--Ver. 794. Athens, namely, which was + sacred to Pallas, or Minerva, its tutelary divinity.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias, in his Attica, somewhat varies this story, and says that + the daughters of Cecrops, running mad, threw themselves from the top + of a tower. It is very probable that on the introduction of the + worship of Pallas, or Minerva, into Attica, these daughters of Cecrops + may have hesitated to encourage the innovation, and the story was + promulgated that the Goddess had in that manner punished their + impiety. This seems the more likely, from the fact mentioned by + Pausanias that Pandrosos, the third daughter of Cecrops, had, after + her death, a temple built in honor of her, near that of Minerva, + because she had continued faithful to that Goddess, and had not + disobeyed her, as her sisters had done. The reputation and good fame + of Herse and Aglauros had, however, been restored by the time of + Herodotus, since he informs us that they both had their temples at + Athens. + + +FABLE XIV. [II.833-875] + + Jupiter assumes the shape of a Bull, and carrying off Europa, swims + with her on his back to the isle of Crete. + +When the grandson of Atlas had inflicted this punishment upon her words +and her profane disposition, he left the lands named after Pallas, and +entered the skies with his waving wings. His father calls him on one +side; and, not owning the cause of his love, he says, "My son, the +trusty minister of my commands, banish delay, and swiftly descend with +thy usual speed, and repair to the region which looks towards thy +{Constellation} mother on the left side, (the natives call it +Sidonis[90] by name) and drive towards the sea-shore, the herd belonging +to the king, which thou seest feeding afar upon the grass of the +mountain." + +{Thus} he spoke; and already were the bullocks, driven from the +mountain, making for the shore named, where the daughter of the great +king, attended by Tyrian virgins, was wont to amuse herself. Majesty and +love but ill accord, nor can they continue in the same abode. The father +and the ruler of the Gods, whose right hand is armed with the +three-forked flames, who shakes the world with his nod, laying aside the +dignity of empire, assumes the appearance of a bull; and mixing with the +oxen, he lows, and, in all his beauty, walks about upon the shooting +grass. For his color is that of snow, which neither the soles of hard +feet have trodden upon, nor the watery South wind melted. His neck +swells with muscles; dewlaps hang from {between} his shoulders. His +horns are small indeed, but such as you might maintain were made with +the hand, and more transparent than a bright gem. There is nothing +threatening in his forehead; nor is his eye formidable; his countenance +expresses peace. + +The daughter of Agenor is surprised that he is so beautiful, and that he +threatens no attack; but although so gentle, she is at first afraid to +touch him. By and by she approaches him, and holds out flowers to his +white mouth. The lover rejoices, and till his hoped-for pleasure comes, +he gives kisses to her hands; scarcely, oh, scarcely, does he defer the +rest. And now he plays with her, and skips upon the green grass; {and} +now he lays his snow-white side upon the yellow sand. And, her fear +{now} removed by degrees, at one moment he gives his breast to be patted +by the hand of the virgin; at another, his horns to be wreathed with +new-made garlands. The virgin of royal birth even ventured to sit down +upon the back of the bull, not knowing upon whom she was pressing. Then +the God, by degrees {moving} from the land, and from the dry shore, +places the fictitious hoofs of his feet in the waves near the brink. +Then he goes still further, and carries his prize over the expanse of +the midst of the ocean. She is affrighted, and, borne off, looks back on +the shore she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn, +{while} the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled +by the breeze. + + [Footnote 90: _Sidonis._--Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a + maritime city of Phoenicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was + not an unworthy rival.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient + Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were + several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great + difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar + adventures. Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of + Phoroneus, to Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about B.C. + 1770; and that of Danaë to Jupiter Proetus, who lived about 1350 years + before the Christian era. It was Jupiter Tantalus, according to him, + that carried off Ganymede; and it was Jupiter, the father of Hercules, + that deceived Leda. He says that the subject of the present Fable was + Jupiter Asterius, who reigned about B.C. 1400. Diodorus Siculus tells + us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the daughter + of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island of + Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that + Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter + of Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of + carrying her off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn + from Herodotus, that the custom of carrying those away by force, who + could not be obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude + ages. + + The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the + form of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those + who related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself + under the shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palæphatus + and Tzetzes suggest, that the story took its rise from the name of + the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the + Greek name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon + etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word + 'Alpha,' or 'Ilpha,' which, in the Phoenician dialect, meant either a + ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on + reading the annals of the Phoenicians, by mistake, took the word in + the latter sense. + + Europa was honored as a Divinity after her death, and a festival was + instituted in her memory, which Hesychius calls 'Hellotia,' from + +Hellôtis+, the name she received after her death. + + + + +BOOK THE THIRD. + + +FABLE I. [III.1-34] + + Jupiter, having carried away Europa, her father, Agenor, commands his + son Cadmus to go immediately in search of her, and either to bring + back his sister with him, or never to return to Phoenicia. Cadmus, + wearied with his toils and fruitless inquiries, goes to consult the + oracle at Delphi, which bids him observe the spot where he should see + a cow lie down, and build a city there, and give the name of Boeotia + to the country. + +And now the God, having laid aside the shape of the deceiving Bull, had +discovered himself, and reached the Dictæan land; when her father, +ignorant {of her fate}, commands Cadmus to seek her {thus} ravished, and +adds exile as the punishment, if he does not find her; being {both} +affectionate and unnatural in the self-same act. The son of Agenor, +having wandered over the whole world,[1] as an exile flies from his +country and the wrath of his father, for who is there that can discover +the intrigues of Jupiter? A suppliant, he consults the oracle of Phoebus, +and inquires in what land he must dwell. "A heifer," Phoebus says, "will +meet thee in the lonely fields, one that has never borne the yoke, and +free from the crooked plough. Under her guidance, go on thy way; and +where she shall lie down on the grass, there cause a city to be built, +and call it the Boeotian[2] {city}." + +Scarcely had Cadmus well got down from the Castalian cave,[3] {when} he +saw a heifer, without a keeper, slowly going along, bearing no mark of +servitude upon her neck. He follows, and pursues her steps with +leisurely pace, and silently adores Phoebus, the adviser of his way. +{And} now he had passed the fords of the Cephisus, and the fields of +Panope, {when} the cow stood still and raising her forehead, expansive +with lofty horns, towards heaven, she made the air reverberate with her +lowings. And so, looking back on her companions that followed behind, +she lay down, and reposed her side upon the tender grass. Cadmus +returned thanks, and imprinted kisses upon the stranger land, and +saluted the unknown mountains and fields. He was {now} going to offer +sacrifice to Jupiter, and commanded his servants to go and fetch some +water for the libation from the running springs. An ancient grove was +standing {there, as yet} profaned by no axe. There was a cavern in the +middle {of it}, thick covered with twigs and osiers, forming a low arch +by the junction of the rocks; abounding with plenty of water. Hid in +this cavern, there was a dragon sacred to Mars,[4] adorned with crests +and a golden {color}. His eyes sparkle with fire, {and} all his body is +puffed out with poison; three tongues, {too}, are brandished, and his +teeth stand in a triple row. + + [Footnote 1: _Over the whole world._--Ver. 6. Apollodorus tells us + that Cadmus lived in Thrace until the death of his mother, + Telephassa, who accompanied him; and that, after her decease, he + proceeded to Delphi to make inquiries of the oracle.] + + [Footnote 2: _Boeotian._--Ver. 13. He implies here that Boeotia + received its name from the Greek word +bous+, 'an ox' or 'cow.' + Other writers say that it was so called from Boeotus, the son of + Neptune and Arne. Some authors also say that Thebes received its + name from the Syrian word 'Thebe,' which signified 'an ox.'] + + [Footnote 3: _Castalian cave._--Ver. 14. Castalius was a fountain + at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and in the vicinity of Delphi. It + was sacred to the Muses.] + + [Footnote 4: _Sacred to Mars._--Ver. 32. Euripides says, that the + dragon had been set there by Mars to watch the spot and the + neighboring stream. Other writers say that it was a son of Mars, + Dercyllus by name, and that a Fury, named Tilphosa, was its + mother. Ancient history abounds with stories of enormous serpents. + The army of Regulus is said by Pliny the Elder, to have killed a + serpent of enormous size, which obstructed the passage of the + river Bagrada, in Africa. It was 120 feet in length.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Reverting to the history of Europa, it may be here remarked, that + Apollodorus has preserved her genealogy. Libya, according to that + author, had two sons by Neptune, Belus and Agenor. The latter married + Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, and a daughter + named Europa. Some ancient writers, however, say, that Europa was the + daughter of Phoenix, and the grandchild of Agenor. + + Some authors, and Ovid among the rest, have supposed that Europe + received its name from Europa. Bochart has, with considerable + probability, suggested that it was originally so called from the fair + complexion of the people who inhabited it. Europa herself may have + received her name also from the fairness of her complexion: hence, the + poets, as the Scholiast on Theocritus tells us, invented a fable, that + a daughter of Juno stole her mother's paint, to give it to Europa, who + used it with so much success as to ensure, by its use, an extremely + fair and beautiful complexion. + + +FABLE II. [III.35-130] + + The companions of Cadmus, fetching water from the fountain of Mars, + are devoured by the Dragon that guards it. Cadmus, on discovering + their destruction, slays the monster, and, by the advice of Minerva, + sows the teeth, which immediately produce a crop of armed men. They + forthwith quarrel among themselves, and kill each other, with the + exception of five who assist Cadmus in building the city of Thebes. + +After the men who came from the Tyrian nation had touched this grove +with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a splash; +the azure dragon stretched forth his head from the deep cave, and +uttered dreadful hissings. The urns dropped from their hands; and the +blood left their bodies, and a sudden trembling seized their astonished +limbs. He wreathes his scaly orbs in rolling spires, and with a spring +becomes twisted into mighty folds; and uprearing himself from below the +middle into the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of +as large a size,[5] as, if you were to look on him entire, {the serpent} +which separates the two Bears. + +There is no delay; he seizes the Phoenicians (whether they are resorting +to their arms or to flight, or whether fear itself is preventing either +{step}); some he kills with his sting,[6] some with his long folds, some +breathed upon[7] by the venom of his baneful poison. + +The sun, now at its height, had made the shadows {but} small: the son of +Agenor wonders what has detained his companion and goes to seek his men. +His garment was a skin torn from a lion; his weapon was a lance with +shining steel, and a javelin; and a courage superior to any weapon. When +he entered the grove, and beheld the lifeless bodies, and the victorious +enemy of immense size upon them, licking the horrid wounds with +bloodstained tongue, he said, "Either I will be the avenger of your +death, bodies {of my} faithful {companions}, or {I will be} a sharer {in +it}." {Thus} he said; and with his right hand he raised a huge stone,[8] +and hurled the vast {weight} with a tremendous effort. {And} although +high walls with lofty towers would have been shaken with the shock of +it, {yet} the dragon remained without a wound; and, being defended by +his scales as though with a coat of mail, and the hardness of his black +hide, he repelled the mighty stroke with his skin. But he did not +overcome the javelin as well with the same hardness; which stood fast, +fixed in the middle joint of his yielding spine, and sank with the +entire {point of} steel into his entrails. Fierce with pain, he turned +his head towards his back, and beheld his wounds, and bit the javelin +fixed there. And after he had twisted it on every side with all his +might, with difficulty he wrenched it from his back; yet the steel stuck +fast in his bones. But then, when this newly inflicted wound has +increased his wonted fury, his throat swelled with gorged veins, and +white foam flowed around his pestilential jaws. The Earth, too, scraped +with the scales, sounds again, and the livid steam that issues from his +infernal mouth,[9] infects the tainted air. One while he is enrolled in +spires making enormous rings; sometimes he unfolds himself straighter +than a long beam. Now with a vast impulse, like a torrent swelled with +rain, he is borne along, and bears down the obstructing forests with his +breast. The son of Agenor gives way a little; and by the spoil of the +lion he sustains the shock, and with his lance extended before him, +pushes back his mouth, as it advances. The dragon rages, and vainly +inflicts wounds on the hard steel, and fixes his teeth upon the point. +And now the blood began to flow from his poisonous palate, and had dyed +the green grass with its spray. But the wound was slight; because he +recoiled from the stroke, and drew back his wounded throat, and by +shrinking prevented the blow from sinking deep, and did not suffer it to +go very far. At length, the son of Agenor, still pursuing, pressed the +spear lodged in his throat, until an oak stood in his way as he +retreated, and his neck was pierced, together with the trunk. The tree +was bent with the weight of the serpent, and groaned at having its trunk +lashed with the extremity of its tail. + +While the conqueror was surveying the vast size of his vanquished enemy, +a voice was suddenly heard (nor was it easy to understand whence {it +was}, but heard it was). "Why, son of Agenor, art thou {thus} +contemplating the dragon slain {by thee}? Even thou {thyself} shalt be +seen {in the form of} a dragon."[10] He, for a long time in alarm, lost +his color together with his presence of mind, and his hair stood on end +with a chill of terror. Lo! Pallas, the favorer of the hero, descending +through the upper region of the air, comes to him, and bids him sow the +dragon's teeth under the earth turned up, as the seeds of a future +people. He obeyed; and when he had opened a furrow with the pressed +plough, he scattered the teeth on the ground as ordered, the seed of a +race of men. Afterwards ('tis beyond belief) the turf began to move, and +first appeared a point of a spear out of the furrows, next the coverings +of heads nodding with painted cones;[11] then the shoulders and the +breast, and the arms laden with weapons start up, and a crop of men +armed with shields grows apace. So, when the curtains[12] are drawn up +in the joyful theaters, figures are wont to rise, and first to show +their countenances; by degrees the rest; and being drawn out in a +gradual continuation, the whole appear, and place their feet on the +lowest edge {of the stage}. Alarmed with this new enemy, Cadmus is +preparing to take arms, when one of the people that the earth had +produced cries out, "Do not take up {arms}, nor engage thyself in civil +war." And then, engaged hand to hand, he strikes one of his earth-born +brothers with the cruel sword, {while} he himself falls by a dart sent +from a distance. He, also, who had put him to death, lives no longer +than the other, and breathes forth the air which he has so lately +received. In a similar manner, too, the whole troop becomes maddened, +and the brothers {so} newly sprung up, fall in fight with each other, by +mutual wounds. And now the youths that had the space of {so} short an +existence allotted them, beat with throbbing breast their blood-stained +mother, five {only} remaining, of whom Echion[13] was one. He, by the +advice of Tritonia, threw his arms upon the ground, and both asked and +gave the assurance of brotherly concord. + +The Sidonian stranger had these as associates in his task, when he built +the city that was ordered by the oracle of Phoebus. + + [Footnote 5: _As large a size._--Ver. 44. This description of the + enormous size of the dragon or serpent is inconsistent with what + the Poet says in line 91, where we find Cadmus enabled to pin his + enemy against an oak.] + + [Footnote 6: _With his sting._--Ver. 48. He enumerates in this one + instance the various modes by which serpents put their prey to + death, either by means of their sting, or, in the case of the + larger kinds of serpent, by twisting round it, and suffocating it + in their folds.] + + [Footnote 7: _Some breathed upon._--Ver. 49. It was a prevalent + notion among the ancients, that some serpents had the power of + killing their prey by their poisonous breath. Though some modern + commentators on this passage may be found to affirm the same thing, + it is extremely doubtful if such is the fact. The notion was, + perhaps, founded on the power which certain serpents have of + fascinating their prey by the agency of the eye, and thus + depriving it of the means of escape.] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge stone._--Ver. 59. 'Molaris' here means a + stone as large as a mill-stone, and not a mill-stone itself, for + we must remember that this was an uninhabited country, and + consequently a stranger to the industry of man.] + + [Footnote 9: _His infernal mouth._--Ver. 76. 'Stygio' means + 'pestilential as the exhalations of the marshes of Styx.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Form of a dragon._--Ver. 98. This came to pass + when, having been expelled from his dominions by Zethus and + Amphion, he retired to Illyria, and was there transformed into a + serpent, a fate which was shared by his wife Hermione.] + + [Footnote 11: _With painted cones._--Ver. 108. The 'conus' was the + conical part of the helmet into which the crest of variegated + feathers was inserted.] + + [Footnote 12: _When the curtains._--Ver. 111. The 'Siparium' was a + piece of tapestry stretched on a frame, and, rising before the + stage, answered the same purpose as the curtain or drop-scene with + us, in concealing the stage till the actors appeared. Instead of + drawing up this curtain to discover the stage and actors, + according to our present practice, it was depressed when the play + began, and fell beneath the level of the stage; whence 'aulæa + premuntur,' 'the curtain is dropped,' meant that the play had + commenced. When the performance was finished, this was raised + again gradually from the foot of the stage; therefore 'aulæa + tolluntur,' 'the curtain is raised,' would mean that the play had + finished. From the present passage we learn, that in drawing it up + from the stage, the curtain was gradually displayed, the unfolding + taking place, perhaps, below the boards, so that the heads of the + figures rose first, until the whole form appeared in full with the + feet resting on the stage, when the 'siparium' was fully drawn up. + From a passage in Virgil's Georgics (book iii. l. 25), we learn + that the figures of Britons (whose country had then lately been + the scene of new conquests) were woven on the canvas of the + 'siparium,' having their arms in the attitude of lifting the + curtain.] + + [Footnote 13: _Echion._--Ver. 126. The names of the others were + Udeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, according to Apollodorus. + To these some added Creon, as a sixth.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Agenor, on losing his daughter, commands his sons to go in search of + her, and not to return till they have found her. The young princes, + either unable to learn what was become of her, or, perhaps, being too + weak to recover her out of the hands of the king of Crete, did not + return to their father, but established themselves in different + countries; Cadmus settling in Boeotia, Cilix in Cilicia, to which he + gave his name, and Phoenix, as Hyginus tells us, remaining in Africa. + Photius, quoting from Conon, the historian, informs us, that the hope + of conquering some country in Europe, and establishing a colony there, + was the true ground of the voyage of Cadmus. + + Palæphatus, and other writers, say, that the Dragon which was killed + by Cadmus was a king of the country, who was named Draco, and was a + son of Mars: that his teeth were his subjects, who rallied again after + their defeat, and that Cadmus put them all to the sword, except + Chthonius, Udeus, Hyperenor, Pelor, and Echion, who became reconciled + to him. Heraclitus, however, assures us, that Cadmus really did slay a + serpent, which was very annoying to the Boeotian territory. Bochart + and LeClerc are of opinion that the Fable has the following + foundation:--They say, that in the Phoenician language, the same word + signifies either the teeth of a serpent, or short javelins, pointed + with brass; that the word which signifies the number five likewise + means an army; and that probably, from these circumstances, the Fable + may have taken its rise. For the Greeks, in following the annals + written in the Phoenician language, while writing the history of the + founder of Thebes, instead of describing his soldiers as wearing + helmets on their heads, with back and breast-plates, and with darts in + their hands pointed with brass, which equipment was then entirely + novel in Greece, chose rather to follow the more wonderful version, + and to say, that Cadmus had five companions produced from the teeth of + a serpent; as, according to Bochart's suggestion, the same Phoenician + phrase may either signify a company of men sprung from the teeth of a + serpent, or a company of men armed with brazen darts. + + This conjecture is, perhaps, confirmed by a story related by Herodotus + (book ii.), which resembles it very much. He tells us, that + Psammeticus, king of Egypt, being driven to the marshy parts of his + kingdom, sent to consult the oracle of Latona, which answered that he + should be restored by brass men coming from the sea. At the time, this + answer appeared to him entirely frivolous; but certain Ionian + soldiers, being obliged, some years after, to retire to Egypt, and + appearing on the shore with their weapons and armor, all of brass, + those who perceived them ran immediately to inform the king, that men + clad in brass were plundering the country. The prince then fully + comprehended the meaning of the oracle, and making an alliance with + them, recovered his throne by the assistance they gave him. These + brass men come from the sea, and those sprung from the earth were + soldiers who assisted Psammeticus and Cadmus in carrying out their + objects. Bochart's conjecture is strengthened by the fact, that Cadmus + was either the inventor of the cuirass and javelin, or the first that + brought them into Greece. Without inquiring further into the subject, + we may conclude, that the men sprung from the earth, or the dragon's + teeth which were sown, were the people of the country, whom Cadmus + found means to bring over to his interest; and that they first helped + him to conquer his enemies, and then to build the citadel of Thebes, + to ensure his future security. Apollodorus says that Cadmus, to + expiate the slaughter of the dragon, was obliged to serve Mars a whole + year; which year, containing eight of our years, it is not improbable + that Cadmus rendered services for a long time to his new allies before + he received any assistance from them. + + +FABLE III. [III.131-252] + + Actæon, the grandson of Cadmus, fatigued with hunting and excessive + heat, inadvertently wanders to the cool valley of Gargaphie, the usual + retreat of Diana, when tired with the same exercise. There, to his + misfortune, he surprises the Goddess and her Nymphs while bathing, for + which she transforms him into a stag, and his own hounds tear him to + pieces. + +And now Thebes was standing; now Cadmus, thou mightst seem happy in thy +exile. Both Mars and Venus[14] had become thy father-in-law and +mother-in-law; add to this, issue by a wife so illustrious, so many +sons[15] and daughters, and grandchildren, dear pledges {of love}; +these, too, now of a youthful age. But, forsooth, the last day {of life} +must always be awaited by man, and no one ought to be pronounced happy +before his death,[16] and his last obsequies. Thy grandson, Cadmus, was +the first occasion of sorrow to thee, among so much prosperity, the +horns, too, not his own, placed upon his forehead, and you, O dogs, +glutted with the blood of your master. But, if you diligently inquire +into his {case}, you will find the fault of an accident, and not +criminality in him; for what criminality did mistake embrace? + +There was a mountain stained with the blood of various wild beasts; and +now the day had contracted the meridian shadow of things, and the sun +was equally distant from each extremity {of the heavens}; when the +Hyantian youth[17] {thus} addressed the partakers of his toils, as they +wandered along the lonely haunts {of the wild beasts}, with gentle +accent: "Our nets are moistened, my friends, and our spears, too, with +the blood of wild beasts; and the day has yielded sufficient sport; when +the next morn, borne upon her rosy chariot, shall bring back the light, +let us seek again our proposed task. Now Phoebus is at the same distance +from both lands, {the Eastern and the Western}, and is cleaving the +fields with his heat. Cease your present toils, and take away the +knotted nets." The men execute his orders, and cease their labors. There +was a valley, thick set with pitch-trees and the sharp-pointed cypress; +by name Gargaphie,[18] sacred to the active Diana. In the extreme recess +of this, there was a grotto in a grove, formed by no art; nature, by her +ingenuity, had counterfeited art; for she had formed a natural arch, in +the native pumice and the light sand-stones. A limpid fountain ran +murmuring on the right hand with its little stream, having its spreading +channels edged with a border of grass. Here, {when} wearied with +hunting, the Goddess of the woods was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in +clear water. + +After she had entered there, she handed to one of the Nymphs, her +armor-bearer, her javelin, her quiver, and her unstrung bow. Another +Nymph put her arms under her mantle, when taken off: two removed the +sandals from her feet. But Crocale,[19] the daughter of Ismenus, more +skilled than they, gathered her hair, which lay scattered over her neck, +into a knot, although she herself was with {her hair} loose. +Nephele,[20] and Hyale,[21] and Rhanis,[22] fetch water, Psecas[23] and +Phyale[24] {do the same}, and pour it from their large urns. And while +the Titanian {Goddess} was there bathing in the wonted stream, behold! +the grandson of Cadmus, having deferred the remainder of his sport till +{next day}, came into the grove, wandering through the unknown wood, +with uncertain steps; thus did his fate direct him. + +Soon as he entered the grotto, dropping with its springs, the Nymphs, +naked as they were, on seeing a man, smote their breasts, and filled all +the woods with sudden shrieks, and gathering round Diana, covered her +with their bodies. Yet the Goddess herself was higher than they, and was +taller than them all by the neck. The color that is wont to be in +clouds, tinted by the rays of the sun {when} opposite, or that of the +ruddy morning, was on the features of Diana, when seen without her +garments. She, although surrounded with the crowd of her attendants, +stood sideways, and turned her face back; and how did she wish that she +had her arrows at hand; {and} so she took up water,[25] which she did +have {at hand}, and threw it over the face of the man, and sprinkling +his hair with the avenging stream, she added these words, the presages +of his future woe: "Now thou mayst tell, if tell thou canst, how that I +was seen by thee without my garments." Threatening no more, she places +on his sprinkled head the horns of a lively stag; she adds length to his +neck, and sharpens the tops of his ears; and she changes his hands into +feet, and his arms into long legs, and covers his body with a spotted +coat of hair; fear, too is added. The Autonoëian[26] hero took to +flight, and wondered that he was so swift in his speed; but when he +beheld his own horns in the wonted stream, he was about to say, "Ah, +wretched me!" {when} no voice followed. He groaned; that was {all} his +voice, and his tears trickled down a face not his own, {but that of a +stag}. His former understanding alone remained. What should he do? +Should he return home, and to the royal abode? or should he lie hid in +the woods? Fear hinders the one {step}, shame the other. While he was +hesitating, the dogs espied him, and first Melampus,[27] and the +good-nosed Ichnobates gave the signal, in full cry. Ichnobates,[28] was +a Gnossian {dog}; Melampus was of Spartan breed. Then the rest rush on, +swifter than the rapid winds; Pamphagus,[29] and Dorcæus,[30] and +Oribasus,[31] all Arcadian {dogs}; and able Nebrophonus,[32] and with +Lælaps,[33] fierce Theron,[34] and Pterelas,[35] excelling in speed, +Agre[36] in her scent, and Hylæus,[37] lately wounded by a fierce boar, +and Nape,[38] begotten by a wolf, and Poemenis,[39] that had tended +cattle, and Harpyia,[40] followed by her two whelps, and the Sicyonian +Ladon,[41] having a slender girth; Dromas,[42] too, and Canace,[43] +Sticte,[44] and Tigris, and Alce,[45] and Leucon,[46] with snow-white +hair, and Asbolus,[47] with black, and the able-bodied Lacon,[48] and +Aëllo,[49] good at running, and Thoüs,[50] and swift Lycisca,[51] with +her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] too, having his black face marked +with white down the middle, and Melaneus,[53] and Lachne,[54] with a +wire-haired body, and Labros,[55] and Agriodos,[56] bred of a Dictæan +sire, but of a Laconian dam, and Hylactor,[57] with his shrill note; and +others which it were tedious to recount. + +This pack, in eagerness for their prey, are borne over rocks and cliffs, +and crags difficult of approach, where the path is steep, and where +there is no road. He flies along the routes by which he has so often +pursued; alas! he is {now} flying from his own servants. Fain would he +have cried, "I am Actæon, recognize your own master." Words are wanting +to his wishes; the air resounds with their barking. Melanchætes[58] was +the first to make a wound on his back, Theridamas[59] the next; +Oresitrophus[60] fastened upon his shoulder. These had gone out later, +but their course was shortened by a near cut through the hill. While +they hold their master, the rest of the pack come up, and fasten their +teeth in his body. Now room is wanting for {more} wounds. He groans, and +utters a noise, though not that of a man, {still}, such as a stag cannot +make; and he fills the well-known mountains with dismal moans, and +suppliant on his bended knees, and like one in entreaty, he turns round +his silent looks as though {they were} his arms. + +But his companions, in their ignorance, urge on the eager pack with +their usual cries, and seek Actæon with their eyes; and cry out "Actæon" +aloud, as though he were absent. At his name he turns his head, as they +complain that he is not there, and in his indolence, is not enjoying a +sight of the sport afforded them. He wished, indeed, he had been away, +but there he was; and he wished to see, not to feel as well, the cruel +feats of his own dogs. They gather round him on all sides, and burying +their jaws in his body, tear their master in pieces under the form of an +imaginary stag. And the rage of the quiver-bearing Diana is said not to +have been satiated, until his life was ended by many a wound. + + [Footnote 14: _Mars and Venus._--Ver. 132. The wife of Cadmus was + Hermione, or Harmonia, who was said to have been the daughter of + Mars and Venus. The Deities honored the nuptials with their + presence, and presented marriage gifts, while the Muses and the + Graces celebrated the festivity with hymns of their own + composition.] + + [Footnote 15: _So many sons._--Ver. 134. Apollodorus, Hyginus, and + others, say that Cadmus had but one son, Polydorus. If so, 'tot,' + 'so many,' must here refer to the number of his daughters and + grandchildren. His daughters were four in number, Autonoë, Ino, + Semele, and Agave. Ino married Athamas, Autonoë Aristæus, Agave + Echion, while Semele captivated Jupiter. The most famous of the + grandsons of Cadmus were Bacchus, Melicerta, Pentheus, and Actæon.] + + [Footnote 16: _Before his death._--Ver. 135. This was the famous + remark of Solon to Croesus, when he was the master of the opulent + and flourishing kingdom of Lydia, and seemed so firmly settled on + his throne, that there was no probability of any interruption of + his happiness. Falling into the hands of Cyrus the Persian, and + being condemned to be burnt alive, he recollected this wise saying + of Solon, and by that means saved his life, as we are told by + Herodotus, who relates the story at length. Euripides has a + similar passage in his Troades, line 510.] + + [Footnote 17: _The Hyantian youth._--Ver. 147. Actæon is thus + called, as being a Boeotian. The Hyantes were the ancient or + aboriginal inhabitants of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 18: _Gargaphie._--Ver. 156. Gargaphie, or Gargaphia, was + a valley situate near Platæa, having a fountain of the same name.] + + [Footnote 19: _Crocale._--Ver. 169. So called, perhaps, from + +kekruphalos+, an ornament for the head, being a coif, band, or + fillet of network for the hair called in Latin 'reticulum,' by + which name her office is denoted. The handmaid, whose duty it was + to attend to the hair, held the highest rank in ancient times + among the domestics.] + + [Footnote 20: _Nephele._--Ver. 171. From the Greek word +nephelê+, + 'a cloud.'] + + [Footnote 21: _Hyale._--Ver. 171. This is from +hualos+, 'glass,' + the name signifying 'glassy,' 'pellucid.' The very name calls to + mind Milton's line in his Comus-- + 'Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.'] + + [Footnote 22: _Rhanis._--Ver. 171. This name is adapted from the + Greek verb +rhainô+, 'to sprinkle.'] + + [Footnote 23: _Psecas._--Ver. 172. From the Greek +psekas+, 'a + dew-drop.'] + + [Footnote 24: _Phyale._--Ver. 172. This is from the Greek + +phialê+, 'an urn.'] + + [Footnote 25: _Took up water._--Ver. 189. The ceremonial of + sprinkling previous to the transformation seems not to have been + neglected any more by the offended Goddesses of the classical + Mythology, than by the intriguing enchantresses of the Arabian + Nights' Entertainments; as the unfortunate Beder, when under the + displeasure of the vicious queen Labè, experienced to his great + inconvenience. The love for the supernatural, combined with an + anxious desire to attribute its operations to material and visible + agencies, forms one of the most singular features of the human + character.] + + [Footnote 26: _Autonoëian._--Ver. 198. Autonoë was the daughter of + Cadmus and Hermione, or Harmonia, and the wife of Aristæus, by + whom she was the mother of Actæon. We may here remark, that in one + of his satires, Lucian introduces Juno as saying to Diana, that + she had let loose his dogs on Actæon, for fear lest, having seen + her naked, he should divulge the deformity of her person.] + + [Footnote 27: _Melampus._--Ver. 206. These names are all from the + Greek, and are interesting, as showing the epithets by which the + ancients called their dogs. The pack of Actæon is said to have + consisted of fifty dogs. Their names were preserved by several + Greek poets, from whom Apollodorus copied them; but the greater + part of his list has perished, and what remains is in a very + corrupt state. Hyginus has preserved two lists, the first of which + contains thirty-nine names, most of which are similar to those + here given by Ovid, and in almost the same order; while the second + contains thirty-six names, different from those here given. + Æschylus has named but four of them, and Ovid here names + thirty-six. Crete, Arcadia, and Laconia produced the most valuable + hounds. Melampus, 'Black-foot,' is from the Greek words +melas+, + 'black,' and +pous+, 'a foot.'] + + [Footnote 28: _Ichnobates._--Ver. 207. 'Tracer.' From the Greek + +ichnos+, 'a footstep,' and +bainô+, 'to go.'] + + [Footnote 29: _Pamphagus._--Ver. 210. 'Glutton.' From +pan+, + 'all,' and +phagô+, 'to eat.'] + + [Footnote 30: _Dorcæus._--Ver. 210. 'Quicksight.' From +derkô+, + 'to see.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Oribasus._--Ver. 210. 'Ranger.' From +oros+, 'a + mountain,' and +bainô+, 'to go.'] + + [Footnote 32: _Nebrophonus._--Ver. 211. 'Kill-buck.' From + +nebros+, 'a fawn,' and +phoneô+, 'to kill.'] + + [Footnote 33: _Lælaps._--Ver. 211. 'Tempest.' So called from its + swiftness and power, +lailaps+, signifying 'a whirlwind.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Theron._--Ver. 211. 'Hunter.' From the Greek, + +thereuô+, 'to trace,' or 'hunt.'] + + [Footnote 35: _Pterelas._--Ver. 212. 'Wing.' 'Swift-footed,' from + +pteron+, 'a wing,' and +elaunô+, 'to drive onward.'] + + [Footnote 36: _Agre._--Ver. 212. 'Catcher.' 'Quick-scented,' from + +agra+, 'hunting,' or 'the chase.'] + + [Footnote 37: _Hylæus._--Ver. 213. 'Woodger,' or 'Wood-ranger;' + the Greek +hulê+, signifying 'a wood.'] + + [Footnote 38: _Nape._--Ver. 214. 'Forester.' A 'forest,' or + 'wood,' being in Greek, +napê+.] + + [Footnote 39: _Poemenis._--Ver. 215. 'Shepherdess,' From the Greek + +poimenis+, 'a shepherdess.'] + + [Footnote 40: _Harpyia._--Ver. 215. 'Ravener.' From the Greek word + +harpuia+, 'a harpy,' or 'ravenous bird.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Ladon._--Ver. 216. This dog takes its name from + Ladon, a river of Sicyon, a territory on the shores of the gulf of + Corinth.] + + [Footnote 42: _Dromas._--Ver. 217. 'Runner.' From the Greek + +dromos+, 'a race.'] + + [Footnote 43: _Canace._--Ver. 217. 'Barker.' The word +kanachê+, + signifies 'a noise,' or 'din.'] + + [Footnote 44: _Sticte._--Ver. 217. 'Spot.' So called from the + variety of her colors, as +stiktos+, signifies 'diversified with + various spots,' from +stizô+, 'to vary with spots.' 'Tigris' means + 'Tiger.'] + + [Footnote 45: _Alce._--Ver. 217. 'Strong.' From the Greek +alkê+ + 'strength.'] + + [Footnote 46: _Leucon._--Ver. 218. 'White.' From +leukos+, + 'white.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Asbolus._--Ver. 218. 'Soot,' or 'Smut.' From the + Greek +asbolos+, 'soot.'] + + [Footnote 48: _Lacon._--Ver. 219. From his native country, + Laconia.] + + [Footnote 49: _Aëllo._--Ver. 219. 'Storm.' From +aella+, 'a + tempest.'] + + [Footnote 50: _Thoüs._--Ver. 220. 'Swift.' From +thoos+, 'swift.' + Pliny the Elder states, that 'thos' was the name of a kind of + wolf, of larger make, and more active in springing than the common + wolf. He says that it is of inoffensive habits towards man; but + that it lives by prey, and is hairy in winter, but without hair in + summer. It is supposed by some that he alludes to the jackal. + Perhaps, from this animal, the dog here mentioned derived his + name.] + + [Footnote 51: _Lycisca._--Ver. 220. 'Wolf.' From the diminutive of + the Greek word +lukos+, 'a wolf.' Virgil uses 'Lycisca' as the + name of a dog, in his Eclogues.] + + [Footnote 52: _Harpalus._--Ver. 222. 'Snap.' From +harpazô+, 'to + snatch,' or 'plunder.'] + + [Footnote 53: _Melaneus._--Ver. 222. 'Black-coat.' From the Greek, + +melas+, 'black.'] + + [Footnote 54: _Lachne._--Ver. 222. 'Stickle.' From the Greek work + +lachnê+, signifying 'thickness of the hair.'] + + [Footnote 55: _Labros._--Ver. 224. 'Worrier.' From the Greek + +labros,+ 'greedy.' Dicte was a mountain of Crete; whence the word + 'Dictæan' is often employed to signify 'Cretan.'] + + [Footnote 56: _Agriodos._--Ver. 224. 'Wild-tooth.' From +agrios,+ + 'wild,' and +odous+, 'a tooth.'] + + [Footnote 57: _Hylactor._--Ver. 224. 'Babbler.' From the Greek + word +hulakteô+, signifying 'to bark.'] + + [Footnote 58: _Melanchætes._--Ver. 232. 'Black-hair.' From the + +melas+, 'black,' and +chaitê+, 'mane.'] + + [Footnote 59: _Theridamas._--Ver. 233. 'Kilham.' From +thêr+, 'a + wild beast,' and +damaô+, 'to subdue.'] + + [Footnote 60: _Oresitrophus._--Ver. 223. 'Rover.' From +oros+ 'a + mountain,' and +trephô+ 'to nourish.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If the maxim of Horace, 'Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice + nodus,' had been a little more frequently observed by the ancient + poets, their Deities would not have been so often placed in a + degrading or disgusting light before posterity. There cannot be a + better illustration of the truth of this than the present Fable, where + Ovid represents the chaste and prudent Diana as revenging herself in a + cruel and barbarous manner for the indiscretion, or rather misfortune, + of an innocent young man. + + Cicero mentions several Goddesses of the name of Diana. The first was + the daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine; the second of Jupiter and + Latona; and the third of Upis and Glauce. Strabo mentions another + Diana, named Britomartis, the daughter of Eubalus. The worship, + however, of Diana as the Goddess of the Moon, was, most probably, + derived from Egypt, with the Isis of whom she is perhaps identical. + The adventure narrated in this Fable is most probably to be attributed + to Diana Britomartis, as Strabo tells us, that she was particularly + fond of the chase. Pausanias, in his Attica, tells the story in much + the same terms, but he adds, that on seeing Diana bathing, the novelty + of the sight excited Actæon's curiosity, and prompted him to approach + nearer. To explain this fable, some authors suggest, that Actæon's + dogs becoming mad, devoured him; while others suppose, that having + ruined himself by the expense of supporting a large pack of hounds, + and a hunting establishment, it was reported that he had been devoured + by his dogs. Diodorus Siculus, and Euripides, tell us, that Actæon + showed contempt to Diana, and was about to eat of the sacrifice that + had been offered to her; and of course, in such a case, punishment at + the hands of the Goddess would be deemed a just retribution. + Apollodorus says, that Actæon was brought up by Chiron, and that he + was put to death on Mount Cithæron, for having seen Diana bathing; + though, according to one ancient authority, he was punished for having + made improper overtures to Semele. Apollodorus also says, that his + dogs died of grief, on the loss of their master, and he has preserved + some of their names. + + +FABLE IV. [III.253-301] + + Juno, incensed against Semele for her intrigue with Jupiter, takes the + form of Beroë, the more easily to ensure her revenge. Having first + infused in Semele suspicions of her lover, she then recommends her to + adopt a certain method of proving his constancy. Semele, thus + deceived, obtains a reluctant promise from Jupiter, to make his next + visit to her in the splendor and majesty in which he usually + approached his wife. + +They speak in various ways {of this matter}. To some, the Goddess seems +more severe than is proper; others praise her, and call her deserving +{of her state} of strict virginity: both sides find their reasons. The +wife of Jupiter alone does not so much declare whether she blames or +whether she approves, as she rejoices at the calamity of a family sprung +from Agenor, and transfers the hatred that she has conceived from the +Tyrian mistress to the partners of her race. Lo! a fresh occasion is +{now} added to the former one; and she grieves that Semele is pregnant +from the seed of great Jupiter. She then lets loose her tongue to abuse. + +"And what good have I done by railing so often?" said she. "She herself +must be attacked {by me}. If I am properly called the supreme Juno, +I will destroy her; if it becomes me to hold the sparkling sceptre in my +right hand; if I am the queen, and both the sister and wife of Jupiter. +The sister {I am}, no doubt. But I suppose she is content with a stolen +embrace, and the injury to my bed is but trifling. She is {now} +pregnant; that {alone} was wanting; and she bears the evidence of his +crime in her swelling womb, and wishes to be made a mother by Jupiter, +a thing which hardly fell to my lot alone. So great is her confidence in +her beauty. I will take care[61] he shall deceive her; and may I be no +daughter of Saturn, if she does not descend to the Stygian waves, sunk +{there} by her own {dear} Jupiter." + +Upon this she rises from her throne, and, hidden in a cloud of fiery +hue, she approaches the threshold of Semele. Nor did she remove the +clouds before she counterfeited an old woman, and planted gray hair on +her temples; and furrowed her skin with wrinkles, and moved her bending +limbs with palsied step, and made her voice that of an old woman. She +became Beroë[62] herself, the Epidaurian[63] nurse of Semele. When, +therefore, upon engaging in discourse with her, and {after} long +talking, they came to the name of Jupiter, she sighed, and said, +"I {only} wish it may be Jupiter; yet I {am apt to} fear everything. +Many a one under the name of a God has invaded a chaste bed. Nor yet is +it enough that he is Jupiter; let him, if, indeed, he is the real one, +give some pledge of his affection; and beg of him to bestow his caresses +on thee, just in the greatness and form in which he is received by the +stately Juno; and let him first assume his ensigns {of royalty}." With +such words did Juno tutor the unsuspecting daughter of Cadmus. She +requested of Jupiter a favor, without naming it. To her the God said, +"Make thy choice, thou shalt suffer no denial; and that thou mayst +believe it the more, let the majesty of the Stygian stream bear witness. +He {is} the dread and the God of the Gods." + +Overjoyed at {what was} her misfortune, and too {easily} prevailing, as +now about to perish by the complaisance of her lover, Semele said, +"Present thyself to me, just such as the daughter of Saturn is wont to +embrace thee, when ye honor the ties of Venus." The God wished to shut +her mouth as she spoke, {but} the hasty words had now escaped into air. +He groaned; for neither was it {now} possible for her not to have +wished, nor for him not to have sworn. Therefore, in extreme sadness, he +mounted the lofty skies, and with his nod drew along the attendant +clouds; to which he added showers and lightnings mingled with winds, and +thunders, and the inevitable thunderbolt. + + [Footnote 61: _I will take care._--Ver. 271. 'Faxo,' 'I will + make,' is sometimes used by the best authors for 'fecero;' and + 'faxim' for 'faciam,' or 'fecerim.'] + + [Footnote 62: _Beroë._--Ver. 278. Iris, in the fifth book of the + Æneid (l. 620), assumes the form of another Beroë; and a third + person of that name is mentioned in the fourth book of the + Georgics, l. 34.] + + [Footnote 63: _Epidaurian._--Ver. 278. Epidaurus was a famous city + of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, famous for its temple, dedicated to + the worship of Æsculapius, who was the tutelary Divinity of that + city.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is most probable, that an intrigue between a female named Semele + and one of the princes called Jupiter having had a tragical end, gave + occasion to this Fable. Pausanias, in his Laconica, tells us, that + Cadmus, exasperated against his daughter Semele, caused her and her + son to be thrown into the sea; and that being thrown ashore at Oreate, + an ancient town of Laconia, Semele was buried there. + + Semele, according to Apollodorus, was, after her death, ranked among + the Goddesses by the name of Thyone. He says that her son Bacchus + going down to hell, brought her thence, and carried her up to heaven; + where, according to Nonnus, she conversed with Pallas and Diana, and + ate at the same table with Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The + author, known by the name of Orpheus, gives Semele the title of + Goddess, and +Panbasileia+, or 'Queen of the Universe.' + + + +FABLE V. [III.302-338] + + Semele is visited by Jupiter, according to the promise she had obliged + him to make; but, being unable to support the effulgence of his + lightning, she is burnt to ashes in his presence. Bacchus, with whom + she is pregnant, is preserved; and Tiresias decided the dispute + between Jupiter and Juno, concerning the sexes. + +And yet, as much as possible, he tries to mitigate his powers. Nor is he +now armed with those flames with which he had overthrown the +hundred-handed Typhoeus; in those, {there is} too much fury. There is +another thunder, less baneful, to which the right hand of the Cyclops +gave less ferocity and flames, {and} less anger. The Gods above call +this second-rate thunder; it he assumes, and he enters the house of +Agenor. Her mortal body could not endure[64] the æthereal shock, and she +was burned amid her nuptial presents. The infant, as yet unformed, is +taken out of the womb of his mother, and prematurely (if we can believe +it) is inserted in the thigh of the father, and completes the time that +he should have spent in the womb. His aunt, Ino, nurses him privately in +his early cradle. After that, the Nyseian Nymphs[65] conceal him, +entrusted {to them}, in their caves, and give him the nourishment of +milk. + +And while these things are transacted on earth by the law of destiny, +and the cradle of Bacchus, twice born,[66] is secured; they tell that +Jupiter, by chance, well drenched with nectar, laid aside {all} weighty +cares, and engaged in some free jokes with Juno, in her idle moments, +and said: "Decidedly the pleasure of you, {females}, is greater than +that which falls to the lot of {us} males." She denied it. It was agreed +{between them}, to ask what was the opinion of the experienced Tiresias. +To him both pleasures were well known. For he had separated with a blow +of his staff two bodies of large serpents, as they were coupling in a +green wood; and (passing strange) become a woman from a man, he had +spent seven autumns. In the eighth, he again saw the same {serpents}, +and said, "If the power of a stroke given you is so great as to change +the condition of the giver into the opposite one, I will now strike you +again." Having struck the same snakes, his former sex returned, and his +original shape came {again}. He, therefore, being chosen as umpire in +this sportive contest, confirmed the words of Jove. The daughter of +Saturn is said to have grieved more than was fit, and not in proportion +to the subject; and she condemned the eyes of the umpire to eternal +darkness. + +But the omnipotent father (for it is not allowed any God to cancel the +acts of {another} Deity) gave him the knowledge of things to come, in +recompense for his loss of sight, and alleviated his punishment by this +honor. + + [Footnote 64: _Could not endure._--Ver. 308. 'Corpus mortale + tumultus Non tulit æthereos,' is rendered by Clarke, 'her mortal + body could not bear this æthereal bustle.'] + + [Footnote 65: _The Nyseian Nymphs._--Ver. 314. Nysa was the name + of a city and mountain of Arabia, or India. The tradition was, + that there the Nyseian Nymphs, whose names were Cysseis, Nysa, + Erato, Eryphia, Bromia, and Polyhymnia, brought up Bacchus. The + cave where he was concealed from the fury of Juno, was said to + have had two entrances, from which circumstance Bacchus received + the epithet of Dithyrites. Servius, in his commentary on the sixth + Eclogue of Virgil (l. 15), says that Nysa was the name of the + female that nursed Bacchus. Hyginus also speaks of her as being + the daughter of Oceanus. From the name 'Nysa,' Bacchus received, + in part, his Greek name 'Dionysus.'] + + [Footnote 66: _Twice born._--Ver. 318. Clarke thus translates and + explains this line--'They tell you, that Jupiter well drenched;' + _i.e._ 'fuddled with nectar,' etc.] + + +FABLE VI. [III.339-401] + + Echo, having often amused Juno with her stories, to give time to + Jupiter's mistresses to make their escape, the Goddess, at last, + punishes her for the deception. She is slighted and despised by + Narcissus, with whom she falls in love. + +He, much celebrated by fame throughout the cities of Aonia,[67] gave +unerring answers to the people consulting him. The azure Liriope[68] was +the first to make essay and experiment of his infallible voice; whom +once Cephisus encircled in his winding stream, and offered violence to, +{when} enclosed by his waters. The most beauteous Nymph produced an +infant from her teeming womb, which even then might have been beloved, +and she called him Narcissus. Being consulted concerning him, whether he +was destined to see the distant season of mature old age; the prophet, +expounding destiny, said, "If he never recognizes himself." Long did the +words of the soothsayer appear frivolous; {but} the event, the thing +{itself}, the manner of his death, and the novel nature of his frenzy, +confirmed it. + +And now the son of Cephisus had added one to three times five years, and +he might seem to be a boy and a young man as well. Many a youth,[69] and +many a damsel, courted him; but there was so stubborn a pride in his +youthful beauty, {that} no youths, no damsels made any impression on +him. The noisy Nymph, who has neither learned to hold her tongue after +another speaking, nor to speak first herself, resounding Echo, espied +him, as he was driving the timid stags into his nets. Echo was then a +body, not a voice; and yet the babbler had no other use of her speech +than she now has, to be able to repeat the last words out of many. Juno +had done this; because when often she might have been able to detect the +Nymphs in the mountains in the embrace of her {husband}, Jupiter, she +purposely used to detain[70] the Goddess with a long story, until the +Nymphs had escaped. After the daughter of Saturn perceived {this}, she +said, "But small exercise of this tongue, with which I have been +deluded, shall be allowed thee, and a very short use of thy voice." And +she confirmed her threats by the event. Still, in the end of one's +speaking she redoubles the voice, and returns the words she hears. When, +therefore, she beheld Narcissus[71] wandering through the pathless +forests, and fell in love with him, she stealthily followed his steps; +and the more she followed him, with the nearer flame did she burn. In no +other manner than as when the native sulphur, spread around[72] the tops +of torches, catches the flame applied {to it}. Ah! how often did she +desire to accost him in soft accents, and to employ soft entreaties! +Nature resists, and suffers her not to begin; but what {Nature} does +permit, that she is ready for; to await his voice, to which to return +her own words. + +By chance, the youth, being separated from the trusty company of his +attendants, cries out, "Is there any one here?" and Echo answers "Here!" +He is amazed; and when he has cast his eyes on every side, he cries out +with a loud voice, "Come!" {Whereon} she calls {the youth} who calls. He +looks back; and again, as no one comes, he says, "Why dost thou avoid +me?" and just as many words as he spoke, he receives. He persists; and +being deceived by the imitation of an alternate voice, he says, "Let us +come together here;" and Echo, that could never more willingly answer +any sound whatever, replies, "Let us come together here!" and she +follows up her own words, and rushing from the woods,[73] is going to +throw her arms around the neck she has {so} longed for. He flies; and as +he flies, he exclaims, "Remove thy hands from thus embracing me; I will +die first, before thou shalt have the enjoyment of me." She answers +nothing but "Have the enjoyment of me." {Thus} rejected, she lies hid in +the woods, and hides her blushing face with green leaves, and from that +time lives in lonely caves; but yet her love remains, and increases from +the mortification of her refusal. Watchful cares waste away her +miserable body; leanness shrivels her skin, and all the juices of her +body fly off in air. Her voice and her bones alone are left. + +Her voice {still} continues, {but} they say that her bones received the +form of stones. Since then, she lies concealed in the woods, and is +never seen on the mountains: {but} is heard in all {of them}. It is her +voice {alone} which remains alive in her. + + [Footnote 67: _Aonia._--Ver. 339. Aonia was a mountainous district + of Boeotia, so called from Aon, the son of Neptune, who reigned + there. The name is often used to signify the whole of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 68: _Liriope._--Ver. 342. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Tethys, and was the mother of the youth Narcissus, by + the river Cephisus. Her name is derived from the Greek +leirion+, + 'a lily.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Many a youth._--Ver. 353. Clarke translates 'multi + juvenes,' 'many young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Used to detain._--Ver. 364. Clarke translates 'Illa + Deam longo prudens sermone tenebat Dum fugerent Nymphæ,' 'She + designedly detained the Goddess with some long-winded discourse or + other till the Nymphs ran away.' He translates 'garrula,' in line + 360, 'the prattling hussy.'] + + [Footnote 71: _Narcissus._--Ver. 370. This name is from the Greek + word +narkân+, 'to fade away,' which was characteristic of the + youth's career, and of the duration of the flower.] + + [Footnote 72: _Sulphur spread around._--Ver. 372. These lines + show, that it was the custom of the ancients to place sulphur on + the ends of their torches, to make them ignite the more readily, + in the same manner as the matches of the present day are tipped + with that mineral.] + + [Footnote 73: _Rushing from the woods._--Ver. 388. 'Egressaque + sylvis.' Clarke renders, 'and bouncing out of the wood.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It appears much more reasonable to attempt the explanation of this + story on the grounds of natural philosophy than of history. The poets, + in their fondness for basing every subject upon fiction, probably + invented the fable, to explain what to them appeared an extraordinary + phenomenon. By way of embellishing their story, they tell us that Echo + was the daughter of the Air and the Tongue, and that the God Pan fell + in love with her; by which, probably, the simple fact is meant, that + some person, represented under the name of that god, endeavored to + trace the cause of this phenomenon. + + If, however, we should endeavor to base the story upon purely + historical grounds, we may suppose that it took its rise from some + Nymph, who wandered so far into the woods as to be unable to find her + way out again; and from the fact that those who went to seek her, + hearing nothing but the echo of their own voices, brought back the + strange but unsatisfactory intelligence that the Nymph had been + changed into a voice. + + +FABLE VII. [III.402-510] + + Narcissus falls in love with his own shadow, which he sees in a + fountain; and, pining to death, the Gods change him into a flower, + which still bears his name. + +Thus had he deceived her, thus, too, other Nymphs that sprung from the +water or the mountains, thus the throng of youths before {them}. +Some one, therefore, who had been despised {by him}, lifting up his +hands towards heaven, said, "Thus, though he should love, let him not +enjoy what he loves!" Rhamnusia[74] assented to a prayer so reasonable. +There was a clear spring, like silver, with its unsullied waters, which +neither shepherds, nor she-goats feeding on the mountains, nor any other +cattle, had touched; which neither bird nor wild beast had disturbed, +nor bough falling from a tree. There was grass around it, which the +neighboring water nourished, and a wood, that suffered the stream to +become warm with no {rays of the} sun. Here the youth, fatigued both +with the labor of hunting and the heat, lay down, attracted by the +appearance of the spot, and the spring; and, while he was endeavoring to +quench his thirst, another thirst grew {upon him}. + +While he is drinking, being attracted with the reflection of his own +form, seen {in the water}, he falls in love with a thing that has no +substance; {and} he thinks that to be a body, which is {but} a shadow. +He is astonished at himself, and remains unmoved with the same +countenance, like a statue formed of Parian marble.[75] Lying on the +ground, he gazes on his eyes {like} two stars, and fingers worthy of +Bacchus, and hair worthy of Apollo, and his youthful cheeks and ivory +neck, and the comeliness of his mouth, and his blushing complexion +mingled with the whiteness of snow; and everything he admires, for which +he himself is worthy to be admired. In his ignorance, he covets himself; +and he that approves, is himself {the thing} approved. While he pursues +he is pursued, and at the same moment he inflames and burns. How often +does he give vain kisses to the deceitful spring; how often does he +thrust his arms, catching at the neck he sees, into the middle of the +water, and yet he does not catch himself in them. He knows not what he +sees, but what he sees, by it is he inflamed; and the same mistake that +deceives his eyes, provokes them. Why, credulous {youth}, dost thou +vainly catch at the flying image? What thou art seeking is nowhere; what +thou art in love with, turn but away {and} thou shalt lose it; what thou +seest, the same is {but} the shadow of a reflected form; it has nothing +of its own. It comes and stays with thee; with thee it will depart, if +thou canst {but} depart thence. + +No regard for food,[76] no regard for repose, can draw him away thence; +but, lying along upon the overshadowed grass, he gazes upon the +fallacious image with unsatiated eyes, and by his own sight he himself +is undone. Raising himself a little {while}, extending his arms to the +woods that stand around him, he says, "Was ever, O, ye woods! any one +more fatally in love? For {this} ye know, and have been a convenient +shelter for many a one. And do you remember any one, who {ever} thus +pined away, during so long a time, though so many ages of your life has +been spent? It both pleases me and I see it; but what I see, and what +pleases me, yet I cannot obtain; so great a mistake possesses one in +love; and to make me grieve the more, neither a vast sea separates us, +nor a {long} way, nor mountains, nor a city with its gates closed; we +are kept asunder by a little water. He himself wishes to be embraced; +for as often as I extend my lips to the limpid stream, so often does he +struggle towards me with his face held up; you would think he might be +touched. It is a very little that stands in the way of lovers. Whoever +thou art, come up hither. Why, {dear} boy, the choice one, dost thou +deceive me? or whither dost thou retire, when pursued? Surely, neither +my form nor my age is such as thou shouldst shun; the Nymphs, too, have +courted me. Thou encouragest I know not what hopes in me with that +friendly look, and when I extend my arms to thee, thou willingly +extendest thine; when I smile, thou smilest in return; often, too, have +I observed thy tears, when I was weeping; my signs, too, thou returnest +by thy nods, and, as I guess by the motion of thy beauteous mouth, thou +returnest words that come not to my ears. In thee 'tis I, I {now} +perceive; nor does my form deceive me. I burn with the love of myself, +and both raise the flames and endure them. What shall I do? Should I be +entreated, or should I entreat? What, then, shall I entreat? What I +desire is in my power; plenty has made me poor. Oh! would that I could +depart from my own body! a new wish, {indeed}, in a lover; I could wish +that what I am in love with was away. And now grief is taking away my +strength, and no long period of my life remains; and in my early days am +I cut off; nor is death grievous to me, now about to get rid of my +sorrows by death. I wish that he who is beloved could enjoy a longer +life. Now we two, of one mind, shall die in {the extinction of} one +life." + +{Thus} he said, and, with his mind {but} ill at ease, he returned to the +same reflection, and disturbed the water with his tears; and the form +was rendered defaced by the moving of the stream; when he saw it +{beginning} to disappear, he cried aloud, "Whither dost thou fly? Stay, +I beseech thee! and do not in thy cruelty abandon thy lover; let it be +allowed me to behold that which I may not touch, and to give nourishment +to my wretched frenzy." And, while he was grieving, he tore his garment +from the upper border, and beat his naked breast with his palms, white +as marble. His breast, when struck, received a little redness, no +otherwise than as apples are wont, which are partly white {and} partly +red; or as a grape, not yet ripe, in the parti-colored clusters, is wont +to assume a purple tint. Soon as he beheld this again in the water, when +clear, he could not endure it any longer; but, as yellow wax with the +fire, or the hoar frost of the morning, is wont to waste away with the +warmth of the sun, so he, consumed by love, pined away, and wasted by +degrees with a hidden flame. And now, no longer was his complexion of +white mixed with red; neither his vigor nor his strength, nor {the +points} which had charmed when seen so lately, nor {even} his body, +which formerly Echo had been in love with, now remained. Yet, when she +saw these things, although angry, and mindful {of his usage of her}, she +was grieved, and, as often as the unhappy youth said, "Alas!" she +repeated, "Alas!" with re-echoing voice; and when he struck his arms +with his hands, she, too, returned the like sound of a blow. + +His last accents, as he looked into the water, as usual, were these: +"Ah, youth, beloved in vain!" and the spot returned just as many words; +and after he had said, "Farewell!" Echo, too, said, "Farewell!" He laid +down his wearied head upon the green grass, {when} night closed the eyes +that admired the beauty of their master; and even then, after he had +been received into the infernal abodes, he used to look at himself in +the Stygian waters. His Naiad sisters lamented him, and laid their +hair,[77] cut off, over their brother; the Dryads, too, lamented him, +{and} Echo resounded to their lamentations. And now they were preparing +the funeral pile, and the shaken torches, and the bier. The body was +nowhere {to be found}. Instead of his body, they found a yellow flower, +with white leaves encompassing it in the middle. + + [Footnote 74: _Rhamnusia._--Ver. 406. Nemesis, the Goddess of + Retribution, and the avenger of crime, was the daughter of + Jupiter. She had a famous temple at Rhamnus, one of the 'pagi,' or + boroughs of Athens. Her statue was there, carved by Phidias out of + the marble which the Persians brought into Greece for the purpose + of making a statue of Victory out of it, and which was thus + appropriately devoted to the Goddess of Retribution. This statue + wore a crown, and had wings, and holding a spear of ash in the + right hand, it was seated on a stag.] + + [Footnote 75: _Parian marble._--Ver. 419. Paros was an island in + the Ægean sea, one of the Cyclades; it was famous for the valuable + quality of its marble, which was especially used for the purpose + of making statues of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 76: _Regard for food._--Ver. 437. 'Cereris.' The name of + the Goddess of corn is here used instead of bread itself.] + + [Footnote 77: _Laid their hair._--Ver. 506. It was the custom + among the ancients for females, when lamenting the dead, not only + to cut off their hair, but to lay it on the body, when extended + upon the funeral pile.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If this story is based upon any historical facts, they are entirely + lost to us; as all we learn from history concerning Narcissus, is the + fact that he was a Thespian by birth. The Fable seems rather to be + intended as a useful moral lesson, disclosing the fatal effects of + self-love. His pursuit, too, of his own image, ever retiring from his + embrace, strongly resembles the little reality that exists in many of + those pleasures which mankind so eagerly pursue. + + Pausanias, in his Boeotica, somewhat varies the story. He tells us + that Narcissus having lost his sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who + resembled him very much, and was his constant companion in the chase, + thought, on seeing himself one day in a fountain, that it was the + shade of his lost sister, and, thereupon, pined away and died of + grief. According to him, the fountain was near a village called + Donacon, in the country of the Thespians. Pausanias regards the + account of his change into the flower which bears his name as a mere + fiction, since Pamphus says that Proserpina, when carried away, long + before the time of Narcissus, gathered that flower in the fields of + Enna; and that the same flower was sacred to her. Persons sacrificing + to the Furies, or Eumenides, used to wear chaplets made of the + Narcissus, because that flower commonly grew about graves and + sepulchres. + + Tiresias, who predicted the untoward fate of Narcissus, was, as we are + informed by Apollodorus, the son of Evenus and Chariclo, and was the + most renowned soothsayer of his time. He lost his life by drinking of + the fountain of Telphusa when he was overheated; or, as some suppose, + through the unwholesome quality of the water. As he lived to a great + age, and became blind towards the end of his life, the story, which + Ovid mentions, was invented respecting him. Another version of it was, + that he lost his sight, by reason of his having seen Minerva while + bathing. This story was very probably based either upon the fact that + he had composed a Treatise upon the Animal Functions of the Sexes, or + that he had promulgated the doctrine that the stars had not only souls + (a common opinion in those times), but also that they were of + different sexes. He is supposed to have lived about 1200 years before + the Christian era. + + +FABLE VIII. [III.511-733] + + Pentheus ridicules the predictions of Tiresias; and not only forbids + his people to worship Bacchus, who had just entered Greece in triumph, + but even commands them to capture him, and to bring him into his + presence. Under the form of Acoetes, one of his companions, Bacchus + suffers that indignity, and relates to Pentheus the wonders which the + God had wrought. The recital enrages Pentheus still more, who + thereupon goes to Mount Cithæron, to disturb the orgies then + celebrating there; on which his own mother and the other Bacchantes + tear him to pieces. + +This thing, when known, brought deserved fame to the prophet through the +cities of Achaia;[78] and great was the reputation of the soothsayer. +Yet Pentheus,[79] the son of Echion, a contemner of the Gods above, +alone, of all men, despises him, and derides the predicting words of the +old man, and upbraids him with his darkened state, and the misfortune of +{having lost} his sight. He, shaking his temples, white with hoary hair, +says: "How fortunate wouldst thou be, if thou as well couldst become +deprived of this light, that thou mightst not behold the rites of +Bacchus. For soon the day will come, and even now I predict that it is +not far off, when the new {God} Liber, the son of Semele, shall come +hither. Unless thou shalt vouchsafe him the honor of a temple, thou +shalt be scattered, torn in pieces, in a thousand places, and with thy +blood thou shalt pollute both the woods, and thy mother and the sisters +of thy mother. {These things} will come to pass; for thou wilt not +vouchsafe honor to the Divinity; and thou wilt complain that under this +darkness I have seen too much." + +The son of Echion drives him away as he says such things as these. +Confirmation follows his words, and the predictions of the prophet are +fulfilled. Liber comes, and the fields resound with festive howlings. +The crowd runs out; both matrons and new-married women mixed with the +men, both high and low, are borne along to the {celebration of} rites +{till then} unknown. "What madness," says Pentheus, "has confounded your +minds, O ye warlike men,[80] descendants of the Dragon? Can brass +knocked against brass prevail so much with you? And the pipe with the +bending horn, and these magical delusions? And shall the yells of women, +and madness produced by wine, and troops of effeminate {wretches}, and +empty tambourines[81] prevail over you, whom neither the warrior's sword +nor the trumpet could affright, nor troops with weapons prepared {for +fight}? Am I to wonder at you, old men, who, carried over distant seas, +have fixed in these abodes a {new} Tyre, and your banished household +Gods, {but who} now allow them to be taken without a struggle? Or you, +of more vigorous age and nearer to my own, ye youths; whom it was +befitting to be brandishing arms, and not the thyrsus,[82] and to be +covered with helmets, not green leaves? Do be mindful, I entreat you, of +what race you are sprung, and assume the courage of that dragon, who +{though but} one, destroyed many. He died for his springs and his +stream; but do you conquer for your own fame. He put the valiant to +death; do you expel the feeble {foe}, and regain your country's honor. +If the fates forbid Thebes to stand long, I wish that engines of war[83] +and men should demolish the walls, and that fire and sword should +resound. {Then} should we be wretched without {any} fault {of our own}, +and our fate were to be lamented, {but} not concealed, and our tears +would be free from shame. But now Thebes will be taken by an unarmed +boy, whom neither wars delight, nor weapons, nor the employment of +horses, but hair wet with myrrh, and effeminate chaplets, and purple, +and gold interwoven with embroidered garments; whom I, indeed, (do you +only stand aside) will presently compel to own that his father is +assumed, and that his sacred rites are fictitious. Has Acrisius[84] +courage enough to despise the vain Deity, and to shut the gates of Argos +against his approach; and shall this stranger affright Pentheus with all +Thebes? Go quickly, (this order he gives to his servants), go, and bring +hither in chains the ringleader. Let there be no slothful delay in +{executing} my commands." + +His grandfather,[85] {Cadmus}, Athamas, and the rest of the company of +his friends rebuke him with expostulations, and in vain try to restrain +him. By their admonition he becomes more violent, and by being curbed +his fury is irritated, and is on the increase, and the very restraint +did him injury. So have I beheld a torrent, where nothing obstructed it +in its course, run gently and with moderate noise; but wherever beams +and stones in its way withheld it, it ran foaming and raging, and more +violent from its obstruction. Behold! {the servants} return, all stained +with blood; and when their master inquires where Bacchus is, they deny +that they have seen Bacchus. "But this one," say they, "we have taken, +who was his attendant and minister in his sacred rites." And {then} they +deliver one, who, from the Etrurian nation, had followed the sacred +rites of the Deity, with his hands bound behind his back. + +Pentheus looks at him with eyes that anger has made terrible, and +although he can scarcely defer the time of his punishment, he says, +"O {wretch}, doomed to destruction, and about, by thy death, to set an +example to others, tell me thy name, and the name of thy parents, and +thy country, and why thou dost attend the sacred rites of a new +fashion." He, void of fear, says, "My name is Acoetes; Mæonia[86] is my +country; my parents were of humble station. My father left me no fields +for the hardy oxen to till, no wool-bearing flocks, nor any herds. He +himself was {but} poor, and he was wont with line, and hooks, to deceive +the leaping fishes, and to take them with the rod. His trade was his +{only} possession. When he gave that calling over {to me}, he said, +'Receive, as the successor and heir of my employment, those riches which +I possess;' and at his death he left me nothing but the streams. This +one thing alone can I call my patrimony. {But} soon, that I might not +always be confined to the same rocks, I learned with a steadying right +hand to guide the helm of the ship, and I made observations with my eyes +of the showery Constellation of the Olenian she-goat,[87] and +Taygete,[88] and the Hyades,[89] and the Bear, and the quarters of the +winds, and the harbors fit for ships. By chance, as I was making for +Delos, I touched at the coast of the land of Dia,[90] and came up to the +shore by {plying} the oars on the right side; and I gave a nimble leap, +and lighted upon the wet sand. When the night was past, and the dawn +first began to grow red, I arose and ordered {my men} to take in fresh +water, and I pointed out the way which led to the stream. I myself, from +a lofty eminence, looked around {to see} what the breeze promised me; +and {then} I called my companions, and returned to the vessel. 'Lo! we +are here,' says Opheltes, my chief mate; and having found, as he +thought, a prize in the lonely fields, he was leading along the shore, +a boy with {all} the beauty of a girl. He, heavy with wine and sleep, +seemed to stagger, and to follow with difficulty. I examined his dress, +his looks, and his gait, {and} I saw nothing there which could be taken +to be mortal. I both was sensible of it, and I said to my companions, 'I +am in doubt what Deity is in that body; but in that body a Deity there +is. Whoever thou art, O be propitious and assist our toils; and pardon +these as well.' 'Cease praying for us,' said Dictys, than whom there was +not another more nimble at climbing to the main-top-yards, and at +sliding down by catching hold of a rope. This Libys, this the +yellow-haired Melanthus, the guardian of the prow, and this Alcimedon +approved of; and Epopeus[91] as well, the cheerer of their spirits, who +by his voice gave both rest and time to the oars; {and} so did all the +rest; so blind is the greed for booty. 'However,' I said, 'I will not +allow this ship to be damaged by this sacred freight. Here I have the +greatest share of right.' and I opposed them at the entrance. + +"Lycabas, the boldest of all the number, was enraged, who, expelled from +a city of Etruria, was suffering exile as the punishment for a dreadful +murder.[92] He, while I was resisting, seized hold of my throat with his +youthful fist, and shaking me, had thrown me overboard into the sea, if +I had not, although stunned, held fast by grasping a rope. The impious +crew approved of the deed. Then at last Bacchus (for Bacchus it was), as +though his sleep had been broken by the noise, and his sense was +returning into his breast after {much} wine, said: 'What are you doing? +What is this noise? Tell me, sailors, by what means have I come hither? +Whither do you intend to carry me?' 'Lay aside thy fears,' said Proreus, +'and tell us what port thou wouldst wish to reach. Thou shalt stop at +the land that thou desirest.' 'Direct your course then to Naxos,'[93] +says Liber, 'that is my home; it shall prove a hospitable land for you.' + +"In their deceit they swore by the ocean and by all the Deities, that so +it should be; and bade me give sail to the painted ship. Naxos was to +our right; {and} as I was {accordingly} setting sail for the right hand, +every one said for himself, 'What art thou about, madman? What insanity +possesses thee, Acoetes? Stand away to the left.' The greater part +signified {their meaning} to me by signs; some whispered in my ear what +they wanted. I was at a loss, and I said, 'Let some one else take the +helm;' and I withdrew myself from the execution both of their +wickedness, and of my own calling. I was reviled by them all, and the +whole crew muttered {reproaches} against me. Æthalion, among them, says, +'As if, forsooth, all our safety is centred in thee,' and he himself +comes up, and takes my duty; and leaving Naxos, he steers a different +course. Then the God, mocking them as if he had at last but that moment +discovered their knavery, looks down upon the sea from the crooked +stern; and, like one weeping, he says: 'These are not the shores, +sailors, that you have promised me; this is not the land desired by me. +By what act have I deserved this treatment? What honor is it to you, if +you {that are} young men, deceive a {mere} boy? if you {that are} many, +deceive me, {who am but} one?' I had been weeping for some time. The +impious gang laughed at my tears, and beat the sea with hastening oars. +Now by himself do I swear to thee (and no God is there more powerful +than he), that I am relating things to thee as true, as they are beyond +all belief. The ship stood still upon the ocean, no otherwise than if it +was occupying a dry dock. They, wondering at it, persisted in the plying +of their oars; they unfurled their sails, and endeavored to speed onward +with this twofold aid. Ivy impeded the oars,[94] and twined {around +them} in encircling wreaths; and clung to the sails with heavy clusters +of berries. He himself, having his head encircled with bunches of +grapes, brandished a lance covered with vine leaves. Around him, tigers +and visionary forms of lynxes, and savage bodies of spotted panthers, +were extended. + +"The men leaped overboard, whether it was madness or fear that caused +this; and first {of all}, Medon began to grow black with fins, with a +flattened body, and to bend in the curvature of the back-bone. To him +Lycabas said, 'Into what prodigy art thou changing?' and, as he spoke, +the opening of his mouth was wide, his nose became crooked, and his +hardened skin received scales upon it. But Libys, while he was +attempting to urge on the resisting oars, saw his hands shrink into a +small compass, and now to be hands no longer, {and} that now, {in fact}, +they may be pronounced fins. Another, desirous to extend his arms to the +twisting ropes, had no arms, and becoming crooked, with a body deprived +of limbs, he leaped into the waves; the end of his tail was hooked, just +as the horns of the half-moon are curved. They flounce about on every +side, and bedew {the ship} with plenteous spray, and again they emerge, +and once more they return beneath the waves. They sport with {all} the +appearance of a dance, and toss their sportive bodies, and blow forth +the sea, received within their wide nostrils. Of twenty the moment +before (for so many did that ship carry), I was the only one remaining. +The God encouraged me, frightened and chilled with my body all +trembling, and scarcely myself, saying, 'Shake off thy fear, and make +for Dia.' Arriving there, I attended upon the sacred rites of Bacchus, +at the kindled altars." + +"We have lent ear to a long story,"[95] says Pentheus, "that our anger +might consume its strength in its tediousness. Servants! drag him +headlong, and send to Stygian night his body, racked with dreadful +tortures." At once the Etrurian Acoetes, dragged away, is shut up in a +strong prison; and while the cruel instruments of the death that is +ordered, and the iron and the fire are being made ready, the report is +that the doors opened of their own accord, and that the chains, of their +own accord, slipped from off his arms, no one loosening them. + +The son of Echion persists: and now he does not command others to go, +but goes himself to where Cithæron,[96] chosen for the celebration of +these sacred rites, was resounding with singing, and the shrill voices +of the votaries of Bacchus. Just as the high-mettled steed neighs, when +the warlike trumpeter gives the alarm with the sounding brass, and +conceives a desire for battle, so did the sky, struck with the +long-drawn howlings, excite Pentheus, and his wrath was rekindled on +hearing the clamor. There was, about the middle of the mountain, the +woods skirting its extremity, a plain free from trees, {and} visible on +every side. Here his mother was the first to see him looking on the +sacred rites with profane eyes; she first was moved by a frantic +impulse, {and} she first wounded her {son}, Pentheus, by hurling her +thyrsus, {and} cried out, "Ho! come, my two sisters;[97] that boar +which, of enormous size, is roaming amid our fields, that boar I must +strike." All the raging multitude rushes upon him alone; all collect +together, and all follow him, now trembling, now uttering words less +atrocious {than before}, now blaming himself, now confessing that he has +offended. + +However, on being wounded, he says, "Give me thy aid, Autonoë, my aunt; +let the ghost of Actæon[98] influence thy feelings." She knows not what +Actæon {means}, and tears away his right hand as he is praying; the +other is dragged off by the violence of Ino. The wretched {man} has +{now} no arms to extend to his mother; but showing his maimed body, with +the limbs torn off, he says, "Look at this, my mother!" At the sight +Agave howls aloud, and tosses her neck, and shakes her locks in the air; +and seizing his head, torn off, with her blood-stained fingers, she +cries out, "Ho! my companions, this victory is our work!" + +The wind does not more speedily bear off, from a lofty tree, the leaves +nipped by the cold of autumn, and now adhering with difficulty, than +were the limbs of the man, torn asunder by their accursed hands. +Admonished by such examples, the Ismenian matrons frequent the new +worship, and offer frankincense, and reverence the sacred altars. + + [Footnote 78: _Cities of Achaia._--Ver. 511. Achaia was properly + the name of a part of Peloponnesus, on the gulf of Corinth; but + the name is very frequently applied to the whole of Greece.] + + [Footnote 79: _Pentheus._--Ver. 513. He was the son of Echion and + Agave, the daughter of Cadmus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warlike men._--Ver. 531. 'Mavortia.' Mavors was a + name of Mars, frequently used by the poets. The Thebans were + 'proles Mavortia,' as being sprung from the teeth of the dragon, + who was said to be a son of Mars.] + + [Footnote 81: _Tambourines._--Ver. 537. 'Tympana.' These + instruments, among the ancients, were of various kinds. Some + resembled the modern tambourine; while others presented a flat + circular disk on the upper surface, and swelled out beneath, like + the kettle-drum of the present day. They were covered with the + hides of oxen, or of asses, and were beaten either with a stick or + the hand. They were especially used in the rites of Bacchus, and + of Cybele.] + + [Footnote 82: _The thyrsus._--Ver. 542. The thyrsus was a long + staff, carried by Bacchus, and by the Satyrs and Bacchanalians + engaged in the worship of the God of the grape. It was sometimes + terminated by the apple of the pine, or fir-cone, the fir-tree + being esteemed sacred to Bacchus, from the turpentine flowing + therefrom and its apples being used in making wine. It is, + however, frequently represented as terminating in a knot of ivy, + or vine leaves, with grapes or berries arranged in a conical form. + Sometimes, also, a white fillet was tied to the pole just below + the head. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, and Macrobius, that + Bacchus converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers + into weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. + A wound with its point was supposed to produce madness.] + + [Footnote 83: _Engines of war._--Ver. 549. 'Tormenta.' These were + the larger engines of destruction used in ancient warfare. They + were so called from the verb 'torqueo,' 'to twist,' from their + being formed by the twisting of hair, fibre, or strips of leather. + The different sorts were called 'balistæ' and 'catapultæ.' The + former were used to impel stones; the latter, darts and arrows. In + sieges, the 'Aries,' or 'battering ram,' which received its name + from having an iron head resembling that of a ram, was employed in + destroying the lower part of the wall, while the 'balista' was + overthrowing the battlements, and the 'catapulta' was employed to + shoot any of the besieged who appeared between them. The 'balistæ' + and 'catapultæ' were divided into the 'greater' and the 'less.' + When New Carthage, the arsenal of the Carthaginians, was taken, + according to Livy (b. xxvi. c. 47), there were found in it 120 + large and 281 small catapultæ, and twenty-three large and fifty-two + small balistæ. The various kinds of 'tormenta' are said to have + been introduced about the time of Alexander the Great. If so, + Ovid must here be committing an anachronism, in making Pentheus + speak of 'tormenta,' who lived so many ages before that time. To + commit anachronisms with impunity seems, however, to be the poet's + privilege, from Ovid downwards to our Shakspere, where he makes + Falstaff talk familiarly of the West Indies. We find the + dictionaries giving 'tormentum' as the Latin word for 'cannon;' so + that in this case we may say not that 'necessity is the mother of + invention,' but rather that she is 'the parent of anachronism.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Acrisius._--Ver. 559. He was a king of Argos, the + son of Abas, and the father of Danaë. He refused, and probably + with justice, to admit Bacchus or his rites within the gates of + his city.] + + [Footnote 85: _His grandfather._--Ver. 563. Athamas was the son of + Æolus, and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus; + who being the father of Agave, the mother of Pentheus, is the + grandfather mentioned in the present line.] + + [Footnote 86: _Mæonia._--Ver. 583. Colonists were said to have + proceeded from Lydia, or Mæonia, to the coasts of Etruria. Bacchus + assumes the name of Acoetes, as corresponding to the Greek epithet + +akoitês+, 'watchful,' or 'sleepless;' which ought to be the + characteristic of the careful 'pilot,' or 'helmsman.'] + + [Footnote 87: _Olenian she-goat._--Ver. 594. Amalthea, the goat + that suckled Jupiter, is called Olenian, either because she was + reared in Olenus, a city of Boeotia, or because she was placed as a + Constellation between the arms, +ôlenai+, of the Constellation + Auriga, or the Charioteer. The rising and setting of this + Constellation were supposed to produce showers.] + + [Footnote 88: _Taygete._--Ver. 594. She was one of the Pleiades, + the daughters of Atlas, who were placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 89: _Hyades._--Ver. 594. These were the Dodonides, or + nurses of Bacchus, whom Jupiter, as a mark of his favor, placed in + the number of the Constellations. Their name is derived from + +huein+, 'to rain.'] + + [Footnote 90: _Dia._--Ver. 596. This was another name of the Isle + of Naxos. Gierig thinks that the reading here is neither 'Diæ' nor + 'Chiæ,' which are the two common readings; as the situation of + neither the Isle of Naxos nor that of Chios, would suit the course + of the ship, as stated in the text. He thinks that the Isle of + Ceos, or Cea, is meant, which Ptolemy calls +Kia+, and which he + thinks ought here to be written 'Ciæ.'] + + [Footnote 91: _Epopeus._--Ver. 619. He was the +keleustês+, + 'pausarius,' or keeper of time for the rowers.] + + [Footnote 92: _A dreadful murder._--Ver. 626. They seem to have + been composed of much the same kind of lawless materials that + formed the daring crews of the buccanier Morgan and Captain Kydd + in more recent times.] + + [Footnote 93: _Naxos._--Ver. 636. This was the most famous island + of the group of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 94: _Ivy impeded the oars._--Ver. 664. Hyginus tells us, + that Bacchus changed the oars into thyrsi, the sails into clusters + of grapes, and the rigging into ivy branches. In the Homeric hymn + on this subject we find the ship flowing with wine, vines growing + on the sails, ivy twining round the mast, and the benches wreathed + with chaplets.] + + [Footnote 95: _To a long story._--Ver. 692. Clarke renders this + line, 'We have lent our ears to a long tale of a tub.'] + + [Footnote 96: _Cithæron._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + Boeotia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus there celebrated.] + + [Footnote 97: _My two sisters._--Ver. 713. These were Ino and + Autonoë.] + + [Footnote 98: _Ghost of Actæon._--Ver. 720. He appeals to Autonoë, + the mother of Actæon, to remember the sad fate of her own son, and + to show him some mercy; but in vain: for, as one commentator on + the passage says, 'Drunkenness had taken away both her reason and + her memory.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero mentions two Deities of the name of Bacchus; while other + authors speak of several of that name. The first was the son of + Jupiter and Proserpina; the second was the son of the Nile, and the + founder of the city of Nysa, in Arabia; Caprius was the father of the + third. The fourth was the son of the Moon and Jupiter, in honor of + whom the Orphic ceremonies were performed. The fifth was the son of + Nisus and Thione, and the instituter of the Trieterica. Diodorus + Siculus mentions but three of the name of Bacchus; namely, the Indian, + surnamed the bearded Bacchus, who conquered India; the son of Jupiter + and Ceres, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and + Semele, who was called the Theban Bacchus. + + The most reasonable opinion seems to be that of Herodotus and + Plutarch, who inform us, that the true Bacchus, and the most ancient + of them all, was born in Egypt, and was originally called Osiris. The + worship of that Divinity passed from Egypt to Greece, where it + received great alterations; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was + Orpheus who introduced it, and made those innovations. In gratitude to + the family of Cadmus, from which he had received many favors, he + dedicated to Bacchus, the grandson of Cadmus, those mysteries which + had been instituted in honor of Osiris, whose worship was then but + little known in Greece. Diodorus Siculus says, that as Semele was + delivered of Bacchus in the seventh month, it was reported that + Jupiter shut him up in his thigh, to carry him there the remaining + time of gestation. This Fable was probably founded on the meaning of + an equivocal word. The Greek word +mêros+ signifies either 'a thigh,' + or 'the hollow of a mountain.' Thus the Greeks, instead of saying that + Bacchus had been nursed on Mount Nysa, in Arabia, according to the + Egyptian version of the story, published that he had been carried in + the thigh of Jupiter. + + As Bacchus applied himself to the cultivation of the vine, and taught + his subjects several profitable and necessary arts, he was honored as + a Divinity; and having won the esteem of many neighboring countries, + his worship soon spread. Among his several festivals there was one + called the Trieterica, which was celebrated every three years. In that + feast the Bacchantes carried the figure of the God in a chariot drawn + by two tigers, or panthers; and, crowned with vine leaves, and holding + thyrsi in their hands, they ran in a frantic manner around the + chariot, filling the air with the noise of tambourines and brazen + instruments, shouting 'Evoë. Bacche!' and calling the God by his + several names of Bromius, Lyæus, Evan, Lenæus, and Sabazius. To this + ceremonial, received from the Egyptians, the Greeks added other + ceremonies replete with abominable licentiousness, and repulsive to + common decency. These were often suppressed by public enactment, but + were as often re-established by the votaries of lewdness and + immodesty, and such as found in these festivals a pretext and + opportunity for the commission of the most horrible offences. + + The story of the unfortunate fate of Pentheus is supposed by the + ancient writers to have been strictly true. Pentheus, the son of + Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, having succeeded his + grandfather in his kingdom, is supposed, like him, to have opposed + those abuses that had crept into the mysteries of Bacchus, and went to + Mount Cithæron for the purpose of chastising the Bacchantes, who were + celebrating his festival; whereupon, in their frantic madness, the + worshippers, among whom were his mother and his aunt, tore him in + pieces. Pausanias, however, says that Pentheus really was a wicked + prince; and he somewhat varies his story, as he tells us that having + got into a tree to overlook the secret ceremonies of the orgies, + Pentheus was discovered by the Bacchantes, who punished his curiosity + by putting him to death. The story of the transformation of the + mariners is supposed by Bochart to have been founded on the adventure + of certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the + figure of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called + 'tursio,' probably the porpoise, or sea-hog. They were probably + shipwrecked near the Isle of Naxos, which was sacred to Bacchus, whose + mysteries they had perhaps neglected, or even despised. On this + slender ground, perhaps, the report spread, that the God himself had + destroyed them, as a punishment for their impiety. + + + + +BOOK THE FOURTH. + + +FABLE I. [IV.1-166] + + The daughters of Minyas, instead of celebrating the festival of + Bacchus, apply themselves to other pursuits during the ceremonies; and + among several narratives which they relate to pass away the time, they + divert themselves with the story of the adventures of Pyramus and + Thisbe. These lovers having made an appointment to meet without the + walls of Babylon, Thisbe arrives first; but at the sight of a lioness, + she runs to hide herself in a cave, and in her alarm, drops her veil. + Pyramus, arriving soon after, finds the veil of his mistress stained + with blood; and believing her to be dead, kills himself with his own + sword. Thisbe returns from the cave; and finding Pyramus weltering in + his blood, she plunges the same fatal weapon into her own breast. + +But Alcithoë, the daughter of Minyas,[1] does not think that the +rites[2] of the God ought to be received; but still, in her rashness, +denies that Bacchus is the progeny of Jupiter; and she has her +sisters[3] as partners in her impiety. + +The priest had ordered both mistresses and maids, laying aside their +employments, to have their breasts covered with skins, and to loosen the +fillets of their hair, and {to put} garlands on their locks, and to take +the verdant thyrsi in their hands; and had prophesied that severe would +be the resentment of the Deity, {if} affronted. Both matrons and +new-married women obey, and lay aside their webs and work-baskets,[4] +and their tasks unfinished; and offer frankincense, and invoke both +Bacchus and Bromius,[5] and Lyæus,[6] and the son of the Flames, and the +Twice-Born, and the only one that had two mothers.[7] To these is added +{the name of} Nyseus, and the unshorn Thyoneus,[8] and with Lenæus,[9] +the planter of the genial grape, and Nyctelius,[10] and father Eleleus, +and Iacchus,[11] and Evan,[12] and a great many other names, which thou, +Liber, hast besides, throughout the nations of Greece. For thine is +youth everlasting; thou art a boy to all time, thou art beheld {as} the +most beauteous {of all} in high heaven; thou hast the features of a +virgin, when thou standest without thy horns. By thee the East was +conquered, as far as where swarthy India is bounded by the remote +Ganges. Thou {God}, worthy of our veneration, didst smite Pentheus, and +the axe-bearing Lycurgus,[13] sacrilegious {mortals}; thou didst hurl +the bodies of the Etrurians into the sea. Thou controllest the neck of +the lynxes yoked to thy chariot, graced with the painted reins. The +Bacchanals and the Satyrs follow {thee}; the drunken old man, too, +{Silenus}, who supports his reeling limbs with a staff, and sticks by no +means very fast to his bending ass. And wherever thou goest, the shouts +of youths, and together the voices of women, and tambourines beaten with +the hands, and hollow cymbals resound, and the box-wood {pipe}, with its +long bore. The Ismenian matrons ask thee to show thyself mild and +propitious, and celebrate thy sacred rites as prescribed. + +The daughters of Minyas alone, within doors, interrupting the festival +with unseasonable labor,[14] are either carding wool, or twirling the +threads with their fingers, or are plying at the web, and keeping the +handmaids to their work. One of them, {as she is} drawing the thread +with her smooth thumb, says, "While others are idling, and thronging to +{these} fanciful rites, let us, whom Pallas, a better Deity, occupies, +alleviate the useful toil of our hands with varying discourse; and let +us relate by turns to our disengaged ears, for the general {amusement}, +something each in our turn, that will not permit the time to seem long." +They approve of what she says, and her sisters bid her to be the first +to tell her story. + +She considers which of many she shall tell (for she knows many a one), +and she is in doubt whether she shall tell of thee, Babylonian +Dercetis,[15] whom the people of Palestine[16] believe to inhabit the +pools, with thy changed form, scales covering thy limbs; or rather how +her daughter, taking wings, passed her latter years in whitened turrets; +or how a Naiad,[17] by charms and too potent herbs, changed the bodies +of the young men into silent fishes, until she suffered the same +herself. Or how the tree which bore white fruit {formerly}, now bears it +of purple hue, from the contact of blood. This {story} pleases her; +this, because it was no common tale, she began in manner such as this, +while the wool followed the thread:-- + +"Pyramus and Thisbe, the one the most beauteous of youths,[18] the other +preferred before {all} the damsels that the East contained, lived in +adjoining houses; where Semiramis is said to have surrounded her lofty +city[19] with walls of brick.[20] The nearness caused their first +acquaintance, and their first advances {in love}; with time their +affection increased. They would have united themselves, too, by the tie +of marriage, but their fathers forbade it. A thing which they could not +forbid, they were both inflamed, with minds equally captivated. There is +no one acquainted with it; by nods and signs, they hold converse. And +the more the fire is smothered, the more, when {so} smothered, does it +burn. The party-wall, common to the two houses, was cleft by a small +chink, which it had got formerly, when it was built. This defect, +remarked by no one for so many ages, you lovers (what does not love +perceive?) first found one, and you made it a passage for your voices, +and the accents of love used to pass through it in safety, with the +gentlest murmur. Oftentimes, after they had taken their stations, Thisbe +on one side, {and} Pyramus on the other, and the breath of their mouths +had been {mutually} caught by turns, they used to say, 'Envious wall, +why dost thou stand in the way of lovers? what great matter were it, for +thee to suffer us to be joined with our entire bodies? Or if that is too +much, that, at least, thou shouldst open, for the exchange of kisses. +Nor are we ungrateful; we confess that we are indebted to thee, that a +passage has been given for our words to our loving ears.' Having said +this much, in vain, on their respective sides, about night they said, +'Farewell'; and gave those kisses each on their own side, which did not +reach the other side. + +"The following morning had removed the fires of the night, and the Sun, +with its rays, had dried the grass wet with rime, {when} they met +together at the wonted spot. Then, first complaining much in low +murmurs, they determine, in the silent night, to try to deceive their +keepers, and to steal out of doors; and when they have left the house, +to quit the buildings of the city as well: but that they may not have to +wander, roaming in the open fields, to meet at the tomb of Ninus,[21] +and to conceal themselves beneath the shade of a tree. There was there a +lofty mulberry tree, very full of snow-white fruit, quite close to a +cold spring. The arrangement suits them; and the light, seeming to +depart {but} slowly, is buried in the waters, and from the same waters +the night arises. The clever Thisbe, turning the hinge, gets out in the +dark, and deceives her {attendants}, and, having covered her face, +arrives at the tomb, and sits down under the tree agreed upon; love made +her bold. Lo! a lioness approaches, having her foaming jaws besmeared +with the recent slaughter of oxen, about to quench her thirst with the +water of the neighboring spring. The Babylonian Thisbe sees her at a +distance, by the rays of the moon, and with a trembling foot she flies +to a dark cave; and, while she flies, her veil falling from her back, +she leaves it behind. When the savage lioness has quenched her thirst +with plenteous water, as she is returning into the woods, she tears the +thin covering, found by chance without Thisbe herself, with her +blood-stained mouth. + +"Pyramus, going out later {than Thisbe}, saw the evident footmarks of a +wild beast, in the deep dust, and grew pale all over his face. But, as +soon as he found her veil, as well, dyed with blood, he said: 'One night +will be the ruin of two lovers, of whom she was the most deserving of a +long life. My soul is guilty; 'tis I that have destroyed thee, much to +be lamented; who bade thee to come by night to places full of terror, +and came not hither first. O, whatever lions are lurking beneath this +rock, tear my body in pieces, and devour my accursed entrails with +ruthless jaws. But it is the part of a coward to wish for death.' He +takes up the veil of Thisbe, and he takes it with himself to the shade +of the tree agreed on, and, after he has bestowed tears on the +well-known garment, he gives kisses {to the same}, and he says, +'Receive, now, a draught of my blood as well!' and then plunges the +sword, with which he is girt, into his bowels; and without delay, as he +is dying, he draws it out of the warm wound. As he falls on his back +upon the ground, the blood spurts forth on high, not otherwise than as +when a pipe is burst on the lead decaying,[22] and shoots out afar the +liquid water from the hissing flaw, and cleaves the air with its jet. +The fruit of the tree, by the sprinkling of the blood, are changed to a +dark tint, and the root, soaked with the gore, tints the hanging +mulberries with a purple hue. Behold! not yet having banished her fear, +{Thisbe} returns, that she may not disappoint her lover, and seeks for +the youth both with her eyes and her affection, and longs to tell him +how great dangers she has escaped. And when she observes the spot, and +the altered appearance of the tree, she doubts if it is the same, so +uncertain does the color of the fruit make her. While she is in doubt, +she sees palpitating limbs throbbing upon the bloody ground; she draws +back her foot, and having her face paler than box-wood,[23] she shudders +like the sea, which trembles[24] when its surface is skimmed by a gentle +breeze. But, after pausing a time, she had recognized her own lover, she +smote her arms, undeserving {of such usage}, and tearing her hair, and +embracing the much-loved body, she filled the gashes with her tears, and +mingled her {tokens of} sorrow with his blood; and imprinting kisses on +his cold features, she exclaimed, 'Pyramus! what disaster has taken thee +away from me? Pyramus! answer me; 'tis thy own Thisbe, dearest, that +calls thee; hear me, and raise thy prostrate features.' + +"At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus raised his eyes, now heavy with death, +and, after he had seen her, he closed them again. After she had +perceived her own garment, and beheld, too, the ivory {sheath}[25] +without its sword, she said, ''Tis thy own hand, and love, that has +destroyed thee, ill-fated {youth}! I, too, have a hand bold {enough} for +this one purpose; I have love as well; this shall give me strength for +the wound. I will follow thee in thy death, and I shall be called the +most unhappy cause and companion of thy fate, and thou who, alas! +couldst be torn from me by death alone, shalt not be able, even by +death, to be torn from me. And you, O most wretched parents of mine and +his, be but prevailed upon, in this one thing, by the entreaties of us +both, that you will not deny those whom their constant love {and} whom +their last moments have joined, to be buried in the same tomb. But thou, +O tree, which now with thy boughs dost overshadow the luckless body of +{but} one, art fated soon to cover {those} of two. Retain a token of +{this our} fate, and ever bear fruit black and suited for mourning, as a +memorial of the blood of us two.' {Thus} she said; and having fixed the +point under the lower part of her breast, she fell upon the sword, which +still was reeking with his blood. + +"Her prayers, however, moved the Gods, {and} moved their parents. For +the color of the fruit, when it has fully ripened, is black;[26] and +what was left of them, from the funeral pile, reposed in the same urn." + + [Footnote 1: _Minyas._--Ver. 1. Alcithoë was the daughter of + Minyas, who, according to some, was the son of Orchomenus, + according to others, his father. Pausanias says that the Boeotians, + over whom he reigned, were called 'Minyæ' from him; but he makes + no allusion to the females who are here mentioned by Ovid.] + + [Footnote 2: _Rites._--Ver. 1. 'Orgia:' this was the original name + of the Dionysia, or festival of Bacchus; but in time the word came + to be applied to any occasion of festivity.] + + [Footnote 3: _Her sisters._--Ver. 3. The names of the sisters of + Alcithoë, according to Plutarch, were Aristippe and Leucippe. The + names of the three, according to Ælian, were Alcathoë, Leucippe, + and Aristippe, who is sometimes called Arsinoë. The latter author + says, that the truth of the case was, that they were decent women, + fond of their husbands and families, who preferred staying at + home, and attending to their domestic concerns, to running after + the new rites; on which it was said, by their enemies, that + Bacchus had punished them.] + + [Footnote 4: _Work-baskets._--Ver. 10. The 'calathus,' which was + called by the Greeks +kalathos, kalathiskos+, and +talaros+, + generally signifies the basket in which women placed their work, + and especially the materials used for spinning. They were + generally made of osiers and reeds, but sometimes of more valuable + materials, such as silver, perhaps in filagree work. 'Calathi' + were also used for carrying fruits and flowers. Virgil (Ecl. v. l. + 71) speaks of cups for holding wine, under the name of 'Calathi.'] + + [Footnote 5: _Bromius._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Bromius, from + +bremô+, 'to cry out,' or 'shout,' from the yells and noise made + by his worshippers, whose peculiar cries were, +Euoi Bakche, ô + Iakche, Iô Bakche, Euoi saboi+. 'Evoë, Bacche! O, Iacche! Io, + Bacche! Evoë sabæ!'] + + [Footnote 6: _Lyæus._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Lyæus, from the + Greek word, +luein+, 'to loosen,' or 'relax,' because wine dispels + care.] + + [Footnote 7: _That had two mothers._--Ver. 12. The word 'bimater' + seems to have been fancied by Ovid as an appropriate epithet for + Bacchus, Jupiter having undertaken the duties of a mother for him, + in the latter months of gestation.] + + [Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._--Ver. 13. Bacchus was called Thyoneus, + either from Semele, his mother, one of whose names was Thyone, or + from the Greek, +thuein+, 'to be frantic,' from which origin the + Bacchanals also received their name of Thyades.] + + [Footnote 9: _Lenæus._--Ver. 14. From the Greek word +lênos+, 'a + wine-press.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Nyctelius._--Ver. 15. From the Greek word +nux+, + 'night,' because his orgies were celebrated by night. Eleleus is + from the shout, or 'huzza' of the Greeks, which was +eleleu+.] + + [Footnote 11: _Iacchus._--Ver. 15. From the Greek +iachê+, + 'clamor,' or 'noise.'] + + [Footnote 12: _Evan._--Ver. 15. From the exclamation, +Euoi+, or + 'Evoë' which the Bacchanals used in performing his orgies.] + + [Footnote 13: _Lycurgus._--Ver. 22. He was a king of Thrace, who + having slighted the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with + madness, and hewed off his own legs with a hatchet, and, according + to Apollodorus, mistaking his own son Dryas for a vine, destroyed + him with the same weapon.] + + [Footnote 14: _Unseasonable labor._--Ver. 32. 'Minerva;' the name + of the Goddess Minerva is here used for the exercise of the art of + spinning, of which she was the patroness. The term 'intempestiva' + is appropriately applied, as the arts of industry and frugality, + which were first invented by Minerva, but ill accorded with the + idle and vicious mode of celebrating the festival of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 15: _Dercetis._--Ver. 45. Lucian, speaking of Dercetis, + or Derceto, says, 'I have seen in Phoenicia a statue of this + goddess, of a very singular kind. From the middle upwards, it + represents a woman, but below it terminates in a fish. The statue + of her, which is shown at Hieropolis, represents her wholly as a + woman.' He further says, that the temple of this last city was + thought by some to have been built by Semiramis, who consecrated + it not to Juno, as is generally believed, but to her own mother, + Derceto. Atergatis was another name of this Goddess. She was said, + by an illicit amour, to have been the mother of Semiramis, and in + despair, to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on which + she was changed into a fish.] + + [Footnote 16: _Palestine._--Ver. 46. Palæstina, or Philistia, + in which Ascalon was situate, was a part of Syria, lying in its + south-western extremity.] + + [Footnote 17: _How a Naiad._--Ver. 49. The Naiad here mentioned is + supposed to have been a Nymph of the Island of the Sun, called + also Nosola, between Taprobana (the modern Ceylon) and the coast + of Carmania (perhaps Coromandel), who was in the habit of changing + such youths as fell into her hands into fishes. As a reward for + her cruelty, she herself was changed into a fish by the Sun.] + + [Footnote 18: _Most beauteous of youths._--Ver. 55. Clarke + translates 'juvenum pulcherrimus alter,' 'one of the most handsome + of all the young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 19: _Her lofty city._--Ver. 57. The magnificence of + ancient Babylon has been remarked by many ancient writers, from + Herodotus downwards. Its walls are said to have been 60 miles in + compass, 87 feet in thickness, and 350 feet in height.] + + [Footnote 20: _Walls of brick._--Ver. 58. The walls were built by + Semiramis of bricks dried in the sun, cemented together with + layers of bitumen.] + + [Footnote 21: _The tomb of Ninus._--Ver. 88. According to Diodorus + Siculus, the sepulchre of Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was + ten stadia in length, and nine in depth; it had the appearance of + a vast citadel, and was at a considerable distance from the city + of Babylon. Commentators have expressed some surprise that Ovid + here uses the word 'busta,' for 'tomb,' as the place of meeting + for these chaste lovers, as the prostitutes of Rome used to haunt + the 'busta,' or 'tombs;' whence they obtained the epithet of + 'bustuariæ.'] + + [Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._--Ver. 122. 'Fistula' here means + 'a water-pipe.' Vitruvius speaks of three methods of conveying + water; by channels of masonry, earthen pipes, and leaden pipes. + The latter were smaller, and more generally used; to them + reference is here made. They were formed by bending plates of lead + into a form, not cylindrical, but the section of which was oblong, + and tapering towards the top like a pear. The description here + given, though somewhat homely, is extremely natural, and, as + frequent experience shows us, depicts the results when the + soldering of a water-pipe has become decayed.] + + [Footnote 23: _Paler than box-wood._--Ver. 134. From the light + color of boxwood, the words 'buxo pallidiora,' 'paler than + boxwood,' became a proverbial expression among the Romans.] + + [Footnote 24: _The sea which trembles._--Ver. 136. The ripple, or + shudder, which runs along the surface of the sea, when a breath of + wind is stirring in a calm, is very beautifully described here, + and is worthy of notice.] + + [Footnote 25: _The ivory sheath._--Ver. 148. The 'vagina,' or + 'sheath' of the sword, was often highly decorated; and we learn + from Homer and Virgil, as well as Ovid, that ivory was much used + for that purpose. The sheath was worn by the Greeks and Romans on + the left side of the body, so as to enable them to draw the sword + from it, by passing the right hand in front of the body, to take + hold of the hilt, with the thumb next to the blade.] + + [Footnote 26: _Is black._--Ver. 165. He thus accounts for the deep + purple hue of the mulberry which, before the event mentioned here, + he says was white.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is pretty clear, as we have already seen, that the establishment of + the worship of Bacchus in Greece met with great opposition, and that + his priests and devotees published several miracles and prodigies, the + more easily to influence the minds of their fellow-men. Thus, the + daughters of Minyas are said to have been changed into bats, solely + because they neglected to join in the orgies of that God; when, + probably, the fact was, that they were either secretly despatched, or + were forced to fly for their lives; and their absence was accounted + for to the ignorant and credulous, by the invention of this Fable. The + story of Dercetis, as related by Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and + Herodotus, is, that having offended Venus, that Goddess caused her to + fall in love with a young man, by whom she had a daughter. In despair + at her misfortune, she killed her lover, and exposed her child, and + afterwards drowned herself. The Syrians, lamenting her fate, built a + temple near where she was drowned, and honored her as a Goddess. They + stated that she was turned into a fish, and they there represented her + under the figure of a woman down to the waist, and of a fish thence + downwards. They also abstained from eating fish; though they offered + them to her in sacrifice, and suspended gilded ones in her temple. + Selden, in his Treatise on the Syrian Gods, suggests that the story of + Dercetis, or Atergatis, was founded on the figure and worship of + Dagon, the God of the Philistines, who was represented under the + figure of a fish; and that the name of Atergatis is a corruption of + 'Adir Dagon,' 'a great fish,' which is not at all improbable. The same + author supposes that Dercetis was originally the same Deity with + Venus, Astarte, Minerva, Juno, Isis, and the Moon; and that she was + worshipped under the name of Mylitta by the Assyrians, and as Alilac + by the Arabians. Lucian tells us, that Dercetis was reported to have + been the mother of Semiramis. + + Ovid and Hyginus are the only authors that make mention of the story + of Pyramus and Thisbe, and both agree in making Babylon the scene of + it. It seems to be rather intended as a moral tale, than to have been + built upon any actual circumstance. It affords a lesson to youth not + to enter rashly into engagements: and to parents not to pursue, too + rigorously, the gratification of their own resentment, but rather to + consult the inclination of their children, when not likely to be + productive of unhappiness at a future period. + + The reader cannot fail to call to mind the admirable travesty of this + story by Shakspere, in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' + + +FABLE II. [IV.167-233] + + The Sun discovers to Vulcan the intrigue between Mars and Venus, and + then, himself, falls in love with Leucothoë. Venus, in revenge for the + discovery, resolves to make his amours unfortunate. + +Here she ended; and there was {but} a short time betwixt, and {then} +Leuconoë began[27] to speak. Her sisters held their peace. "Love has +captivated even this Sun, who rules all things by his æthereal light. +I will relate the loves of the Sun. This God is supposed to have been +the first to see the adultery of Venus with Mars; this God is the first +to see everything. He was grieved at what was done, and showed to the +husband, the son of Juno,[28] the wrong done to his bed, and the place +of the intrigue. Both his senses, and the work which his skilful right +hand was {then} holding, quitted him {on the instant}. Immediately, he +files out some slender chains of brass, and nets, and meshes, which can +escape the eye. The finest threads cannot surpass that work, nor yet the +cobweb that hangs from the top of the beam. He makes it so, too, as to +yield to a slight touch, and a gentle movement, and skilfully arranges +it drawn around the bed. When the wife and the gallant come into the +same bed, being both caught through the artifice of the husband, and +chains prepared by this new contrivance, they are held fast in the +{very} midst of their embraces. + +"The Lemnian {God} immediately threw open the folding doors[29] of +ivory, and admitted the Deities. {There} they lay disgracefully bound. +And yet many a one of the Gods, not the serious ones, could fain wish +thus to become disgraced. The Gods of heaven laughed, and for a long +time was this the most noted story in all heaven. The Cytherean[30] +goddess exacts satisfaction of the Sun, in remembrance of this betrayal; +and, in her turn, disturbs him with the like passion, who had disturbed +her secret amours. What now, son of Hyperion,[31] does thy beauty, thy +heat, and thy radiant light avail thee? For thou, who dost burn all +lands with thy flames, art {now} burnt with a new flame; and thou, who +oughtst to be looking at everything, art gazing on Leucothoë, and on one +maiden art fixing those eyes which thou oughtst {to be fixing} on the +universe. At one time thou art rising earlier in the Eastern sky; at +another thou art setting late in the waves; and in taking time to gaze +{on her}, thou art lengthening the hours of mid-winter. Sometimes thou +art eclipsed, and the trouble of thy mind affects thy light, and, +darkened, thou fillest with terror the breasts of mortals. Nor art thou +pale, because the form of the moon, nearer to the earth, stands in thy +way. It is that passion which occasions this complexion. Thou lovest her +alone, neither does Clymene, nor Rhodos,[32] nor the most beauteous +mother[33] of the Ææan Circe engage thee, nor {yet} Clytie, who, though +despised, was longing for thy embraces; at that very time thou wast +suffering these grievous pangs. Leucothoë occasioned the forgetting of +many a damsel; she, whom Eurynome, the most beauteous of the +perfume-bearing[34] nation produced.[35] But after her daughter grew up, +as much as the mother excelled all {other Nymphs}, so much did the +daughter {excel} the mother. Her father, Orchamus, ruled over the +Achæmenian[36] cities, and he is reckoned the seventh in descent from +the ancient Belus.[37] + +"The pastures of the horses of the Sun are under the Western sky; +instead of grass, they have ambrosia.[38] That nourishes their limbs +wearied with their daily service, and refits them for labor. And while +the coursers are there eating their heavenly food, and night is taking +her turn; the God enters the beloved chamber, changed into the shape of +her mother Eurynome, and beholds Leucothoë among twice six handmaids, +near the threshold, drawing out the smooth threads with her twirling +spindle. When, therefore, as though her mother, he has given kisses to +her dear daughter, he says, "There is a secret matter, {which I have to +mention}; maids, withdraw, and take not from a mother the privilege of +speaking in private {with her daughter}." They obey; and the God being +left in the chamber without any witness, he says, 'I am he, who measures +out the long year, who beholds all things, {and} through whom the earth +sees all things; the eye, {in fact}, of the universe. Believe me, thou +art pleasing to me.' She is affrighted; and in her alarm, both her +distaff and her spindle fall from her relaxed fingers. Her very fear +becomes her; and, he, no longer delaying, returns to his true shape, and +his wonted beauty. But the maiden, although startled at the unexpected +sight, overcome by the beauty of the God,[39] {and} dismissing {all} +complaints, submits to his embrace. + + [Footnote 27: _Leuconoë began._--Ver. 168. It is worthy of remark, + how strongly the affecting tale of Pyramus and Thisbe contrasts + with the loose story of the loves of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 28: _The son of Juno._--Ver. 173. Vulcan is called + 'Junonigena,' because, according to some, he was the son of Juno + alone. Other writers, however, say that he was the only son of + Jupiter and Juno.] + + [Footnote 29: _The folding doors._--Ver. 185. The plural word + 'valvæ' is often used to signify a door, or entrance, because + among the ancients each doorway generally contained two doors + folding together. The internal doors even of private houses were + bivalve; hence, as in the present case, we often read of the + folding doors of a bed-chamber. Each of these doors or valves was + usually wide enough to permit persons to pass each other in egress + and ingress without opening the other door as well. Sometimes each + valve was double, folding like our window-shutters.] + + [Footnote 30: _Cytherean._--Ver. 190. Cythera was an island on the + southern coast of Laconia; where Venus was supposed to have + landed, after she had risen from the sea. It was dedicated to her + worship.] + + [Footnote 31: _Hyperion._--Ver. 192. He was the son of Coelus, or + Uranus, and the father of the Sun. The name of Hyperion is, + however, often given by the poets to the Sun himself.] + + [Footnote 32: _Rhodos._--Ver. 204. She was a damsel of the Isle of + Rhodes, the daughter of Neptune, and, according to some, of Venus. + She was greatly beloved by Apollo, to whom she bore seven + children.] + + [Footnote 33: _Beauteous mother._--Ver. 205. This was Persa, the + daughter of Oceanus, and the mother of the enchantress Circe, who + is here called 'Ææa,' from Ææa, a city and peninsula of Colchis. + Circe is referred to more at length in the 14th Book of the + Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 34: _Perfume-bearing._--Ver. 209. Being born in Arabia, + the producer of all kinds of spices and perfumes, which were much + in request among the ancients, for the purposes of sacrifice.] + + [Footnote 35: _Produced._--Ver. 210. Eurynome was the wife of + Orchamus, and was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 36: _Achæmenian._--Ver. 212. Persia is called + Achæmenian, from Achæmenes, one of its former kings.] + + [Footnote 37: _Ancient Belus._--Ver. 213. The order of descent is + thus reckoned from Belus; Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus, Bachæmon, + Achæmenes, and Orchamus.] + + [Footnote 38: _Ambrosia._--Ver. 215. Ambrosia was said to be the + food of the Deities, and nectar their drink.] + + [Footnote 39: _Beauty of the God._--Ver. 233. Clarke translates, + 'Virgo victa nitore Dei.' 'The young lady--charmed with the + spruceness of the God.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch, in his Treatise 'How to read the Poets,' suggests a curious + explanation of the discovery by the Sun of the intrigue of Mars and + Venus. He says that such persons as are born under the conjunction of + the planets Mars and Venus, are naturally of an amorous temperament; + but that if the Sun does not happen then to be at a distance, their + indiscretions will be very soon discovered. + + Palæphatus gives a historical solution to the story. He says that + Helius, the son of Vulcan, king of Egypt, resolving to cause his + father's laws against adultery to be strictly observed, and having + been informed that a lady of the court had an intrigue with one of the + courtiers, entered her apartment in the night, and obtaining ocular + proof of the courtier's guilt, caused him to be severely punished. He + also tells us that the similarity of the name gave birth to the Fable + which Homer was the first to relate, with a small variation, and which + is here copied by Ovid. Libanius, deploring the burning of the Temple + of Apollo near Antioch, complains of the ingratitude of Vulcan to that + God, who had formerly discovered to him the infidelity of his wife; + a subject upon which St. Chrysostom seems to think that the + rhetorician would have done better to have been silent. + + +FABLE III. [IV.234-270] + + Clytie, in a fit of revenge, discovers the adventure of Leucothoë to + her father, who orders her to be buried alive. The Sun, grieved at her + misfortune, changed her into the frankincense tree; he also despises + the informer, who pines away for love of him, and is at last changed + into the sunflower. + +Clytie envied her, (for the love of the Sun[40] for her had not been +moderate), and, urged on by resentment at a rival, she published the +intrigue, and, when spread abroad, brought it to the notice of her +father. He, fierce and unrelenting, cruelly buried her alive deep in the +ground, as she entreated and stretched out her hands towards the light +of the Sun, and cried, "'Twas he that offered violence to me against my +will;" and upon her he placed a heap of heavy sand. The son of Hyperion +scattered it with his rays, and gave a passage to thee, by which thou +mightst be able to put forth thy buried features. + +But thou, Nymph, couldst not now raise thy head smothered with the +weight of the earth; and {there} thou didst lie, a lifeless body. The +governor of the winged steeds is said to have beheld nothing more +afflicting than that, since the lightnings that caused the death of +Phaëton. He, indeed, endeavors, if he can, to recall her cold limbs to +an enlivening heat, by the strength of his rays. But, since fate opposes +attempts so great, he sprinkles both her body and the place with +odoriferous nectar, and having first uttered many a complaint he says, +"Still shalt thou reach the skies."[41] Immediately, the body, steeped +in the heavenly nectar, dissolves, and moistens the earth with its +odoriferous juices; and a shoot of frankincense having taken root by +degrees through the clods, rises up and bursts the hillock with its top. + +But the author of light came no more to Clytie (although love might have +excused her grief, and her grief the betrayal); and he put an end to his +intercourse with her. From that time she, who had made so mad a use of +her passion, pined away, loathing the {other} Nymphs; and in the open +air, night and day, she sat on the bare ground, with her hair +dishevelled and unadorned. And for nine days, without water or food, she +subsisted in her fast, merely on dew and her own tears; and she did not +raise herself from the ground. She only used to look towards the face of +the God as he moved along, and to turn her own features towards him. +They say that her limbs became rooted fast in the ground; and a livid +paleness turned part of her color into {that of} a bloodless plant. +There is a redness in some part; and a flower, very like a violet,[42] +conceals her face. Though she is held fast by a root, she turns towards +the Sun, and {though} changed, she {still} retains her passion. + + [Footnote 40: _For the love of the Sun._--Ver. 234. This remark is + added, to show that the God had not been sufficiently cautious in + his courtship of her sister to conceal it from the observation of + Clytie.] + + [Footnote 41: _Reach the skies._--Ver. 251. That is to say, 'You + shall arise from the earth as a tree bearing frankincense: the + gums of which, burnt in sacrifice to the Gods, shall reach the + heavens with their sweet odors.' Persia and Arabia have been + celebrated by the poets, ancient and modern, for their great + fertility in frankincense and other aromatic plants.] + + [Footnote 42: _Like a violet._--Ver. 268. This cannot mean the + large yellow plant which is called the sunflower. The small + aromatic flower which we call heliotrope, with its violet hue and + delightful perfume, more nearly answers the description. The + larger flower probably derived its name from the resemblance which + it bears to the sun, surrounded with rays, as depicted by the + ancient painters.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + No ascertained historical fact can be found as the basis of the story + of Leucothoë being buried alive by her father Orchamus, or of her + rival Clytie being metamorphosed into a sunflower. The story seems to + have been most probably simply founded on principles of natural + philosophy. Leucothoë, it is not unreasonable to suppose, may have + been styled the daughter of Orchamus, king of Persia, for no other + reason but because that Prince was the first to introduce the + frankincense tree, which was called Leucothoë, into his kingdom; and + it was added that she fell in love with Apollo, because the tree + produces an aromatic drug much used in physic, of which that God was + fabled to have been the inventor. The jealousy of Clytie was, perhaps, + founded upon a fact, stated by some naturalists, that the sunflower is + a plant which kills the frankincense tree, when growing near it. + Pliny, however, who ascribes several properties to the sunflower, does + not mention this among them. + + Orchamus is nowhere mentioned by the ancient writers, except in the + present instance. + + +FABLE IV. [IV.271-284] + + Daphnis is turned into a stone. Scython is changed from a man into a + woman. Celmus is changed into adamant. Crocus and Smilax are made into + flowers. The Curetes are produced from a shower. + +{Thus} she spoke; and the wondrous deed charms their ears. Some deny +that it was possible to be done, some say that real Gods can do all +things; but Bacchus is not one of them. When her sisters have become +silent, Alcithoë is called upon; who running with her shuttle through +the warp of the hanging web, says, "I keep silence upon the well-known +amours of Daphnis, the shepherd of Ida,[43] whom the resentment of the +Nymph, his paramour, turned into a stone. Such mighty grief inflames +those who are in love. Nor do I relate how once Scython, the law of +nature being altered, was of both sexes first a man, then a woman. Thee +too, I pass by, O Celmus, now adamant, formerly most attached to Jupiter +{when} little; and the Curetes,[44] sprung from a plenteous shower of +rain; Crocus, too, changed, together with Smilax,[45] into little +flowers; and I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty." + + [Footnote 43: _Shepherd of Ida._--Ver. 277. This may mean either + Daphnis of Crete, or of Phrygia; for in both those countries there + was a mountain named Ida.] + + [Footnote 44: _The Curetes._--Ver. 282. According to Dionysius of + Halicarnassus, the Curetes were the ancient inhabitants of Crete. + We may here remark, that the story of their springing from the + earth after a shower of rain, seems to have no other foundation + than the fact of their having been of the race of the Titans; that + is, they were descended from Uranus, or Coelus and Tita, by which + names were meant the heaven and the earth.] + + [Footnote 45: _Smilax._--Ver. 283. The dictionary meanings given + for this word are--1. Withwind, a kind of herb. 2. The yew tree. + 3. A kind of oak. The Nymph was probably supposed to have been + changed into the first.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Most probably, the story of the shepherd Daphnis being turned into a + stone, was no other than an allegorical method of expressing the + insensibility of an individual. Thalia was the name of the Nymph who + was thus affronted by Daphnis. + + The story of Scython changing his sex, is perhaps based upon the fact, + that the country of Thrace, which took the name of Thracia from a + famous sorceress, was before called Scython; and that as it lost a + name of the masculine gender for one of the feminine, in after times + it became reported that Scython had changed sexes. + + Pliny tells us that Celmus was a young man of remarkable wisdom and + moderation, and that the passions making no impression on him, he was + changed into adamant. Some, however, assert that he was foster-father + to Jupiter, by whom he was enclosed in an impenetrable tower, for + revealing the immortality of the Gods. + + According to one account, Crocus and Smilax were a constant and happy + married couple, who for their chaste and innocent life were said to + have been changed into flowers; but another story is, that Crocus was + a youth beloved by Smilax, and that on his rejecting the Nymph's + advances, they were both turned into flowers. + + The story of the Curetes being sprung from rain, is possibly founded + on the report that they were descended from Uranus and Tita, the + Heaven and the Earth. Some suppose them to have been the original + inhabitants of the isle of Crete; and they are said to have watched + over the infancy of Jupiter, by whom they were afterwards slain, for + having concealed Epaphus from his wrath. + + +FABLE V. [IV.285-388] + + The Naiad Salmacis falls in love with the youth Hermaphroditus, who + rejects her advances. While he is bathing, she leaps into the water, + and seizing the youth in her arms, they become one body, retaining + their different sexes. + +Learn how Salmacis became infamous, {and} why it enervates, with its +enfeebling waters, and softens the limbs bathed {in it}. The cause is +unknown; {but} the properties of the fountain are very well known. The +Naiads nursed a boy, born to Mercury of the Cytherean Goddess in the +caves of Ida; whose face was such that therein both mother and father +could be discerned; he likewise took his name from them. As soon as he +had completed thrice five years, he forsook his native mountains, and +leaving Ida, the place of his nursing, he loved to wander over unknown +spots, {and} to see unknown rivers, his curiosity lessening the fatigue. +He went, too, to the Lycian[46] cities, and the Carians, that border +upon Lycia. Here he sees a pool of water, clear to the {very} ground at +the bottom; here there are no fenny reeds, no barren sedge, no rushes +with their sharp points. The water is translucent; but the edges of the +pool are enclosed with green turf, and with grass ever verdant. A Nymph +dwells {there}; but one neither skilled in hunting, nor accustomed to +bend the bow, nor to contend in speed; the only one, too, of {all} the +Naiads not known to the swift Diana. The report is, that her sisters +often said to her, "Salmacis, do take either the javelin, or the painted +quiver, and unite thy leisure with the toils of the chase." She takes +neither the javelin, nor the painted quiver, nor does she unite her +leisure with the toils of the chase. But sometimes she is bathing her +beauteous limbs in her own spring; {and} often is she straitening her +hair with a comb of Citorian boxwood,[47] and consulting the waters, +into which she looks, what is befitting her. At other times, covering +her body with a transparent garment, she reposes either on the soft +leaves or on the soft grass. Ofttimes is she gathering flowers. And +then, too, by chance was she gathering them when she beheld the youth, +and wished to possess him, {thus} seen. + +But though she hastened to approach {the youth}, still she did not +approach him before she had put herself in order, and before she had +surveyed her garments, and put on her {best} looks, and deserved to be +thought beautiful. Then thus did she begin to speak: "O youth, most +worthy to be thought to be a God! if thou art a God, thou mayst {well} +be Cupid; but, if thou art a mortal, happy are they who begot thee, and +blessed is thy brother, and fortunate indeed thy sister, if thou hast +one, and the nurse {as well} who gave thee the breast. But far, far more +fortunate than all these {is she}; if thou hast any wife, if thou +shouldst vouchsafe any one {the honor of} marriage. And if any one is +thy {wife, then} let my pleasure be stolen; but, if thou hast none, let +me be {thy wife}, and let us unite in one tie." After these things +{said}, the Naiad is silent; a blush tinges the face of the youth: he +knows not what love is, but even to blush becomes him. Such is the color +of apples, hanging on a tree exposed to the sun, or of painted ivory, or +of the moon blushing beneath her brightness when the aiding +{cymbals}[48] {of} brass are resounding in vain. Upon the Nymph +desiring, without ceasing, such kisses at least as he might give to his +sister, and now laying her hands upon his neck, white as ivory, he says, +"Wilt thou desist, or am I to fly, and to leave this place, together +with thee?" + +Salmacis is affrighted, and says, "I freely give up this spot to thee, +stranger," and, with a retiring step, she pretends to go away. But then +looking back, and hid in a covert of shrubs, she lies concealed, and +puts her bended knees down to the ground. But he, just like a boy, and +as though unobserved on the retired sward, goes here and there, and in +the sportive waves dips the soles of his feet, and {then} his feet as +far as his ankles. Nor is there any delay; being charmed with the +temperature of the pleasant waters, he throws off his soft garments from +his tender body. Then, indeed, Salmacis is astonished, and burns with +desire for his naked beauty. The eyes, too, of the Nymph are on fire, no +otherwise than as when the Sun,[49] most brilliant with his clear orb, +is reflected from the opposite image of a mirror. With difficulty does +she endure delay; hardly does she now defer her joy. Now she longs to +embrace him; and now, distracted, she can hardly contain herself. He, +clapping his body with his hollow palms, swiftly leaps into the stream, +and throwing out his arms alternately, shines in the limpid water, as if +any one were to cover statues of ivory, or white lilies, with clear +glass. + +"I have gained my point," says the Naiad; "see, he is mine!" and, all +her garments thrown aside, she plunges in the midst of the waters, and +seizes him resisting her, and snatches reluctant kisses, and thrusts +down her hands, and touches his breast against his will, and clings +about the youth, now one way, and now another. Finally, as he is +struggling against her, and desiring to escape, she entwines herself +about him, like a serpent which the royal bird takes up and is bearing +aloft; and as it hangs, it holds fast his head and feet, and enfolds his +spreading wings with its tail. Or, as the ivy is wont to wind itself +along the tall trunks {of trees}; and as the polypus[50] holds fast its +enemy, caught beneath the waves, by letting down his suckers on all +sides; {so} does the descendant of Atlas[51] {still} persist, and deny +the Nymph the hoped-for joy. She presses him hard; and clinging to him +with every limb, as she holds fast, she says, "Struggle as thou mayst, +perverse one, still thou shalt not escape. So ordain it, ye Gods, and +let no time separate him from me, nor me from him." Her prayers find +propitious Deities, for the mingled bodies of the two are united,[52] +and one human shape is put upon them; just as if any one should see +branches beneath a common bark join in growing, and spring up together. +So, when their bodies meet together in the firm embrace, they are no +more two, and their form is twofold, so that they can neither be styled +woman nor boy; they seem {to be} neither and both. + +Therefore, when Hermaphroditus sees that the limpid waters, into which +he had descended as a man, have made him but half a male, and that his +limbs are softened in them, holding up his hands, he says, but now no +longer with the voice of a male, "O, both father and mother, grant this +favor to your son, who has the name of you both, that whoever enters +these streams a man, may go out thence {but} half a man, and that he may +suddenly become effeminate in the waters when touched." Both parents, +moved, give their assent to the words of their two-shaped son, and taint +the fountain with drugs of ambiguous quality. + + [Footnote 46: _Lycian._--Ver. 296. Lycia was a province of Asia + Minor, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Caria was another + province, adjoining to Lycia.] + + [Footnote 47: _Citorian boxwood._--Ver. 311. Citorus, or Cythorus, + was a mountain of Paphlagonia, famous for the excellence of the + wood of the box trees that grow there. The Greeks and Romans made + their combs of it. The Egyptians used them made of ivory and wood, + and toothed on one side only; those of the Greeks had teeth on + both sides. Great care was usually taken of the hair; to go with + it uncombed was a sign of affliction.] + + [Footnote 48: _The aiding cymbals._--Ver. 333. The witches and + magicians, in ancient times, and especially those of Thessaly, + professed to be able, with their charms and incantations, to bring + the moon down from heaven. The truth of these assertions being + commonly believed, at the period of an eclipse it was supposed by + the multitude that the moon was being subjected to the spells of + these magicians, and that she was struggling (laborabat) against + them, on which the sound of drums, trumpets, and cymbals was + resorted to, to distract the attention of the moon, and to drown + the charms repeated by the enchanters, for which reason, the + instruments employed for the purpose were styled 'auxiliares.'] + + [Footnote 49: _As when the Sun._--Ver. 349. Bailey gives this + explanation of the passage,-- 'The eyes of the Nymph seemed to + sparkle and shine, just as the rays of the sun in a clear sky when + a looking-glass is placed against them, for then they seem most + splendid, and contract the fire.' From the mention of the eyes of + the Nymph burning 'flagrant,' we might be almost justified in + concluding that 'speculum' means here not a mirror, but a + burning-glass. The 'specula,' or looking-glasses, of the ancients + were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and + copper, or silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the + silver. Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now + called, the Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. Nero + is said to have used emeralds for mirrors. Pliny the Elder says + that mirrors were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, which + consisted of glass plates, with leaves of metal at the back; they + were probably of an inferior character. Those of copper and tin + were made chiefly at Brundisium. The white metal formed from this + mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge with powdered pumice stone was + usually fastened to the mirrors made of that composition. They + were generally small, of a round or oval shape, and having a + handle; and female slaves usually held them, while their + mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes + they were fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the + length of a person's body. Venus was supposed often to use the + mirror; but Minerva repudiated the use of it.] + + [Footnote 50: _Polypus._--Ver. 366. This is a fish which entangles + its prey, mostly consisting of shell fish, in its great number of + feet or feelers. Ovid here calls them 'flagella;' but in the + Halieuticon he styles them 'brachia' and 'crines.' Pliny the Elder + calls them 'crines' and 'cirri.'] + + [Footnote 51: _Descendant of Atlas._--Ver. 368. Hermaphroditus was + the great-grandson of Atlas; as the latter was the father of Maia, + the mother of Mercury, who begot Hermaphroditus.] + + [Footnote 52: _The two are united._--Ver. 374. Clarke translates, + 'nam mixta duorum corpora junguntur,' 'for the bodies of both, + being jumbled together, are united.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The only probable solution of this story seems to have been the fact + that there was in Caria, near the town of Halicarnassus, as we read in + Vitruvius, a fountain which was instrumental in civilizing certain + barbarians who had been driven from that neighborhood by the Argive + colony established there. These men being obliged to repair to the + fountain for water, and meeting the Greek colonists there, their + intercourse not only polished them, but in course of time corrupted + them, by the introduction of the luxurious manners of Greece. Hence + the fountain had the reputation of changing men into women. + + Possibly the water of that fountain, by some peculiar chemical + quality, made those who drank of it become soft and effeminate, as + waters are to be occasionally found with extraordinary qualities. + Lylius Gyraldus suggests, that several disgraceful adventures happened + near this fountain (which was enclosed by walls), which in time gave + it a bad name. + + +FABLE VI. [IV.389-415] + + Bacchus, to punish the daughters of Minyas for their contempt of his + worship, changes them into bats, and their work into ivy and vine + leaves. + +There was {now} an end of their stories; and still do the daughters of +Minyas go on with their work, and despise the God, and desecrate his +festival; when, on a sudden, tambourines unseen resound with their +jarring noise; the pipe, too, with the crooked horn, and the tinkling +brass, re-echo; myrrh and saffron shed their fragrant odors; and, +a thing past all belief, their webs begin to grow green, and the cloth +hanging {in the loom} to put forth foliage like ivy. Part changes into +vines, and what were threads before, are {now} turned into vine shoots. +Vine branches spring from the warp, and the purple lends its splendor to +the tinted grapes. + +And now the day was past, and the time came on, which you could neither +call darkness nor light, but yet the {very} commencement of the dubious +night along with the light. The house seemed suddenly to shake, and +unctuous torches to burn, and the building to shine with glowing fires, +and the fictitious phantoms of savage wild beasts to howl. Presently, +the sisters are hiding themselves throughout the smoking house, and in +different places are avoiding the fires and the light. While they are +seeking a hiding-place, a membrane is stretched over their small limbs, +and covers their arms with light wings; nor does the darkness suffer +them to know by what means they have lost their former shape. No +feathers bear them up; yet they support themselves on pellucid wings; +and, endeavoring to speak, they utter a voice very diminutive {even} in +proportion to their bodies, and express their low complaints with a +squeaking sound. They frequent houses, not woods; and, abhorring the +light, they fly {abroad} by night. And from the late evening do they +derive their name.[53] + + [Footnote 53: _Derive their name._--Ver. 415. In Greek they are + called +nukterides+, from +nux+, 'night;' and in Latin, + 'vespertiliones,' from 'vesper,' 'evening,' on account of their + habits.] + + +FABLE VII. [IV.416-562] + + Tisiphone, being sent by Juno to the Palace of Athamas, causes him to + become mad; on which he dashes his son Learchus to pieces against a + wall. He then pursues his wife Ino, who throws herself headlong from + the top of a rock into the sea, with her other son Melicerta in her + arms: when Neptune, at the intercession of Venus, changes them into + Sea Deities. The attendants of Ino, who have followed her in her + flight, are changed, some into stone, and others into birds, as they + are about to throw themselves into the sea after their mistress. + +But then the Divine power of Bacchus is famed throughout all Thebes; and +his aunt is everywhere telling of the great might of the new Divinity; +she alone,[54] out of so many sisters, is free from sorrow, except that +which her sisters have occasioned. Juno beholds her, having her soul +elevated with her {children}, and her alliance with Athamas, and the God +her foster-child. She cannot brook this, and says to herself, "Was the +child of a concubine able to transform the Mæonian sailors, and to +overwhelm them in the sea, and to give the entrails of the son to be +torn to pieces by his mother, and to cover the three daughters of Minyas +with newly formed wings? Shall Juno be able to do nothing but lament +these griefs unrevenged? And is that sufficient for me? Is this my only +power? He himself instructs me what to do. It is right to be taught even +by an enemy. And what madness can do, he shows enough, and more than +enough, by the slaughter of Pentheus. Why should not Ino, {too}, be +goaded by madness, and submit to an example kindred to those of her +sisters?" + +There is a shelving path, shaded with dismal yew, which leads through +profound silence to the infernal abodes. {Here} languid Styx exhales +vapors; and the new-made ghosts descend this way, and phantoms when they +have enjoyed[55] funeral rites. Horror and winter possess these dreary +regions far and wide, and the ghosts newly arrived know not where the +way is that leads to the Stygian city, {or} where is the dismal palace +of the black Pluto. The wide city has a thousand passages, and gates +open on every side. And as the sea {receives} the rivers for the whole +earth, so does that spot[56] receive all the souls; nor is it {too} +little for any {amount of} people, nor does it perceive the crowd to +increase. The shades wander about, bloodless, without body and bones; +and some throng the place of judgment; some the abode of the infernal +prince. Some pursue various callings, in imitation of their former life; +their own punishment confines others. + +Juno, the daughter of Saturn, leaving her celestial habitation, submits +to go thither, so much does she give way to hatred and to anger. Soon as +she has entered there, and the threshold groans, pressed by her sacred +body, Cerberus raises his threefold mouth, and utters triple barkings at +the same moment. She summons the Sisters,[57] begotten of Night, +terrible and implacable Goddesses. They are sitting before the doors of +the prison shut close with adamant, and are combing black vipers from +their hair. Soon as they recognize her amid the shades of darkness, +{these} Deities arise. This place is called "the accursed." Tityus[58] +is giving his entrails to be mangled, and is stretched over nine acres. +By thee, Tantalus,[59] no waters are reached, and the tree which +overhangs thee, starts away. Sisyphus,[60] thou art either catching or +thou art pushing on the stone destined to fall again. Ixion[61] is +whirled round, and both follows and flies from himself. The +granddaughters, too, of Belus, who dared to plot the destruction of +their cousins, are everlastingly taking up the water which they lose. +After the daughter of Saturn has beheld all these with a stern look, and +Ixion before all; again, after him, looking upon Sisyphus, she says, + +"Why does he alone, of {all} the brothers, suffer eternal punishment? +and why does a rich palace contain the proud Athamas, who, with his +wife, has ever despised me?" And {then} she explains the cause of her +hatred and of her coming, and what it is she desires. What she desires +is, that the palace of Cadmus shall not stand, and that the Sister +{Furies} shall involve Athamas in crime. She mingles together promises, +commands, and entreaties, and solicits the Goddesses. When Juno has thus +spoken, Tisiphone, with her locks dishevelled as they are, shakes them, +and throws back from her face the snakes crawling over it; and thus she +says: "There is no need of a long preamble; whatever thou commandest, +consider it as done: leave these hateful realms, and betake thyself to +the air of a better heaven." + +Juno returns, overjoyed; and, preparing to enter heaven, Iris,[62] the +daughter of Thaumas, purifies her by sprinkling water. Nor is there any +delay; the persecuting Tisiphone[63] takes a torch reeking with gore, +and puts on a cloak red with fluid blood, and is girt with twisted +snakes, and {then} goes forth from her abode. Mourning attends her as +she goes, and Fright, and Terror, and Madness with quivering features. +She {now} reaches the threshold; the Æolian door-posts are said to have +shaken, and paleness tints the maple door; the Sun, too, flies from the +place. His wife is terrified at these prodigies; Athamas, {too}, is +alarmed, and they are {both} preparing to leave the house. The baneful +Erinnys stands in the way, and blocks up the passage; and extending her +arms twisted round with folds of vipers, she shakes her locks; the +snakes {thus} moved, emit a sound. Some lying about her shoulders, some +gliding around her temples, send forth hissings and vomit forth +corruption, and dart forth their tongues. Then she tears away two snakes +from the middle of her hair, which, with pestilential hand, she throws +against them. But these creep along the breasts of Ino and Athamas, and +inspire them with direful intent. Nor do they inflict any wounds upon +their limbs; it is the mind that feels the direful stroke. She had +brought, too, with her a monstrous composition of liquid poison, the +foam of the mouth of Cerberus, and the venom of Echidna;[64] and +purposeless aberrations, and the forgetfulness of a darkened +understanding, and crime, and tears, and rage, and the love of murder. +All these were blended together; and, mingled with fresh blood she had +boiled them in a hollow vessel of brass, stirred about with {a stalk of} +green hemlock. And while they are trembling, she throws the maddening +poison into the breasts of them both, and moves their inmost vitals. +Then repeatedly waving her torch in the same circle, she swiftly follows +up the flames {thus} excited with {fresh} flames. Thus triumphant, and +having executed her commands, she returns to the empty realms of the +great Pluto; and she ungirds the snakes which she had put on. +Immediately the son of Æolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst +of his palace, "Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here +a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones." And, in his +madness, he follows the footsteps of his wife, as though of a wild +beast; and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little +arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him +round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces[65] +the bones of the infant against the hard stones. Then, at last, the +mother being roused (whether it was grief that caused it, or whether the +power of the poison spread {over her}), yells aloud, and runs away +distracted, with dishevelled hair; and carrying thee, Melicerta, +a little {child}, in her bare arms, she cries aloud "Evoë, Bacche." At +the name of Bacchus, Juno smiles, and says, "May thy foster-child[66] do +thee this service." + +There is a rock[67] that hangs over the sea; the lowest part is worn +hollow by the waves, and defends the waters covered {thereby} from the +rain. The summit is rugged, and stretches out its brow over the open +sea. This Ino climbs (madness gives her strength), and, restrained by no +fear, she casts herself and her burden[68] into the deep; the water, +struck {by her fall}, is white with foam. But Venus, pitying the +misfortunes of her guiltless granddaughter,[69] in soothing words thus +addresses her uncle: "O Neptune, thou God of the waters, to whom fell a +power next after the {empire of} heaven, great things indeed do I +request; but do thou take compassion on my kindred, whom thou seest +being tossed upon the boundless Ionian sea;[70] and add them to thy +Deities. I have {surely} some interest with the sea, if, indeed, I once +was foam formed in the hollowed deep, and my Grecian name is derived[71] +from that." Neptune yields to her request; and takes away from them +{all} that is mortal, and gives them a venerable majesty; and alters +both their name and their shape, and calls Palæmon a Divinity,[72] +together with his mother Leucothoë. + +Her Sidonian attendants,[73] so far as they could, tracing the prints of +their feet, saw the last of them on the edge of the rock; and thinking +that there was no doubt of their death, they lamented the house of +Cadmus, with their hands tearing their hair and their garments; and they +threw the odium on the Goddess, as being unjust and too severe against +the concubine. Juno could not endure their reproaches, and said, "I will +make you yourselves tremendous memorials of my displeasure." +Confirmation followed her words. For the one who had been especially +attached, said, "I will follow the queen into the sea;" and about to +give the leap, she could not be moved any way, and adhering to the rock, +{there} she stuck fast. Another, while she was attempting to beat her +breast with the accustomed blows, perceived in the attempt that her arms +had become stiff. One, as by chance she had extended her hands over the +waters of the sea, becoming a rock, held out her hands in those same +waters. You might see the fingers of another suddenly hardened in her +hair, as she was tearing her locks seized on the top of her head. In +whatever posture each was found {at the beginning of the change}, in the +same she remained. Some became birds; which, sprung from Ismenus, skim +along the surface of the waves in those seas, with the wings which they +have assumed. + + [Footnote 54: _She alone._--Ver. 419. This was Ino, whose only + sorrows hitherto had been caused by the calamities which befell + her sisters and their offspring: Semele having died a shocking + death, Autonoë having seen her son Actæon changed into a stag, and + then devoured by his dogs, and Agave having assisted in tearing to + pieces her own son Pentheus.] + + [Footnote 55: _When they have enjoyed._--Ver. 435. The spirits + whose bodies had not received the rites of burial, we learn from + Homer and Virgil, were not allowed to pass the river Styx, but + wandered on its banks for a hundred years.] + + [Footnote 56: _So does that spot._--Ver. 441. That is to say, + whatever number of ghosts arrives there, it receives them all with + ease, and is not sensible of the increase of number; either + because the place itself is of such immense extent, or because the + souls of the dead do not occupy space.] + + [Footnote 57: _The Sisters._--Ver. 450. These were the Furies, + fabled to be the daughters of Night and Acheron. They were three + in number, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megæra, and were supposed to be + the avengers of crime and wickedness.] + + [Footnote 58: _Tityus._--Ver. 456. Tityus was the son of Jupiter + and Elara. On account of his enormous size, the poets sometimes + style him a son of the earth. Attempting to commit violence upon + Latona, he was slain by the arrows of Apollo, and precipitated to + the infernal regions, where he was condemned to have his liver + constantly devoured by a vulture, and then renewed, to perpetuate + his torments.] + + [Footnote 59: _Tantalus._--Ver. 457. He was the son of Jupiter, by + the Nymph Plote. The crime for which he was punished is + differently related by the poets. Some say, that he divulged the + secrets of the Gods, that had been entrusted to him; while others + relate, that at an entertainment which he gave to the Deities, he + caused his own son, Pelops, to be served up, on which Ceres + inadvertently ate his shoulder. He was doomed to suffer intense + hunger and thirst, amid provisions of all kinds within his reach, + which perpetually receded from him.] + + [Footnote 60: _Sisyphus._--Ver. 459. Sisyphus, the son of Æolus, + was a daring robber, who infested Attica. He was slain by Theseus; + and being sent to the infernal regions, was condemned to the + punishment of rolling a great stone to the top of a mountain, + which it had no sooner reached than it fell down again, and + renewed his labor.] + + [Footnote 61: _Ixion._--Ver. 461. Being advanced by Jupiter to + heaven, he presumed to make an attempt on Juno. Jupiter, to + deceive him, formed a cloud in her shape, on which Ixion begot the + Centaurs. He was cast into Tartarus, and was there fastened to a + wheel, which turned round incessantly.] + + [Footnote 62: _Iris._--Ver. 480. Iris was the daughter of Thaumas + and Electra, and the messenger of Juno. She was the Goddess of the + Rainbow.] + + [Footnote 63: _Tisiphone._--Ver. 481. Clarke translates 'Tisiphone + importuna,' 'the plaguy Tisiphone.'] + + [Footnote 64: _Echidna._--Ver. 501. This word properly means, + 'a female viper;' but it here refers to the Hydra, or dragon of + the marsh of Lerna, which Hercules slew. It was fabled to be + partly a woman, and partly a serpent, and to have been begotten by + Typhon. According to some accounts, this monster had seven heads.] + + [Footnote 65: _Dashes in pieces._--Ver. 519. Euripides and Hyginus + relate, that Athamas slew his son while hunting; and Apollodorus + says, that he mistook him for a stag.] + + [Footnote 66: _Thy foster-child._--Ver. 524. Bacchus was the + foster-child of Ino, who was the sister of his mother Semele. The + remaining portion of the story of Ino and Melicerta is again + related by Ovid in the sixth book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 67: _There is a rock._--Ver. 525. Pausanias calls this + the Molarian rock, and says, that it was one of the Scironian + rocks, near Megara, in Attica. It was a branch of the Geranian + mountain.] + + [Footnote 68: _And her burden._--Ver. 530. This was her son + Melicerta, who, according to Pausanias, was received by dolphins, + and was landed by them on the isthmus of Corinth.] + + [Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._--Ver. 531. Venus was the + grandmother of Ino, inasmuch as Hermione, or Harmonia, the wife of + Cadmus, was the daughter of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Boundless Ionian sea._--Ver. 535. The Ionian sea + must be merely mentioned here as a general name for the broad + expanse of waters, of which the Saronic gulf, into which the + Molarian rock projected, formed part. Ovid may, however, mean to + say that Ino threw herself from some rock in the Ionian sea, and + not from the Molarian rock; following, probably, the account of + some other writer, whose works are lost.] + + [Footnote 71: _Grecian name is derived._--Ver. 538. Venus was + called Aphrodite, by the Greeks, from +aphros+, 'the foam of the + sea,' from which she was said to have sprung.] + + [Footnote 72: _A Divinity._--Ver. 542. Ino and Melicerta were + worshipped as Divinities both in Greece and at Rome.] + + [Footnote 73: _Sidonian attendants._--Ver. 543. The Theban matrons + are meant, who had married the companions of Cadmus that + accompanied him from Phoenices.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Ino, Athamas, and Melicerta appears to have been based + upon historical facts, as we are informed by Herodotus, Diodorus + Siculus, and Pausanias. + + Athamas, the son of Æolus, and great-grandson of Deucalion, having, on + the death of Themisto, his first wife, married Ino, the daughter of + Cadmus, divorced her soon afterwards, to marry Nephele, by whom he had + Helle and Phryxus. She having been divorced in her turn, he took Ino + back again, and by her had Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, not being able + to endure the presence of the children of Nephele, endeavored to + destroy them. The city of Thebes being at that time afflicted with + famine, which was said to have been caused by Ino, who ordered the + seed to be parched before it was sown, Athamas ordered the oracle of + Delphi to be consulted. The priests, either having been bribed, or the + messengers having been corrupted, word was brought, that, to remove + this affliction, the children of Nephele must be sacrificed. + + Phryxus being warned of the designs of his stepmother, embarked in a + ship, with his sister Helle, and sailed for Colchis, where he met with + a kind reception from his kinsman Æetes. The young princess, however, + either becoming sea-sick, and leaning over the bulwarks of the vessel, + fell overboard and was drowned, or died a natural death in the passage + of the Hellespont, to which she gave its name from that circumstance. + Athamas, having discovered the deceitful conduct of Ino, in his rage + killed her son Learchus, and sought her, for the purpose of + sacrificing her to his vengeance. To avoid his fury, she fled with her + son Melicerta, and, being pursued, threw herself from a rock into the + sea. To console her relatives, the story was probably invented, that + the Gods had changed Ino and Melicerta into Sea Deities, under the + names of Leucothoë and Palæmon. Melicerta was afterwards worshipped in + the Isle of Tenedos, where children were offered to him in sacrifice. + In his honor, Glaucus established the Isthmian games, which were + celebrated for many ages at Corinth; and, being interrupted for a + time, were revived by Theseus, in honor of Neptune. Leucothoë was also + worshipped at Rome, and the Roman women used to offer up their vows to + her for their brothers' children, not daring to supplicate the Goddess + for their own, because she had been unfortunate in hers. This Ovid + tells us in the Sixth Book of the Fasti. The Romans gave the name of + Matuta to Ino, and Melicerta, or Palæmon, was called Portunus. + + The circumstance mentioned by Ovid, that some of Ino's attendants were + changed into birds, and others into rocks, is, perhaps, only a + poetical method of saying that some of her attendants escaped, while + others perished with her. + + +FABLE VIII. [IV.563-603] + + The misfortunes of his family oblige Cadmus to leave Thebes, and to + retire with his wife Hermione to Illyria, where they are changed into + serpents. + +The son of Agenor knows not that his daughter and his little grandson +are {now} Deities of the sea. Forced by sorrow, and a succession of +calamities, and the prodigies which, many in number, he had beheld, the +founder flies from his city, as though the {ill}-luck of the spot, and +not his own, pressed {hard} upon him, and driven, in a long series of +wandering, he reaches the coast of Illyria, with his exiled wife. And +now, loaded with woes and with years, while they are reflecting on the +first disasters of their house, and in their discourse are recounting +their misfortunes, Cadmus says, "Was that dragon a sacred one, that was +pierced by my spear, at the time when, setting out from Sidon, I sowed +the teeth of the dragon in the ground, a seed {till then} unknown? If +the care of the Gods avenges this with resentment so unerring, I pray +that I myself, as a serpent, may be lengthened out into an extended +belly." {Thus} he says; and, as a serpent, he is lengthened out into an +extended belly, and perceives scales growing on his hardened skin, and +his black body become speckled with azure spots; and he falls flat on +his breast, and his legs, joined into one, taper out by degrees into a +thin round point. His arms are still remaining; those arms which remain +he stretches out; and, as the tears are flowing down his face, still +that of a man, he says, "Come hither, wife, come hither, most unhappy +one, and, while something of me yet remains, touch me; and take my hand, +while it is {still} a hand, {and} while I am not a serpent all over." +He, indeed, desires to say more, but, on a sudden, his tongue is divided +into two parts. Nor are words in his power when he offers {to speak}; +and as often as he attempts to utter any complaints, he makes a hissing: +this is the voice that Nature leaves him. His wife, smiting her naked +breast with her hand, cries aloud, "Stay, Cadmus! and deliver thyself, +unhappy one, from this monstrous form. Cadmus, what means this? Where +are thy feet? where are both thy shoulders and thy hands? where is thy +color and thy form, and, while I speak, {where} all else {besides}? Why +do ye not, celestial Gods, turn me as well into a similar serpent?" +{Thus} she spoke; he licked the face of his wife, and crept into her +dear bosom, as though he recognized her; and gave her embraces, and +reached her well-known neck. + +Whoever is by, (some attendants are present), is alarmed; but the +crested snakes soothe them with their slippery necks, and suddenly they +are two {serpents}, and in joined folds they creep along, until they +enter the covert of an adjacent grove. Now, too, do they neither shun +mankind, nor hurt them with wounds, and the gentle serpents keep in mind +what once they were. + + +EXPLANATION. + + After Cadmus had reigned at Thebes many years, a conspiracy was formed + against him. Being driven from the throne, and his grandson Pentheus + assuming the crown, he and his wife Hermione retired into Illyria, + where, as Apollodorus says, he commanded the Illyrian army, and at + length was chosen king: on his death, the story here related by Ovid + was invented. It is possible that it may have been based on the + following grounds:-- + + The Phoenicians were anciently called 'Achivi,' which name they still + retained after their establishment in Greece. 'Chiva' being also the + Hebrew, and perhaps Phoenician word for 'a serpent,' the Greeks, + probably in reference to the Phoenician origin of Cadmus, reported + after his death, that he and his wife were serpents; and in time, that + transformation may have been stated to have happened at the end of his + life. According to Aulus Gellius, the ancient inhabitants of Illyria + had two eyelids to each eye, and with their looks, when angered, they + were able to kill those whom they beheld stedfastly. The Greeks hence + called them serpents and basilisks; and, it is not unlikely, that when + Cadmus retired among them, they said that he had become one of the + Illyrians, otherwise a dragon, or a serpent. All the ancient writers + who mention his history agree that Cadmus really did retire into + Illyria, where he first assisted the Enchelians in their war against + the Illyrians. The latter were defeated, and, to obtain a peace from + the Enchelians, they gave the crown to Cadmus; to which, on his death, + his son Illyrus succeeded. The historian Christodorus, quoted by + Pausanias, says that he built the city of Nygnis, in the country of + the Enchelians. + + Some writers have supposed, upon the authority of Euhemerus as quoted + by Eusebius that Cadmus was not the son of Agenor, but was one of his + officers, who eloped thence with Hermione, a singing girl. Others + suppose that Cadmus is not really a proper name, but that it signifies + a 'leader,' or 'conductor;' and that he received the name from leading + a colony into Greece. Bochart says that he was called Cadmus, because + he came from the eastern part of Phoenicia, which is called in + Scripture 'Cadmonia,' or 'oriental;' and that Hermione probably + received her name from Mount Hermon. + + +FABLE IX. [IV.604-662] + + Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danaë, having killed Medusa, carries + her head into Africa, where the blood that runs from it produces + serpents. Atlas, king of that country, terrified at the remembrance of + an oracle, which had foretold that his golden fruit should be taken by + one of the sons of Jupiter, not only orders him to depart, but even + resorts to violence to drive him away, on which Perseus shows him the + Gorgon's head, and changes him into a mountain. + +But yet their grandson, {Bacchus} gave them both a great consolation, +under this change of form; whom India, subdued {by him}, worshipped {as +a} God, {and} whom Achaia honored with erected temples. Acrisius the son +of Abas,[74] descended of the same race,[75] alone remained, to drive +him from the walls of the Argive city, and to bear arms against the God, +and to believe him not to be the offspring of Jove. Neither did he think +Perseus to be the offspring of Jupiter, whom Danaë had conceived in a +shower of gold; but soon (so great is the power of truth) Acrisius was +sorry, both that he had insulted the God, and that he had not +acknowledged his grandson. The one was now placed in heaven, while the +other, bearing the memorable spoil of the viperous monster, cut the +yielding air with hissing wings; and while the conqueror was hovering +over the Libyan sands, bloody drops, from the Gorgon's head, fell down, +upon receiving {which, the} ground quickened them into various serpents. +For this cause, that region is filled and infested with snakes. + +Carried thence, by the fitful winds, through boundless space, he is +borne now here, now there, just like a watery cloud, and, from the lofty +sky, looks down upon the earth, removed afar; and he flies over the +whole world. Three times he saw the cold Bears, thrice did he see the +claws of the Crab; ofttimes he was borne to the West, many a time to the +East. And now, the day declining, afraid to trust himself to the night, +he stopped in the Western part of the world, in the kingdom of Atlas; +and {there} he sought a little rest, until Lucifer should usher forth +the fires of Aurora, Aurora, the chariot of the day. Here was Atlas, the +son of Iapetus, surpassing all men in the vastness of his body. Under +this king was the extremity of the earth, and the sea which holds its +waters under the panting horses of the Sun, and receives the wearied +chariot. For him, a thousand flocks, and as many herds, wandered over +the pastures, and no neighboring places disturbed the land. Leaves of +the trees, shining with radiant gold, covered branches of gold, {and} +apples of gold. "My friend," said Perseus to him, "if the glory of a +noble race influences thee, Jupiter is the author of my descent; or if +thou art an admirer of exploits, thou wilt admire mine. I beg of thee +hospitality, and a resting place." The other was mindful of an ancient +oracle. The Parnassian Themis had given this response: "A time will +come, Atlas, when thy tree shall be stripped of its gold, and a son of +Jove shall have the honor of the prize." Dreading this, Atlas had +enclosed his orchard with solid walls, and had given it to be kept by a +huge dragon;[76] and expelled all strangers from his territories. {To +Perseus}, too, he says, "Far hence begone, lest the glory of the +exploits, to which thou falsely pretendest, and Jupiter as well, be far +from protecting thee." He adds violence as well to his threats, and +tries to drive him from his doors, as he hesitates and mingles resolute +words with persuasive ones. Inferior in strength (for who could be a +match for Atlas in strength?), he says "Since my friendship is of so +little value to thee, accept {this} present;" and then, turning his face +away, he exposes on the left side the horrible features of Medusa. +Atlas, great as he is, becomes a mountain. Now his beard and his hair +are changed into woods; his shoulders and his hands become mountain +ridges, and what was formerly his head, is the summit on the top of the +mountain. His bones become stones; then, enlarged on every side, he +grows to an immense height (so you willed it, ye Gods), and the whole +heaven, with so many stars, rests upon him. + + [Footnote 74: _Son of Abas._--Ver. 608. Acrisius was the son of + Abas, king of Argos. He was the father of Danaë, by whom Jupiter + was the father of Perseus.] + + [Footnote 75: _Of the same race._--Ver. 607. Some suppose that by + this it is meant that as Belus, the father of Abas, and + grandfather of Acrisius, was the son of Jupiter, who was also the + father of Bacchus, the latter and Acrisius were consequently + related.] + + [Footnote 76: _A huge dragon._--Ver. 647. The name of the dragon + was Ladon.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the seduction of Danaë, the mother of Perseus, by + Jupiter, in the form of a shower of gold, has been thus explained by + some of the ancient writers. Acrisius, hearing of a prediction that + Danaë, his daughter, should bring forth a child that would kill him, + caused her to be shut in a tower with brazen gates, or, according to + some, in a subterraneous chamber, covered with plates of that metal; + which place, according to Pausanias, remained till the time of + Perilaus, the king of Argos, by whom it was destroyed. The precautions + of Acrisius were, however, made unavailing by his brother Proetus; who, + falling in love with his niece, corrupted the guards with gold, and + gained admission into the tower. Danaë, being delivered of Perseus, + her father caused them to be exposed in a boat to the mercy of the + waves. Being cast on shore near Seriphus, the king, Polydectes, gave + them a hospitable reception, and took care of the education of + Perseus. + + Diodorus Siculus says that the Gorgons were female warriors, who + inhabited the neighborhood of Lake Tritonis, in Libya. Pausanias + explains the story of Medusa, by saying that she ruled the people in + that neighborhood, and laid waste the lands of the nations in her + vicinity. Perseus, having fled, with some companions, from + Peloponnesus, surprised her by night, and killed her, together with + her escort. The next morning, the beauty of her face appeared so + remarkable that he cut it off, and afterwards took it with him to + Greece, to show it to the people, who could not look on it without + being struck with astonishment. On this explanation we may remark, + that if it is true, Perseus must have had more skill than the surgeons + of our day, in being able to preserve the beauty of the features so + long after death. + + Again, many of the ancient historians, with Pliny, Athenæus, and + Solinus, think that the Gorgons were wild women of a savage nature, + living in caves and forests, who, falling on wayfarers, committed + dreadful atrocities. Palæphatus and Fulgentius think that the Gorgons + really were three young women, possessed of great wealth, which they + employed in a very careful manner; Phorcus, their father, having left + them three islands, and a golden statue of Minerva, which they placed + in their common treasury. They had one minister in common for the + management of their affairs, who used to go for that purpose from one + island to another, whence arose the story that they had but one eye, + and that they lent it to one another alternately. Perseus, a fugitive + from Argos, hearing of the golden statue, determined to obtain it; and + with that view, seized their minister, or, in the allegorical language + of the poets, took their eye away from them. He then sent them word, + that if they would give him the statue, he would deliver up his + captive, and threatened, in case of refusal, to put him to death. + Stheno and Euryale consented to this; but Medusa resisting, she was + killed by Perseus. Upon his obtaining the statue, which was called the + Gorgon, or Gorgonian, he broke it in pieces, and placed the head on + the prow of his ship. As the sight of this, and the fame of the + exploits of Perseus, spread terror everywhere, and caused passive + submission to him, the fable originated, that with Medusa's head he + turned his enemies into stone. Landing in the Isle of Seriphus, the + king fled, with all his subjects; and, on entering the chief city, + finding nothing but the bare stones there, he caused the report to be + spread, that he had petrified the inhabitants. + + Servius, in his Commentary on the Æneid, quotes an opinion of Ammonius + Serenus, that the Gorgons were young women of such beauty as to make a + great impression on all that saw them; for which reason they were said + to turn them into statues. Le Clerc thinks that the story bears + reference to a voyage which the Phoenicians had made in ancient times + to the coast of Africa, whence they brought a great number of horses; + and that the name 'Perseus' comes from the Phoenician word 'pharscha,' + 'a horseman;' while the horse Pegasus was so called from the Phoenician + 'pagsous,' 'a bridled horse,' according to the conjecture of Bochart. + Alexander of Myndus, a historian quoted by Athenæus, says that Libya + had an animal which the natives called 'gorgon;' that it resembled a + sheep, and with its breath killed all those who approached it; that a + tuft of hair fell over its eyes, which was so heavy as to be removed + with difficulty, for the purpose of seeing the objects around it; but + that when it was removed, by its looks it struck dead any person whom + it gazed upon. He says, that in the war with Jugurtha, some of the + soldiers of Marius were thus slain by it, and that it was at last + killed by means of arrows discharged from a great distance. + + The Gorgons are said to have inhabited the Gorgades, islands in the + Æthiopian Sea, the chief of which was called Cerna, according to + Diodorus and Palæphatus. It is not improbable that the Cape Verde + Islands were called by this name. The fable of the transformation of + Atlas into the mountain of that name may possibly have been based upon + the simple fact, that Perseus killed him in the neighborhood of that + range, from which circumstance it derived the name which it has borne + ever since. The golden apples, which Atlas guarded with so much care, + were probably either gold mines, which Atlas had discovered in the + mountains of his country, and had secured with armed men and watchful + dogs; or sheep, whose fleeces were extremely valuable for their + fineness; or else oranges and lemons, and other fruits peculiar to + very hot climates, for the production of which the poets especially + remarked the country of Tingitana (the modern Tangier), as being very + celebrated. + + +FABLE X. [IV.663-803] + + Perseus, after his victory over Atlas, and his change into a mountain, + arrives in Æthiopia, at the time when Andromeda is exposed to be + devoured by a monster. He kills it, and hides the Gorgon's head under + the sand, covered with sea-weed and plants; which are immediately + turned into coral. He then renders thanks to the Gods for his victory, + and marries Andromeda. At the marriage feast he relates the manner in + which he had killed Medusa; and the reason why Minerva had changed her + hair into serpents. + +The grandson of Hippotas[77] had shut up the winds in their eternal +prison; and Lucifer, who reminds {men} of their work, was risen in the +lofty sky, in all his splendor. Resuming his wings, {Perseus} binds his +feet with them on either side, and is girt with his crooked weapon, and +cleaves the liquid air with his winged ankles. Nations innumerable being +left behind, around and below, he beholds the people of the Æthiopians +and the lands of Cepheus. There the unjust Ammon[78] had ordered the +innocent Andromeda to suffer punishment for her mother's tongue.[79] + +Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her, with her arms bound to the +hard rock, but that the light breeze was moving her hair, and her eyes +were running with warm[80] tears, he would have thought her to be a work +of marble. Unconsciously he takes fire, and is astonished; captivated +with the appearance of her beauty, {thus} beheld, he almost forgets to +wave his wings in the air. When he has lighted {on the ground}, he says, +"O thou, undeserving of these chains, but {rather} of those by which +anxious lovers are mutually united, disclose to me, inquiring both the +name of this land and of thyself, and why thou wearest {these} chains." +At first she is silent, and, a virgin, she does not dare address[81] a +man; and with her hands she would have concealed her blushing features, +if she had not been bound; her eyes, 'twas {all} she could do, she +filled with gushing tears. Upon his often urging her, lest she should +seem unwilling to confess her offence, she told the name both of her +country and herself, and how great had been the confidence of her mother +in her beauty. All not yet being told, the waves roared, and a monster +approaching,[82] appeared with its head raised out of the boundless +ocean, and covered the wide expanse with its breast. The virgin shrieks +aloud; her mournful father, and her distracted mother, are there, both +wretched, but the latter more justly so. Nor do they bring her any help +with them, but tears suitable to the occasion, and lamentations, and +they cling round her body, bound {to the rock}. + +Then thus the stranger says: "Plenty of time will be left for your tears +{hereafter}, the season for giving aid is {but} short. If I were to +demand her {in marriage}, I, Perseus, the son of Jove, and of her whom, +in prison, Jove embraced in the impregnating {shower of} gold, Perseus, +the conqueror of the Gorgon with her serpent locks, and who has dared, +on waving wings, to move through the ætherial air, I should surely be +preferred before all as your son-in-law. To so many recommendations I +endeavor to add merit (if only the Deities favor me). I {only} stipulate +that she may be mine, {if} preserved by my valor." Her parents embrace +the condition, (for who could hesitate?) and they entreat {his aid}, and +promise as well, the kingdom as a dowry. Behold! as a ship onward +speeding, with the beak fixed {in its prow}, plows the waters, impelled +by the perspiring arms[83] of youths; so the monster, moving the waves +by the impulse of its breast, was as far distant from the rocks, as +{that distance} in the mid space of air, which a Balearic string can +pass with the whirled plummet of lead; when suddenly the youth, spurning +the earth with his feet, rose on high into the clouds. As the shadow of +the hero was seen on the surface of the sea, the monster vented its fury +on the shadow {so} beheld. And as the bird of Jupiter,[84] when he has +espied on the silent plain a serpent exposing its livid back to the +sun, seizes it behind; and lest it should turn upon him its raging +mouth, fixes his greedy talons in its scaly neck; so did the winged +{hero}, in his rapid flight through the yielding {air}, press the back +of the monster, and the descendant of Inachus thrust his sword up to the +very hilt in its right shoulder, as it roared aloud. + +Tortured by the grievous wound, it sometimes raises itself aloft in the +air, sometimes it plunges beneath the waves, sometimes it wheels about, +just like a savage boar, which a pack of hounds in full cry around him +affrights. With swift wings he avoids the eager bites[85] {of the +monster}, and, with his crooked sword, one while wounds its back covered +with hollow shells, where it is exposed, at another time the ribs of its +sides, and now, where its tapering tail terminates in {that of} a fish. +The monster vomits forth from its mouth streams mingled with red blood; +its wings, {made} heavy {by it}, are wet with the spray. Perseus, not +daring any longer to trust himself on his dripping pinions,[86] beholds +a rock, which with its highest top projects from the waters {when} +becalmed, {but is now} covered by the troubled sea. Resting on that, and +clinging to the upper ridge[87] of the rock with his left hand, three or +four times he thrusts his sword through its entrails aimed at {by him}. +A shout, with applause, fills the shores and the lofty abodes of the +Gods. Cassiope and Cepheus, the father, rejoice, and salute him as their +son-in-law, and confess that he is the support and the preserver of +their house. + +Released from her chains, the virgin walks along, both the reward and +the cause of his labors. He himself washes his victorious hands in water +taken {from the sea}; and that it may not injure the snake-bearing head +with the bare sand, he softens the ground with leaves; and strews some +weeds produced beneath the sea, and lays upon them the face of Medusa, +the daughter of Phorcys. The fresh weeds, being still alive, imbibed the +poison of the monster in their spongy pith, and hardened by its touch; +and felt an unwonted stiffness in their branches and their leaves. But +the Nymphs of the sea attempt the wondrous feat on many {other} weeds, +and are pleased at the same result; and raise seed again from them +scattered on the waves. Even now the same nature remains in the coral, +that it receives hardness from contact with the air; and what was a +plant in the sea, out of the sea becomes stone. + +To three Deities he erects as many altars of turf; the left one to +Mercury; the right to thee, warlike Virgin; the altar of Jove is in the +middle. A cow is sacrificed to Minerva; a calf to the wing-footed {God, +and} a bull to thee, greatest of the Deities. Forthwith he takes +Andromeda, and the reward of an achievement so great, without any dowry. +Hymenæus and Cupid wave their torches before them; the fires are heaped +with abundant perfumes. Garlands, too, are hanging from the houses: +flageolets and lyres, and pipes, and songs resound, the happy tokens of +a joyous mind. The folding-doors thrown open, the entire gilded halls +are displayed, and the nobles of king Cepheus sit down at a feast +furnished with splendid preparations. After they have done the feast, +and have cheered their minds with the gifts of the generous Bacchus, the +grandson of Abas inquires the customs and habits of the country. +Immediately one {of them}, Lyncides, tells him, on his inquiring, the +manners and habits of the inhabitants. Soon as he had told him these +things, he said, "Now, most valiant Perseus, tell us, I beseech thee, +with how great valor and by what arts thou didst cut off the head all +hairy with serpents." The descendant of Abas tells them that there is a +spot situate beneath cold Atlas, safe in its bulwark of a solid mass; +that, in the entrance of this, dwelt the two sisters, the daughters of +Phorcys, who shared the use of a single eye; that he stealthily, by sly +craft, while it was being handed over,[88] obtained possession of this +by putting his hand in the way; and that through rocks far remote, and +pathless, and bristling with woods on their craggy sides, he had arrived +at the abodes of the Gorgons, and saw everywhere, along the fields and +the roads, statues of men and wild beasts turned into stone, from their +{natural form}, at the sight of Medusa; yet that he himself, from the +reflection on the brass of the shield[89] which his left hand bore, +beheld the visage of the horrible Medusa; and that, while a sound sleep +held her and her serpents {entranced}, he took the head from off the +neck; and that Pegasus and his brother,[90] fleet with wings, were +produced from the blood of {her}, their mother. He added, too, the +dangers of his lengthened journey, {themselves} no fiction;[91] what +seas, what lands he had seen beneath him from on high, and what stars he +had reached with his waving wings. + +Yet, before it was expected,[92] he was silent; {whereupon} one of the +nobles rejoined, inquiring why she alone, of the sisters, wore snakes +mingled alternately with her hair. "Stranger," said he, "since thou +inquirest on a matter worthy to be related, hear the cause of the thing +thou inquirest after. She was the most famed for her beauty, and the +coveted hope of many wooers; nor, in the whole of her person, was any +part more worthy of notice than her hair: I have met {with some} who +said they had seen it. The sovereign of the sea is said to have +deflowered her in the Temple of Minerva. The daughter of Jove turned +away, and covered her chaste eyes with her shield. And that this might +not be unpunished, she changed the hair of the Gorgon into hideous +snakes. Now, too, that she may alarm her surprised foes with terror, she +bears in front upon her breast, those snakes which she {thus} produced." + + [Footnote 77: _Hippotas._--Ver. 663. Æolus, the God of the Winds, + was the son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.] + + [Footnote 78: _Ammon._--Ver. 671. Jupiter, with the surname of + Ammon, had a temple in the deserts of Libya, where he was + worshipped under the shape of a ram; a form which he was supposed + to have assumed, when, in common with the other Deities, he fled + from the attacks of the Giants. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon being + consulted relative to the sea monster, which Neptune, at the + request of the Nereids, had sent against the Ethiopians, answered + that Andromeda must be exposed to be devoured by it; which Ovid + here, not without reason, calls an unjust demand.] + + [Footnote 79: _Mother's tongue._--Ver. 670. Cassiope, the mother + of Andromeda, had dared to compare her own beauty with that of the + Nereids. Cepheus, the son of Phoenix, was the father of Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warm._--Ver. 674. 'Tepido,' 'warm,' is decidedly + preferable here to 'trepido,' 'trembling.'] + + [Footnote 81: _Dare address._--Ver. 682. Heinsius thinks that + 'appellare' here is not the correct reading; and suggests + 'aspectare,' which seems to be more consistent with the sense of + the passage, which would then be, 'and does not dare to look down + upon the hero.'] + + [Footnote 82: _Monster approaching._--Ver. 689. Pliny the Elder + and Solinus tell us that the bones of this monster were afterwards + brought from Joppa, a seaport of Judæa, to Rome, and that the + skeleton was forty feet in length, and the spinal bone was six + feet in circumference.] + + [Footnote 83: _The perspiring arms._--Ver. 707. 'Juvenum + sudantibus acta lacertis' is translated by Clarke, 'forced forward + by the arms of sweating young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Bird of Jupiter._--Ver. 714. The eagle was the bird + sacred to Jove. The larger kinds of birds which afforded auguries + from their mode of flight, were called 'præpetes.'] + + [Footnote 85: _Avoids the eager bites._--Ver. 723. Clarke + translates this line, 'He avoids the monster's eager snaps with + his swift wings.'] + + [Footnote 86: _His dripping pinions._--Ver. 730. 'Talaria' were + either wings fitted to the ankles, or shoes having such wings + fastened to them; they were supposed to be usually worn by + Mercury.] + + [Footnote 87: _Clinging to the upper ridge._--Ver. 733. 'Tenens + juga prima sinistra' is rendered by Clarke, 'seizing the tip-top + of it with his left hand.'] + + [Footnote 88: _Being handed over._--Ver. 766. Of course, as they + had but one eye between them, they must have both been blind while + it was passing from one hand to another, so that Perseus could + have had but little difficulty in effecting the theft here + mentioned.] + + [Footnote 89: _Brass of the shield._--Ver. 783. This reflecting + shield Perseus is said to have received from Minerva, and by + virtue of it he was enabled to see without being seen. Lucian says + that Minerva herself held this reflecting shield before him, and + by that means afforded him the opportunity of seeing the + reflection of Medusa's figure; and that Perseus, seizing her by + the hair with his left hand, and keeping his eye fixed on the + image reflected in the shield, took his sword in his right, and + cut off her head, and then, by the aid of his wings, flew away + before the other Gorgon sisters were aware of what he had done.] + + [Footnote 90: _Pegasus and his brother._--Ver. 786. Pegasus and + Chrysaor were two winged horses, which were fabled to have sprung + up from the blood of Medusa, when slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 91: _Themselves no fiction._--Ver. 787. His dangers were + not false or imaginary, inasmuch as he was pursued by Sthenyo and + Euryale, the sisters of Medusa, who were fabled to have wings, and + claws of iron on their hands. Ovid deals a sly hit in the words + 'non falsa pericula cursus,' at the tales of travellers, who, even + in his day, seem to have commenced dealing in the marvellous; as, + indeed, we may learn for ourselves, on turning to the pages of + Herodotus, who seems to have been often imposed upon.] + + [Footnote 92: _Before it was expected._--Ver. 790. Showing thereby + how delighted his audience was with his narrative.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is extremely difficult to surmise what may have given rise to many + of the fabulous circumstances here narrated. It has been conjectured + by some, that Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor, the two horses + produced from the blood of Medusa, were really two ships in the harbor + of the island where that princess was residing at the time when she + was slain by Perseus; and that, on that event, they were seized by + him. Perhaps they had the figure of a winged horse on the prow; from + which circumstance the fable had its origin. Possibly, the story of + the production of coral from the blood of Medusa may have originated + in the fact, that on the defeat of the Gorgons, navigation became more + safe, and, consequently, the fishing for coral more common than it had + been before. + + The story of the exposure of Andromeda may be founded on the fact, + that she was contracted by her parents against her will to some + fierce, piratical prince, who infested the adjacent seas with his + depredations; and that the betrothal was made, on condition that he + should allow the realms of her father, Cepheus, to be free and + undisturbed; Perseus, being informed of this, slew the pirate, and + Phineus having been kept in a state of inactivity through dread of the + valor of Perseus, it was fabled that he had been changed into a stone. + This interpretation of the story is the one suggested by Vossius. + + Some writers think, that Phineus, the uncle of Andromeda, was the + enemy from which she was rescued by Perseus, and who is here + represented under the form of a monster; while others suggest that + this monster was the name of the ship in which the pirate before + mentioned was to have carried away Andromeda. + + + + +BOOK THE FIFTH. + + +FABLE I. [V.1-242] + + While Perseus is continuing the relation of the adventures of Medusa, + Phineus, to whom Andromeda has been previously promised in marriage, + rushes into the palace, with his adherents, and attacks his rival. + A furious combat is the consequence, in which Perseus gives signal + proofs of his valor. At length, perceiving himself likely to be + overpowered by the number of his enemies, he shows them the head of + the Gorgon; on which Phineus and his followers are turned into statues + of stone. After this victory, he takes Andromeda with him to Argos, + his native city, where he turns the usurper Proetus into stone, and + re-establishes his grandfather Acrisius on the throne. + +And while the hero, the son of Danaë, is relating these things in the +midst of the company of the subjects of Cepheus, the royal courts are +filled with a raging multitude; nor is the clamor such as celebrates a +marriage-feast, but one which portends dreadful warfare. You might +compare the banquet, changed into a sudden tumult, to the sea, which, +when calm, the boisterous rage of the winds disturbs by raising its +waves. + +Foremost among these, Phineus,[1] the rash projector of the onslaught, +shaking an ashen spear with a brazen point, cries, "Behold! {now}, +behold! I am come, the avenger of my wife, ravished from me; neither +shall thy wings nor Jupiter turned into fictitious gold, deliver thee +from me." As he is endeavoring to hurl {his lance}, Cepheus cries out, +"What art thou doing? What fancy, my brother, impels thee, in thy +madness, to this crime? Is this the due acknowledgment to return +for deserts so great? Dost thou repay the life of her {thus} preserved, +with this reward? 'Twas not Perseus, if thou wouldst know the truth, +that took her away from thee; but the incensed majesty of the Nereids, +and horned Ammon, and the monster of the sea, which came to be glutted +with my bowels. She was snatched from thee at that moment, at which she +was to have perished; unless it is that thou dost, in thy cruelty, +insist upon that very thing, that she should perish, and wilt be +appeased only by my affliction. It is not enough, forsooth, that in thy +presence she was bound and that thou, both her uncle and her betrothed, +didst give no assistance; wilt thou be grieving, besides, that she was +saved by another, and wilt thou deprive him of his reward? If this +appears great to thee, thou shouldst have recovered it from the rock to +which it was fastened. Now, let him who has recovered it, through whom +my old age is not childless, have what he stipulated for, both by his +merits and his words; and know that he was preferred not before thee, +but before certain death." + +{Phineus said} nothing, on the other hand; but viewing both him and +Perseus, with alternate looks, he was uncertain whether he should +{first} attack the one or the other; and, having paused a short time, he +vainly threw his spear, hurled with all the force that rage afforded. As +it stood fixed in the cushion,[2] then, at length, Perseus leapt off +from the couch, and in his rage would have pierced the breast of his +enemy with the weapon, thrown back, had not Phineus gone behind an +altar, and {thus} (how unworthily!) an altar[3] protected a miscreant. +However, the spear, not thrown in vain, stuck in the forehead of Rhoetus; +who, after he fell, and the steel was wrenched from the skull, he +{still} struggled, and besprinkled the laid tables with his blood. But +then does the multitude burst forth into ungovernable rage, and hurl +their weapons. Some there are, who say that Cepheus ought to die with +his son-in-law; but Cepheus has gone out by the entrance of the house, +calling right and good faith to witness, and the Gods of hospitality,[4] +that this disturbance is made contrary to his will. The warlike Pallas +comes; and with her shield protects her brother {Perseus}, and gives him +courage. There was an Indian, Athis {by name},[5] whom Limnate, the +daughter of the river Ganges, is believed to have brought forth beneath +the glassy waters; excelling in beauty, which he improved by his rich +dress; in his prime, as yet but twice eight years of age, dressed in a +purple tunic, which a golden fringe bordered; a gilded necklace graced +his neck, and a curved hair-pin his hair wet with myrrh. He, indeed, had +been taught to hit things, although at a distance, with his hurled +javelin, but {he was} more skilled at bending the bow. {Perseus} struck +him even then, as he was bending with his hands the flexible horns {of a +bow}, with a billet, which, placed in the middle of the altar, was +smoking, and he crushed his face into his broken skull. + +When the Assyrian Lycabas, who was a most attached friend of his, and no +concealer of his real affection, saw him rolling his features, the +objects of such praises, in his blood; after he had bewailed Athis, +breathing forth his life from this cruel wound, he seized the bow which +he had bent, and said, "And {now} let the contest against thee be with +me; not long shalt thou exult in the fate of the youth, by which thou +acquirest more hatred than praise." All this he had not yet said, {when} +the piercing weapon darted from the string, and {though} avoided, still +it hung in the folds of his garment. The grandson of Acrisius turned +against him his falchion,[6] {already} proved in the slaughter of +Medusa, and thrust it into his breast. But he, now dying, with his eyes +swimming in black night, looked around for Athis, and sank upon him, and +carried to the shades the consolation of a united death. Lo! Phorbas of +Syene,[7] the son of Methion, and Amphimedon, the Libyan, eager to +engage in the fight, fell down, slipping in the blood with which the +earth was warm, soaked on every side; as they arose the sword met them, +being thrust in the ribs of the one, {and} in the throat of Phorbas. But +Perseus does not attack Erithus, the son of Actor, whose weapon is a +broad battle-axe, by using his sword, but he takes up, with both hands, +a huge bowl,[8] standing out with figures deeply embossed, and of vast +mass in its weight, and hurls it against the man. The other vomits forth +red blood, and, falling on his back, beats the ground with his dying +head. Then he slays Polydæmon, sprung from the blood of Semiramis, and +the Caucasian Abaris, and Lycetus, the son of Sperchius,[9] and Elyces, +with unshorn locks, and Phlegias, and Clytus; and he tramples upon the +heaps of the dying, which he has piled up. + +But Phineus, not daring to engage hand to hand with his enemy, hurls his +javelin, which accident carries against Idas, who, in vain, has declined +the warfare[10] and has followed the arms of neither. He, looking at the +cruel Phineus with stern eyes, says, "Since I am {thus} forced to take a +side, take the enemy, Phineus, that thou hast made, and make amends for +my wound with this wound." And now, just about to return the dart drawn +from his body, he falls sinking down upon his limbs void of blood. Here, +too, Odytes, the next in rank among the followers of Cepheus, after the +king, lies prostrate under the sword of Clymenus; Hypseus kills +Protenor, {and} Lyncides Hypseus. There is, too, among them the aged +Emathion, an observer of justice, and a fearer of the Gods; as his years +prevent him from fighting, he engages by talking, and he condemns and +utters imprecations against their accursed arms. As he clings to the +altars[11] with trembling hands, Chromis cuts off his head with his +sword, which straightway falls upon the altar, and there, with his dying +tongue he utters words of execration, and breathes forth his soul in the +midst of the fires. Upon this, two brothers, Broteas and Ammon +invincible at boxing, if swords could only be conquered by boxing, fell +by the hand of Phineus; Ampycus, too, the priest of Ceres, having his +temples wreathed with a white fillet. Thou too, son of Iapetus, not to +be employed for these services; but one who tuned the lyre, the work of +peace, to thy voice, hadst been ordered to attend the banquet and +festival with thy music. As thou art standing afar, and holding the +unwarlike plectrum, Pettalus says, laughing, "Go sing the rest to the +Stygian ghosts," and fixes the point of the sword in his left temple. He +falls, and with his dying fingers he touches once again the strings of +the lyre; and in his fall he plays a mournful dirge.[12] The fierce +Lycormas does not suffer him to fall unpunished; and tearing away a +massive bar from the doorpost on the right, he dashes it against the +bones of the middle of the neck {of Pettalus}; struck, he falls to the +ground, just like a slaughtered bullock. + +The Cinyphian[13] Pelates, too, was trying to tear away the oaken bar of +the doorpost on the left; as he was trying, his right hand was fastened +{thereto} by the spear of Corythus, the son of Marmarus, and it stood +riveted to the wood. {Thus} riveted, Abas pierced his side; he did not +fall, however, but dying, hung from the post, which still held fast his +hand. Melaneus, too, was slain, who had followed the camp of Perseus, +and Dorylas, very rich in Nasamonian land.[14] Dorylas, rich in land, +than whom no one possessed it of wider extent, or received {thence} so +many heaps of corn. The hurled steel stood fixed obliquely in his groin; +the hurt was mortal. When the Bactrian[15] Halcyoneus, the author of the +wound, beheld him sobbing forth his soul, and rolling his eyes, he said, +"Take {for thine own} this {spot} of earth which thou dost press, out of +so many fields," and he left his lifeless body. The descendant of Abas, +as his avenger, hurls against {Halcyoneus} the spear torn from his wound +{yet} warm, which, received in the middle of the nostrils, pierced +through his neck, and projected on both sides. And while fortune is +aiding his hand, he slays, with different wounds, Clytius and Clanis, +born of one mother. For an ashen spear poised with a strong arm is +driven through both the thighs of Clytius; with his mouth does Clanis +bite the javelin. Celadon, the Mendesian,[16] falls, too; Astreus falls, +born of a mother of Palestine, {but} of an uncertain father. Æthion, +too, once sagacious at foreseeing things to come, {but} now deceived[17] +by a false omen; and Thoactes, the armor-bearer of the king, and +Agyrtes, infamous for slaying his father. + +More work still remains, than what is {already} done; for it is the +intention of all to overwhelm one. The conspiring troops fight on all +sides, for a cause that attacks both merit and good faith. The one side, +the father-in-law, attached in vain, and the new-made wife, together +with her mother, encourage; and {these} fill the halls with their +shrieks. But the din of arms, and the groans of those that fall, +prevail; and for once, Bellona[18] is deluging the household Gods +polluted with plenteous blood, and is kindling the combat anew. Phineus, +and a thousand that follow Phineus, surround Perseus {alone}; darts are +flying thicker than the hail of winter, on both his sides, past his +eyes, and past his ears. On this, he places his shoulders against the +stone of a large pillar, and, having his back secure, and facing the +adverse throng, he withstands their attack. Chaonian[19] Molpeus presses +on the left, Nabathæan Ethemon on the right. As a tiger, urged on by +hunger, when it hears the lowings of two herds, in different valleys, +knows not on which side in preference to rush out, and {yet} is eager to +rush out on both; so Perseus, being in doubt whether to bear onward to +the right or to the left, repulses Molpeus by a wound in the leg, which +he runs through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does +Ethemon give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to +inflict a wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with +incautious force; and against the extremity of a column which he has +struck, the blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its +owner; yet that blow has not power sufficient to {effect} his death. +Perseus stabs him with his Cyllenian[20] falchion, trembling, and vainly +extending his unarmed hands. + +But when Perseus saw his valor {likely} to yield to such numbers, he +said, "Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will seek assistance +from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my friends are here;" and +{then} he produced the head of the Gorgon. "{Go}, seek some one else," +said Thescelus, "for thy miracles to affect;" and, as he was preparing +to hurl his deadly javelin with his hand, he stood fast in that posture, +a statue of marble. Ampyx, being next him, made a pass with his sword at +the breast of Lyncidas, full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his +right hand became stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But +Nileus, who had falsely boasted that he was begotten by the +seven-mouthed Nile, and who had engraved on his shield its seven +channels, partly in silver, partly in gold, said, "Behold, Perseus, the +origin of my race; thou shalt carry to the silent shades a great +consolation for thy death, that thou wast killed by one so great." The +last part of his address was suppressed in the midst of the utterance; +and you would think his half-open mouth was attempting to speak, but it +gave no passage for his words. Eryx rebuked them,[21] and said, "Ye are +benumbed by the cowardice of your minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon; +rush on with me, and strike to the ground {this} youth that wields his +magic arms." He was about to rush on, {when} the earth arrested his +steps, and he remained an immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all +these met with the punishment they had deserved: there was one man, +however, Aconteus {by name}, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was +fighting, on beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon +him. Astyages, thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword; +the sword resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in +amazement, he took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in +surprise remained on his marble features. It is a tedious task to +recount the names of the men of the lower rank. Two hundred bodies were +{yet} remaining for the fight: two hundred bodies, on beholding the +Gorgon, grew stiff. + +Now at length Phineus repents of this unjust warfare. But what can he +do? He sees statues varying in form, and he recognizes his friends, and +demands help of them each, called by name; and not {yet} persuaded, he +touches the bodies next him; they are marble. He turns away {his eyes}; +and thus suppliant, and stretching forth his hands, that confessed {his +fault}, and his arms obliquely extended, he says, "Perseus, thou hast +conquered; remove the direful monster, and take away that stone-making +face of thy Medusa, whatever she may be; take it away, I pray. It is not +hatred, or the desire of a kingdom, that has urged me to war: for a wife +I wielded arms. Thy cause was the better in point of merit, mine in +point of time. I am not sorry to yield. Grant me nothing, most valiant +man, beyond this life; the rest be thine." Upon his saying such things, +and not daring to look upon him, whom he is entreating with his voice, +{Perseus} says, "What am I able to give thee, most cowardly Phineus, +and, a great boon to a craven, that will I give; lay aside thy fears; +thou shalt be hurt by no weapon. Moreover, I will give thee a monument +to last forever, and in the house of my father-in-law thou shalt always +be seen, that my wife may comfort herself with the form of her +betrothed." {Thus} he said, and he turned the daughter of Phorcys to +that side, towards which Phineus had turned himself with trembling face. +Then, even as he endeavored to turn away his eyes, his neck grew stiff, +and the moisture of his eyes hardened in stone. But yet his timid +features, and his suppliant countenance, and his hands hanging down, and +his guilty attitude, still remained. + +The descendant of Abas, together with his wife, enters the walls of his +native city; and as the defender and avenger of his innocent mother, he +attacks Proetus.[22] For, his brother being expelled by force of arms, +Proetus had taken possession of the citadel of Acrisius; but neither by +the help of arms, nor the citadel which he had unjustly seized, did he +prevail against the stern eyes of the snake-bearing monster. + + [Footnote 1: _Phineus._--Ver. 8. He was the brother of Cepheus, to + whom Andromeda had been betrothed. There was another person of the + same name, who entertained the Argonauts, and who is also + mentioned in the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 2: _In the cushion._--Ver. 34. This was probably the + mattress or covering of the couch on which the ancients reclined + during meals. It was frequently stuffed with wool; but among the + poorer classes, with straw and dried weeds.] + + [Footnote 3: _An altar._--Ver. 36. This was either the altar + devoted to the worship of the Penates; or, more probably, perhaps, + in this instance, that erected for sacrifice to the Gods on the + occasion of the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 4: _Gods of hospitality._--Ver. 45. Jupiter was + especially considered to be the avenger of a violation of the laws + of hospitality.] + + [Footnote 5: _Athis by name._--Ver. 47. Athis, or Atys, is here + described as of Indian birth, to distinguish him from the Phrygian + youth of the same name, beloved by Cybele, whose story is told by + Ovid in the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 6: _His falchion._--Ver. 69. The "Harpe" was a short, + crooked sword, or falchion: such as we call a "scimitar."] + + [Footnote 7: _Syene._--Ver. 74. This was a city on the confines of + Æthiopia, bordering upon Egypt. Ovid tells us in the Pontic + Epistles (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79), that "there, at the time of the + summer solstice, bodies as they stand, have no shadow."] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge bowl._--Ver. 82. Clarke calls "ingentem + cratera" "a swingeing bowl."] + + [Footnote 9: _Sperchius._--Ver. 86. This was probably a person, + and not the river of Thessaly, flowing into the Malian Gulf.] + + [Footnote 10: _Has declined the warfare._--Ver. 91. This is an + illustration of the danger of neutrality, when the necessity of + the times requires a man to adopt the side which he deems to be in + the right.] + + [Footnote 11: _Clings to the altars._--Ver. 103. In cases of + extreme danger, it was usual to fly to the temples of the Deities, + and to take refuge behind the altar or statue of the God, and even + to cling to it, if necessity required.] + + [Footnote 12: _A mournful dirge._--Ver. 118. Clarke translates + 'Casuque canit miserabile carmen;' 'and in his fall plays but a + dismal ditty.'] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyphian._--Ver. 124. Cinyps, or Cinyphus, was the + name of a river situate in the north of Africa.] + + [Footnote 14: _Nasamonian land._--Ver. 129. The Nasamones were a + people of Libya, near the Syrtes, or quicksands, who subsisted by + plundering the numerous wrecks on their coasts.] + + [Footnote 15: _Bactrian._--Ver. 135. Bactris was the chief city of + Bactria, a region bordering on the western confines of India.] + + [Footnote 16: _The Mendesian._--Ver. 144. Mendes was a city of + Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile, where Pan was worshipped, + according to Pliny. Celadon was a native of either this place, or + of the city of Myndes, in Syria.] + + [Footnote 17: _Now deceived._--Ver. 147. Because he had not + foreseen his own approaching fate.] + + [Footnote 18: _Bellona._--Ver. 155. She was the sister of Mars, + and was the Goddess of War.] + + [Footnote 19: _Chaonian._--Ver. 163. Chaonia was a mountainous + part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, who was accidentally killed, + while hunting, by Helenus, the son of Priam. It has been, however, + suggested that the reading ought to be 'Choanius;' as the Choanii + were a people bordering on Arabia; and very justly, for how should + the Chaonians and Nabathæans, or Epirotes, and Arabians become + united in the same sentence, as meeting in a region so distant as + Æthiopia?] + + [Footnote 20: _Cyllenian._--Ver. 176. His falchion had been given + to him by Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Eryx rebuked them._--Ver. 195. 'Increpat hos Eryx' + is translated by Clarke, 'Eryx rattles these blades.'] + + [Footnote 22: _Proetus._--Ver. 238. He was the brother of Acrisius, + the grandfather of Perseus.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The scene of this story is supposed by some to have been in Æthiopia, + but it is more probably on the coast of Africa. Josephus and Strabo + assert that this event happened near the city of Joppa, or Jaffa: + indeed, Josephus says that the marks of the chains with which + Andromeda was fastened, were remaining on the rock in his time. + Pomponius Mela says, that Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, was king + of Joppa, and that the memory of that prince and of his brother + Phineus was honored there with religious services. He says, too, that + the inhabitants used to show the bones of the monster which was to + have devoured Andromeda. Pliny tells us the same, and that Scaurus + carried these bones with him to Rome. He calls the monster 'a + Goddess,' 'Dea Cete.' Vossius believes that he means the God Dagon, + worshipped among the Syrians under the figure of a fish, or + sea-monster. Some authors have suggested that the story of the + creature which was to have devoured Andromeda, was a confused version + of that of the prophet Jonah. + + The alleged power of Perseus, to turn his enemies into stone, was + probably, a metaphorical mode of describing his heroism, and the + terror which everywhere followed the fame of his victory over the + Gorgons. This probably caused such consternation, that it was reported + that he petrified his enemies by showing them the head of Medusa. + Bochart supposes that the rocky nature of the island of Seriphus, + where Polydectes reigned, was the ground of the various stories of the + alleged metamorphoses into stone, effected by means of the Gorgon's + head. + + +FABLE II. [V.243-340] + + Polydectes continues his hatred against Perseus, and treats his + victories and triumphs over Medusa as mere fictions, on which Perseus + turns him into stone. Minerva leaves her brother, and goes to Mount + Helicon to visit the Muses, who show the Goddess the beauties of their + habitation, and entertain her with their adventure at the court of + Pyreneus, and the death of that prince. They also repeat to her the + song of the Pierides, who challenged them to sing. + +Yet, O Polydectes,[23] the ruler of little Seriphus, neither the valor +of the youth proved by so many toils, nor his sorrows have softened +thee; but thou obstinately dost exert an inexorable hatred, nor is there +any limit to thy unjust resentment. Thou also detractest from his +praises, and dost allege that the death of Medusa is {but} a fiction. +"We will give thee a proof of the truth," says Perseus; "have a regard +for your eyes, {all besides};" and he makes the face of the king +{become} stone, without blood, by means of the face of Medusa. + +Hitherto Tritonia had presented herself as a companion to her +brother,[24] begotten in the golden shower. Now, enwrapped in an +encircling cloud, she abandons Seriphus, Cythnus and Gyarus[25] being +left on the right. And where the way seems the shortest over the sea, +she makes for Thebes and Helicon, frequented by the virgin {Muses}; +having reached which mountain she stops, and thus addresses the learned +sisters: "The fame of the new fountain[26] has reached my ears, which +the hard hoof of the winged steed sprung from the blood of Medusa has +opened. That is the cause of my coming. I wished to see this wondrous +prodigy; I saw him spring from the blood of his mother." Urania[27] +replies, "Whatever, Goddess, is the cause of thy visiting these abodes, +thou art most acceptable to our feelings. However, the report is true, +and Pegasus is the originator of this spring;" and {then} she conducts +Pallas to the sacred streams. She, long admiring the waters produced by +the stroke of his foot, looks around upon the groves of the ancient +wood, and the caves and the grass studded with flowers innumerable; and +she pronounces the Mnemonian[28] maids happy both in their pursuits and +in their retreat; when one of the sisters {thus} addresses her: + +"O Tritonia, thou who wouldst have come to make one of our number, had +not thy valor inclined thee to greater deeds, thou sayest the truth, and +with justice thou dost approve both our pursuits and our retreat; and if +we are but safe, happy do we reckon our lot. But (to such a degree is no +denial borne by villany) all things affright our virgin minds, and the +dreadful Pyreneus is placed before our eyes; and not yet have I wholly +recovered my presence of mind. He, in his insolence, had taken the +Daulian and Phocean[29] land with his Thracian troops, and unjustly held +the government. We were making for the temple of Parnassus; he beheld us +going, and adoring our Divinities[30] in a feigned worship he said (for +he had recognized us), 'O Mnemonian maids, stop, and do not scruple, +I pray, under my roof to avoid the bad weather and the showers (for it +was raining); oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.' +Moved by his invitation and the weather, we assented to the man, and +entered the front part of his house. The rain had {now} ceased, and the +South Wind {now} subdued by the North, the black clouds were flying from +the cleared sky. It was our wish to depart. Pyreneus closed his house, +and prepared for violence, which we escaped by taking wing. He himself +stood aloft on the top {of his abode}, as though about to follow us, and +said 'Wherever there is a way for you, by the same road there will be +{one} for me.' And then, in his insanity, he threw himself from the +height of the summit of the tower, and fell upon his face, and with the +bones of his skull thus broken, he struck the ground stained with his +accursed blood." + +{Thus} spoke the Muse. Wings resounded through the air, and a voice of +some saluting them[31] came from the lofty boughs. The daughter of +Jupiter looked up, and asked whence tongues that speak so distinctly +made that noise, and thought that a human being had spoken. They were +birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting their fate, they +stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the Goddess wondered, +thus did the Goddess {Urania} commence: "Lately, too, did these being +overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the birds. Pierus, rich in +the lands of Pella,[32] begot them; the Pæonian[33] Evippe[34] was their +mother. Nine times did she invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times +in labor. This set of foolish sisters were proud of their number, and +came hither through so many cities of Hæmonia, {and} through so many of +Achaia,[35] and engaged in a contest in words such as these: "Cease +imposing upon the vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any +confidence {in your skill}, ye Thespian Goddesses, contend with us; we +will not be outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number. +Either, if vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of +Medusa, and the Hyantean Aganippe,[36] or we will retire from the +Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Pæonians. Let the Nymphs decide the +contest." It was, indeed, disgraceful to engage, but to yield seemed +{even} more disgraceful. The Nymphs that are chosen swear by the rivers, +and they sit on seats made out of the natural rock. Then, without +casting lots, she who had been the first to propose the contest, sings +the wars of the Gods above, and gives the Giants honor not their due, +and detracts from the actions of the great Divinities; and {sings} how +that Typhoeus, sent forth from the lowest realms of the earth, had struck +terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and {how} they had all turned +their backs in flight, until the land of Egypt had received them in +their weariness, and the Nile, divided into its seven mouths. She tells, +how that Typhoeus had come there, too, and the Gods above had concealed +themselves under assumed shapes; and 'Jupiter,' she says, 'becomes the +leader of the flock, whence, even at the present day, the Libyan Ammon +is figured with horns. {Apollo}, the Delian {God}, lies concealed as a +crow, the son of Semele as a he-goat, the sister of Phoebus as a cat, +{Juno}, the daughter of Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a +fish,[37] {Mercury}, the Cyllenian {God}, beneath the wings of an +Ibis.'[38] + +"Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to {the sound of} the lyre; we +of Aonia[39] were {then} called upon; but perhaps thou hast not the +leisure, nor the time to lend an ear to our strains." Pallas says, "Do +not hesitate, and repeat your song to me in its order;" and she takes +her seat under the pleasant shade of the grove. The Muse {then} tells +her story. "We assigned the management of the contest to one {of our +number}. Calliope rises, and, having her long hair gathered up with ivy, +tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and {then} sings these lines +in concert with the strings when struck." + + [Footnote 23: _Polydectes._--Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the + little island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys + had removed Perseus, with his mother Danaë, to the kingdom of + Polydectes. The latter became smitten with love for Danaë, though + he was about to marry Hippodamia. On this occasion he exacted a + promise from Perseus, of the head of the Gorgon Medusa. When + Perseus returned victorious, he found that his mother, with her + protector Dictys, had taken refuge at the altars of the Deities, + against the violence of Polydectes; on which Perseus changed him + into stone. The story of Perseus afforded abundant materials to + the ancient poets. Æschylus wrote a Tragedy called Polydectes, + Sophocles one called Danaë, while Euripides composed two, called + respectively Danaë and Dictys. Pherecydes also wrote on this + subject, and his work seems to have been a text book for + succeeding poets. Polygnotus painted the return of Perseus with + the head of Medusa, to the island of Seriphus.] + + [Footnote 24: _To her brother._--Ver. 250. As both Tritonia, or + Minerva, and Perseus had Jupiter for their father.] + + [Footnote 25: _Gyarus._--Ver. 252. Cythnus and Gyarus were two + islands of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 26: _The new fountain._--Ver. 256. This was Helicon, + which was produced by a blow from the hoof of Pegasus.] + + [Footnote 27: _Urania._--Ver. 260. One of the Muses, who presided + over Astronomy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Mnemonian._--Ver. 268. The Muses are called + 'Mnemonides,' from the Greek word +mnêmôn+ 'remembering,' or + 'mindful,' because they were said to be the daughters, by Jupiter, + of Mnemosyne, or Memory.] + + [Footnote 29: _Phocean._--Ver. 276. Daulis was a city of Phocis; + a district between Boeotia and Ætolia, in which the city of Delphi + and Mount Parnassus were situate.] + + [Footnote 30: _Our Divinities._--Ver. 279. 'Nostra veneratus + numina,' is translated by Clarke, 'and worshipping our + Goddessships.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Some saluting them._--Ver. 295. That is, crying out + +chaire, chaire+, the usual salutation among the Greeks, + equivalent to our 'How d'ye do?' From two lines of Persius, it + seems to have been a common thing to teach parrots and magpies to + repeat these words.] + + [Footnote 32: _Lands of Pella._--Ver. 302. Pella was a city of + Macedonia, in that part of it which was called Emathia. It was + famed for being the birthplace of Philip, and Alexander the + Great.] + + [Footnote 33: _Pæonian._--Ver. 303. Pæonia was a mountainous + region of Macedonia, adjacent to Emathia.] + + [Footnote 34: _Evippe._--Ver. 303. Evippe was the wife of Pierus, + and the mother of the Pierides.] + + [Footnote 35: _Achaia._--Ver. 306. The Achaia here mentioned was + the Hæmonian, or Thessalian Achaia. The other parts of Thessaly + were Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis.] + + [Footnote 36: _Aganippe._--Ver. 312. Aganippe was the name of a + fountain in Boeotia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses. It is + called Hyantean, from the ancient name of the inhabitants of the + country.] + + [Footnote 37: _Venus as a fish._--Ver. 331. The story of the + transformation of Venus into a fish, to escape the fury of the + Giants, is told, at length, in the second Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 38: _Wings of an Ibis._--Ver. 331. The Ibis was a bird + of Egypt, much resembling a crane, or stork. It was said to be of + peculiarly unclean habits, and to subsist upon serpents.] + + [Footnote 39: _We of Aonia._--Ver. 333. The Muses obtained the + name of Aonides from Aonia, a mountainous district of Boeotia.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Plutarch, the adventure of the Muses with Pyreneus, and + of their asking wings of the Gods to save themselves, is a metaphor, + which shows that he, when reigning in Phocis, was no friend to + learning. As he had caused all the institutions in which it was taught + to be destroyed, it was currently reported, that he had offered + violence to the Muses, and that he lost his life in pursuing them. + Ovid is the only writer that mentions him by name. + + The challenge given by the Pierides to the Muses is not mentioned by + any writer before the time of Ovid. By way of explaining it, it is + said, that Pierus was a very bad poet, whose works were full of + stories injurious to the credit of the Gods. Hence, in time, it became + circulated, that his daughters, otherwise his works, were changed into + magpies, thereby meaning that they were full of idle narratives, + tiresome and unmeaning. It is not improbable that the story of + Typhoeus, who forces the Gods to conceal themselves in Egypt, under the + forms of various animals, was a poem which Pierus composed on the war + of the Gods with the Giants. + + +FABLE III. [V.341-384] + + One of the Muses repeats to Minerva the song of Calliope, in answer to + the Pierides; in which she describes the defeat of the Giant Typhoeus, + and Pluto viewing the mountains of Sicily, where Venus persuades her + son Cupid to pierce his heart with one of his arrows. + +"Ceres was the first to turn up the clods with the crooked plough; she +first gave corn and wholesome food to the earth; she first gave laws; +everything is the gift of Ceres. She is to be sung by me; I only wish +that I could utter verses worthy of the Goddess, {for} doubtless she is +a Goddess worthy of my song. The vast island of Trinacria[40] is heaped +up on the limbs of the Giant, and keeps down Typhoeus, that dared to hope +for the abodes of Heaven, placed beneath its heavy mass. He, indeed, +struggles, and attempts often to rise, but his right hand is placed +beneath the Ausonian Pelorus,[41] his left under thee, Pachynus;[42] his +legs are pressed down by Lilyboeum;[43] Ætna bears down his head; under +it Typhoeus, on his back, casts forth sand, and vomits flame from his +raging mouth; often does he struggle to throw off the load of earth, and +to roll away cities and huge mountains from his body. Then does the +earth tremble, and the King of the shades himself is in dread, lest it +may open, and the ground be parted with a wide chasm, and, the day being +let in, may affright the trembling ghosts. + +"Fearing this ruin, the Ruler had gone out from his dark abode; and, +carried in his chariot by black horses, he cautiously surveyed the +foundations of the Sicilian land. After it was sufficiently ascertained +that no place was insecure, and fear was laid aside, Erycina,[44] +sitting down upon her mountain, saw him wandering; and, embracing her +winged son, she said, Cupid, my son, my arms, my hands, and my might, +take up those darts by which thou conquerest all, and direct the swift +arrows against the breast of the God, to whom fell the last lot of the +triple kingdom.[45] Thou subduest the Gods above, and Jupiter himself; +thou {subduest} the conquered Deities of the deep, and him who rules +over the Deities of the deep. Why is Tartarus exempt? Why dost thou not +extend the Empire of thy mother and thine own? A third part of the world +is {now} at stake. And yet so great power is despised even in our own +heaven, and, together with myself, the influence of Love becomes but a +trifling matter. Dost thou not see how that Pallas, and Diana, who +throws the javelin, have renounced me? The daughter of Ceres, too, will +be a virgin, if we shall permit it, for she inclines to similar hopes. +But do thou join the Goddess to her uncle, if I have any interest with +thee in favor of our joint sway. + +"Venus {thus} spoke. He opened his quiver, and, by the direction of his +mother, set apart one out of his thousand arrows; but one, than which +there is not any more sharp or less unerring, or which is more true to +the bow. And he bent the flexible horn, by pressing his knee against it, +and struck Pluto in the breast with the barbed arrow." + + [Footnote 40: _Trinacria._--Ver. 347. Sicily was called Trinacris, + or Trinacria, from its three corners or promontories, which are + here named by the Poet.] + + [Footnote 41: _Pelorus._--Ver. 350. This cape, or promontory, now + called Capo di Faro, is on the east of Sicily, looking towards + Italy, whence its present epithet, 'Ausonian.' It was so named + from Pelorus, the pilot of Hannibal, who, suspecting him of + treachery, had put him to death, and buried him on that spot.] + + [Footnote 42: _Pachynus._--Ver. 351. This Cape, now Capo Passaro, + looks towards Greece, from the south of Sicily.] + + [Footnote 43: _Lilybæum._--Ver. 351. Now called Capo Marsala. It + is on the west of Sicily, looking towards the African coast.] + + [Footnote 44: _Erycina._--Ver. 363. Venus is so called from Eryx, + the mountain of Sicily, on which her son Eryx, one of the early + Sicilian kings, erected a magnificent temple in her honor.] + + [Footnote 45: _The triple kingdom._--Ver. 368. In the partition of + the dominion of the universe the heavens fell to the lot of + Jupiter, the seas to that of Neptune; while the infernal regions, + or, as some say, the earth, were awarded to Pluto.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancients frequently accounted for natural phænomena on fabulous + grounds: and whatever they found difficult to explain, from their + ignorance of the principles of natural philosophy, they immediately + attributed to the agency of a supernatural cause. Ætna was often seen + to emit flames, and the earth was subjected to violent shocks from the + forces of its internal fires when struggling for a vent. Instead of + looking for the source of these eruptions in the sulphur and + bituminous matter in which the mountain abounds, they fabled, that the + Gods, having vanquished the Giant Typhoeus, or, according to some + authors, Enceladus, threw Mount Ætna on his body; and that the + attempts he made to free himself from the superincumbent weight were + the cause of those fires and earthquakes. + + +FABLE IV. [V.385-461] + + Pluto surprises Proserpina in the fields of Henna, and carries her + away by force. The Nymph Cyane endeavors, in vain, to stop him in his + passage, and through grief and anguish, dissolves into a fountain. + Ceres goes everywhere in search of her daughter, and, in her journey, + turns the boy Stellio into a newt. + +"Not far from the walls of Henna[46] there is a lake of deep water, +Pergus by name; Cayster does not hear more songs of swans, in his +running streams, than that. A wood skirts the lake, surrounding it on +every side, and with its foliage, as though with an awning, keeps out +the rays of the sun. The boughs produce a coolness, the moist ground +flowers of Tyrian hue. {There} the spring is perpetual. In this grove, +while Proserpina is amusing herself, and is plucking either violets or +white lilies, and while, with childlike eagerness, she is filling her +baskets and her bosom, and is striving to outdo {her companions} of the +same age in gathering, almost at the same instant she is beheld, +beloved, and seized by Pluto;[47] in such great haste is love. The +Goddess, affrighted, with lamenting lips calls both her mother and her +companions,[48] but more frequently her mother;[49] and as she has torn +her garment from the upper edge, the collected flowers fall from her +loosened robes. So great, too, is the innocence of her childish years, +this loss excites the maiden's grief as well. The ravisher drives on his +chariot, and encourages his horses, called, each by his name, along +whose necks and manes he shakes the reins, dyed with swarthy rust. He is +borne through deep lakes, and the pools of the Palici,[50] smelling +strong of sulphur, {and} boiling fresh from out of the burst earth; and +where the Bacchiadæ,[51] a race sprung from Corinth, with its two +seas,[52] built a city[53] between unequal harbors. + +"There is a stream in the middle, between Cyane and the Pisæan Arethusa, +which is confined within itself, being enclosed by mountain ridges at a +short distance {from each other}. Here was Cyane,[54] the most +celebrated among the Sicilian Nymphs, from whose name the pool also was +called, who stood up from out of the midst of the water, as far as the +higher part of her stomach, and recognized the God, and said, 'No +further shall you go. Thou mayst not be the son-in-law of Ceres against +her will. {The girl} should have been asked {of her mother}, not carried +away. But if I may be allowed to compare little matters with great ones, +Anapis[55] also loved me. Yet I married him, courted, and not frightened +{into it}, like her.' She {thus} said, and stretching her arms on +different sides, she stood in his way. The son of Saturn no longer +restrained his rage; and encouraging his terrible steeds, he threw his +royal sceptre, hurled with a strong arm, into the lowest depths of the +stream. The earth, {thus} struck, made a way down to Tartarus, and +received the descending chariot in the middle of the yawning space. But +Cyane, lamenting both the ravished Goddess, and the slighted privileges +of her spring, carries in her silent mind an inconsolable wound, and is +entirely dissolved into tears, and melts away into those waters, of +which she had been but lately the great guardian Divinity. You might see +her limbs soften, her bones become subjected to bending, her nails lay +aside their hardness: each, too, of the smaller extremities of the whole +of her body melts away; both her azure hair, her fingers, her legs, and +her feet; for easy is the change of those small members into a cold +stream. After that, her back, her shoulders, her side, and her breast +dissolve, vanishing into thin rivulets. Lastly, pure water, instead of +live blood, enters her corrupted veins, and nothing remains which you +can grasp {in your hand}. + +"In the mean time, throughout all lands and in every sea, the daughter +is sought in vain by her anxious mother. Aurora, coming with her ruddy +locks does not behold her taking any rest, neither does Hesperus. She, +with her two hands, sets light to some pines at the flaming Ætna, and +giving herself no rest, bears them through the frosty darkness. Again, +when the genial day has dulled the light of the stars, she seeks her +daughter from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. Fatigued by +the labor, she has {now} contracted thirst, and no streams have washed +her mouth, when by chance she beholds a cottage covered with thatch, and +knocks at its humble door, upon which an old woman[56] comes out and +sees the Goddess, and gives her, asking for water, a sweet drink which +she has lately distilled[57] from parched pearled barley. While she is +drinking it {thus} presented, a boy[58] of impudent countenance and +bold, stands before the Goddess, and laughs, and calls her greedy. She +is offended; and a part being not yet quaffed, the Goddess sprinkles +him, as he is {thus} talking, with the barley mixed with the liquor. + +"His face contracts the stains, and he bears legs where just now he was +bearing arms; a tail is added to his changed limbs; and he is contracted +into a diminutive form, that no great power of doing injury may exist; +his size is less than {that of} a small lizard. He flies from the old +woman, astounded and weeping, and trying to touch the monstrosity; and +he seeks a lurking place, and has a name suited to his color, having his +body speckled with various spots." + + [Footnote 46: _Henna._--Ver. 385. Henna, or Enna, was a city so + exactly situated in the middle of Sicily that it was called the + navel of that island. The worship of Ceres there was so highly + esteemed, that ancient writers remarked, that you might easily + take the whole place for one vast temple of that Goddess, and all + the inhabitants for her priests. Proserpine is said by many + authors, besides Ovid, to have been carried away by Pluto in the + vicinity of Henna; though some writers say that it took place in + Attica, and others again in Asia, while the Hymn of Orpheus + mentions the western coast of Spain. Cicero describes this spot in + his Oration against Verres: his words are, 'It is said that + Libera, who is the Deity that we call Proserpine, was carried away + from the Grove of Enna. Enna, where these events took place to + which I now refer, is in a lofty and exposed situation; but on the + summit the ground presents a level surface, and there are springs + of everflowing water. The spot is entirely cut off and separated + from all [ordinary] means of approach. Around it are many lakes + and groves, and flowers in bloom at all seasons of the year; so + that the very spot seems to portray the rape of the damsel, with + which story, from our very infancy, we have been familiar. Close + by, there is a cavern with its face towards the north, of an + immense depth, from which they say that father Pluto, in his + chariot, suddenly emerged, and carrying off the maiden, bore her + away from that spot, and then, not far from Syracuse, descended + into the earth, from which place a lake suddenly arose; where, at + the present day, the inhabitants of Syracuse celebrate a yearly + festival.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Seized by Pluto._--Ver. 395. Pluto is here called + 'Dis.' This name was given to him as the God of the Earth, from + the bowels of which riches are dug up.] + + [Footnote 48: _Her companions._--Ver. 397. Pausanias, in his + Messeniaca, has preserved the names of the companions of Ceres, + having copied them from the works of Homer.] + + [Footnote 49: _Her mother._--Ver. 397. Homer, in his poem on the + subject, represents that Ceres heard the cries of her daughter, + when calling upon her mother for assistance. Ovid recounts this + tale much more at length in the fourth Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 50: _The Palici._--Ver. 406. The Palici were two + brothers, sons of Jupiter and the Nymph Thalea, and, according to + some, received their name from the Greek words +palin hikesthai+, + 'to come again [to life].' Their mother, when pregnant, prayed the + earth to open, and to hide her from the vengeful wrath of Juno. + This was done; and when they had arrived at maturity, the Palici + burst from the ground in the island of Sicily. They were Deities + much venerated there, but their worship did not extend to any + other countries. We learn from Macrobius that the natives of + Sicily pointed out two small lakes, from which the brothers were + said to have emerged, and that the veneration attached to them was + such, that by their means they decided disputes, as they imagined + that perjurers would meet their death in these waters, while the + guiltless would be able to come forth from them unharmed. They + were fetid, sulphureous pools of water, probably affected by the + volcanic action of Mount Ætna.] + + [Footnote 51: _The Bacchiadæ._--Ver. 407. Archias, one of the race + of the Bacchiadæ, a powerful Corinthian family, being expelled + from Corinth, was said to have founded Syracuse, the capital of + Sicily. The family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of + Dionysus, or Bacchus, or from the fifth king of Corinth, who was + named Bacchis. The family was expelled from Corinth by Cypselus, + either on account of their luxury and extravagant mode of life, or + because they were supposed to aim at the sovereignty.] + + [Footnote 52: _With its two seas._--Ver. 407. Corinth is called + 'Bimaris' by the Latin poets, from its having the Ægean sea on one + side of it, and the Ionian sea on the other.] + + [Footnote 53: _Built a city._--Ver. 408. Syracuse had two harbors, + one of which was much larger than the other.] + + [Footnote 54: _Cyane._--Ver. 412. According to Claudian, Cyane was + one of the companions of Proserpine, when she was carried off by + Pluto.] + + [Footnote 55: _Anapis._--Ver. 417. This was a river of Sicily, + which, mingling with the waters of the fountain Cyane, falls into + the sea at Syracuse, opposite to the island of Ortygia. This + island, in which the fountain of Arethusa was situate, was + separated from the isle of Sicily by a narrow strait of the sea, + and communicating with the city of Syracuse by a bridge, was + considered as part of it.] + + [Footnote 56: _An old woman._--Ver. 449. Arnobius calls this old + woman here mentioned by the name of Baubo. Nicander, in his + Theriaca, calls her Metaneira. Antoninus Liberalis calls her + Misma, and Ovid, in the fourth Book of the Fasti, Melanina.] + + [Footnote 57: _Lately distilled._--Ver. 450. Orpheus, in his Hymn, + calls the drink given by the old woman to Ceres +kukeôn+. + According to Arnobius, it was a mixed liquor, called by the Romans + 'cinnus;' made of parched pearled barley, honey, and + wine, with flowers and various herbs floating in it. Antoninus + Liberalis says, that Ceres drank it off, +athroôs+, 'at one + draught.'] + + [Footnote 58: _A boy._--Ver. 451. According to Nicander, the boy + was the son of the old woman. If so, the Goddess made her but a + poor return for her hospitality.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the rape of Proserpine has caused much inquiry among + writers, both ancient and modern, as to the facts on which it was + founded. Some have grounded it on principles of natural philosophy; + while others have supposed it to contain some portion of ancient + history, defaced and blemished in lapse of time. + + The antiquarian Pezeron is of opinion, that in the partition of the + world among the Titan kings, Pluto had the west for his share; and + that he carried a colony to the further end of Spain, where he caused + the gold and silver mines of that region to be worked. The situation + of his kingdom, which lay very low, comparatively with Greece, and + which the ancients believed to be covered with eternal darkness, gave + rise to the fable, that Pluto had got Hell for his share; and this + notion was much encouraged by the subterranean nature of the mines + which he caused to be worked. He thinks that the river Tartarus, so + famed in the realms of Pluto, was no other than the Tartessa, or + Guadalquivir of the present day, which runs through the centre of + Spain. Lethe, too, he thinks to have been the Guadalaviar, in the same + country. Pluto, he suggests, had heard of the beauty of Proserpine, + the daughter of Ceres, queen of Sicily, and carried her thence, which + gave rise to the tradition that she had been carried to the Infernal + Regions. + + Le Clerc, on the other hand, thinks that it was not Pluto that carried + away Proserpine, but Aidoneus, king of Epirus, or Orcus king of the + Molossians. Aidoneus is supposed to have wrought mines in his kingdom, + and, as the entrance into it was over a river called Acheron, that + prince has often been confounded with Pluto; Epirus too, which was + situate very low, may have been figuratively described as the Infernal + Regions; for which reason, the journeys of Theseus and Hercules into + Epirus may have been spoken of as descents into the Stygian abodes. + Le Clerc supposes that Ceres was reigning in Sicily at the time when + Aidoneus was king of Epirus, and that she took great care to instruct + her subjects in the art of tilling the ground and sowing corn, and + established laws for regulating civil government and the preservation + of private property; for which reasons she was afterward deemed to be + the Goddess of the Earth, and of Corn. Cicero and Diodorus Siculus + tell us that Ceres made her residence at Enna, or Henna, in Sicily, + which name, according to Bochart, signifies 'agreeable fountain.' + Cicero and Strabo agree with Ovid in telling us that Proserpine, the + only daughter of Ceres, whom other writers name Pherephata, was + walking in the adjacent meadows, and gathering flowers with her + companions; upon which, certain pirates seized her, and, placing her + in a chariot, carried her to the seaside, whence they embarked for + Epirus. As Pausanias tells us, it was immediately spread abroad, that + Aidoneus, or Pluto, as he was called, had done it, the act having been + really committed by others, according to his orders. As those who + carried her off concealed themselves in the caverns of Mount Ætna, + awaiting their opportunity to escape, it was afterwards fabled that + Pluto came out of the Infernal Regions at that place; as that + mountain, from its nature, was always deemed one of the outlets of + Hell. Upon this, Ceres went to Greece, in search of her daughter; and, + resting at Eleusis, in Attica, she heard that the ship in which her + daughter was carried away had sailed westward. On this, she complained + to Jupiter, one of the Titan kings, but could obtain no further + satisfaction than that her daughter should be permitted to visit her + occasionally, whereby, at length, her grief was mitigated. + + Banier does not agree with these suggestions of Pezeron and Le Clerc, + and thinks that Ceres is no other personage than the Isis of the + Egyptians, supposing that the story is founded on the following + circumstance:--Greece, he says, was afflicted with famine in the + reign of Erectheus, who was obliged to send to Egypt for corn, when + those who went for it brought back the worship of the Deity who + presided over agriculture. The evils which the Athenians had suffered + by the famine, and the dread of again incurring the same calamity, + made them willingly embrace the rites of a Goddess whom they believed + able to protect them from it. Triptolemus established her worship in + Eleusis, and there instituted the mysteries which he had brought over + from Egypt. These had been previously introduced into Sicily, which + was the reason why it was said that Ceres came from Sicily to Athens. + Her daughter was said to have been taken away, because corn and fruit + had not been produced in sufficient quantities, for some time, to + furnish food for the people. Pluto was said to have carried her to the + Infernal regions, because the grain and seeds at that time remained + buried, as it were, at the very center of the earth. Jupiter was said + to have decided the difference between Ceres and Pluto, because the + earth again became covered with crops. + + This appears to be an ingenious allegorical explanation of the story; + but it is not at all improbable that it may have been founded upon + actual facts, and that, having lost her daughter, and going to Attica + to seek her, Ceres taught Triptolemus the mysteries of Isis; and that, + in process of time, Ceres, having become enrolled among the Divinities + of Greece, her worship became confounded with that of Isis. + + It is very possible that the story of the transformation of Stellio + into a newt may have had no other foundation than the Poet's fancy. + + +FABLE V. +[V. 462-563] + + Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search for her daughter over the whole + earth, until the Nymph Arethusa acquaints her with the place of her + ravisher's abode. The Goddess makes her complaint to Jupiter, and + obtains his consent for her daughter's return to the upper world, + provided she has not eaten anything since her arrival in Pluto's + dominions. Ascalaphus, however, having informed that she has eaten + some seeds of a pomegranate, Ceres is disappointed, and Proserpine, in + her wrath, metamorphoses the informer into an owl. The Sirens have + wings given them by the Gods, to enable them to be more expeditious in + seeking for Proserpine. Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss, + decides that her daughter shall remain six months each year with her + mother upon earth, and the other six with her husband, in the Infernal + Regions. + +"It were a tedious task[59] to relate through what lands and what seas +the Goddess wandered; for her search the world was too limited. She +returns to Sicily; and while, in her passage, she views all {places}, +she comes, too, to Cyane; she, had she not been transformed, would have +told her everything. But both mouth and tongue were wanting to her, +{thus} desirous to tell, and she had no means whereby to speak. Still, +she gave unmistakable tokens, and pointed out, on the top of the water, +the girdle[60] of Proserpine, well known to her parent, which by chance +had fallen off in that place into the sacred stream. + +"Soon as she recognized this, as if then, at last, she fully understood +that her daughter had been carried away[61] the Goddess tore her +unadorned hair, and struck her breast again and again with her hands. +Not as yet does she know where she is, yet she exclaims against all +countries, and calls them ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of +corn; {and} Trinacria before {all} others, in which she has found the +proofs of her loss. Wherefore, with vengeful hand, she there broke the +ploughs that were turning up the clods, and, in her anger, consigned to +a similar death both the husbandmen and the oxen that cultivated the +fields, and ordered the land to deny a return of what had been deposited +{therein}, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the soil, +famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the early +blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the sun, sometimes excessive +showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and the winds injure it, and +the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is sown; darnel, and thistles, +and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of wheat. + +"Then the Alpheian Nymph[62] raised her head from out of the Elean +waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, +and said, "O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole world, and +of the crops {as well}, cease {at length} thy boundless toil, and in thy +wrath be not angered with a region that is faithful to thee. This land +does not deserve it; and against its will it gave a path for {the +commission of} the outrage. Nor am I {now} a suppliant for {my own} +country; a stranger I am come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from +Elis do I derive my birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this +land is more pleasing to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have +this for my abode, this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly +{Goddess}, preserve. Why I have been removed from my {native} place, and +have been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious, +a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be +eased of thy cares, and {wilt be} of more cheerful aspect. The pervious +earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest caverns, +here I lift my head {again}, and behold the stars which I have not been +used {to see}. While, then, I was running under the earth, along the +Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.[63] {She} +indeed {was} sad, and not as yet without alarm in her countenance, but +still {she is} a queen, and the most ennobled {female} in the world of +darkness; still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King." + +"The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she {had +been made} of stone, and for a long time was like one stupefied; and +when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight of her grief, +she departed in her chariot into the ætherial air, and there, with her +countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much to his +discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, "I have come, +Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for +thine. If thou hast no respect for the mother, {still} let the daughter +move her father; and I pray thee not to have the less regard for her, +because she was brought forth by my travail. Lo! my daughter, so long +sought for, has been found by me at last; if you call it finding[64] to +be more certain of one's loss; or if you call it finding, to know where +she is. I will endure {the fact}, that she has been carried off, if he +will only restore her. For, indeed, a daughter of thine is not deserving +of a ravisher for a husband, if now my own daughter is." Jupiter +replied, "Thy daughter is a pledge and charge, in common to me and thee; +but, should it please thee only to give right names to things, this deed +is not an injury, but it is {a mark of} affection, nor will he, as a +son-in-law, be any disgrace to us, if thou only, Goddess, shouldst give +thy consent. Although other {recommendations} were wanting, how great a +thing is it to be the brother of Jupiter! and besides, is it not because +other points are not wanting, and because he is not my inferior, except +by the accident {of his allotment of the Stygian abodes}? But if thy +eagerness is so great for their separation, let Proserpine return to +heaven; still upon this fixed condition, if she has touched no food +there with her lips; for thus has it been provided by the law of the +Destinies." + +"{Thus} he spoke; still Ceres is {now} resolved to fetch away her +daughter; but not so do the Fates permit. For the damsel had broke her +fast; and, while in her innocence she was walking about the +finely-cultivated garden, she had plucked a pomegranate[65] from the +bending tree, and had chewed in her mouth seven grains[66] taken from +the pale rind. Ascalaphus[67] alone, of all persons, had seen this, whom +Orphne, by no means the most obscure among the Nymphs of Avernus,[68] is +said once to have borne to her own Acheron within {his} dusky caves. He +beheld {this}, and cruelly prevented her return by his discovery. The +Queen of Erebus grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird, +and turned his head, sprinkled with the waters of Phlegethon,[69] into a +beak, and feathers, and great eyes. He, {thus} robbed of his own +{shape}, is clothed with tawny wings, his head becomes larger, his long +nails bend inwards, and with difficulty can he move the wings that +spring through his sluggish arms. He becomes an obscene bird, the +foreboder of approaching woe, a lazy owl, a direful omen to mortals. + +"But he, by his discovery, and his talkativeness, may seem to have +merited punishment. Whence have you, daughters of Acheloüs,[70] feathers +and the feet of birds, since you have the faces of maidens? Is it +because, when Proserpine was gathering the flowers of spring, you were +mingled in the number of her companions? After you had sought her in +vain throughout the whole world, immediately, that the waters might be +sensible of your concern, you wished to be able, on the support of your +wings, to hover over the waves, and you found the Gods propitious, and +saw your limbs grow yellow with feathers suddenly formed. But lest the +sweetness of your voice, formed for charming the ear, and so great +endowments of speech, should lose the gift of a tongue, your virgin +countenance and your human voice {still} remained." + + [Footnote 59: _A tedious task._--Ver. 463. 'Dicere longa mora + est,' is rendered by Clarke, 'It is a tedious business to tell.'] + + [Footnote 60: _The girdle._--Ver. 470. The zone, or girdle, + a fastening round the loins, was much worn by both sexes among + the ancients. It was sometimes made of netted work, and the chief + use of it was for holding up the tunic, and keeping it from + dragging on the ground. Among the Romans, the Magister Equitum, or + 'Master of the Horse,' wore a girdle of red leather, embroidered + by the needle, and having its extremities joined by a gold buckle. + It also formed part of the cuirass of the warrior. The girdle was + used sometimes by men to hold money instead of a purse; and the + 'pera,' 'wallet,' or 'purse,' was generally fastened to the + girdle. As this article of dress was used to hold up the garments + for the sake of expedition, it was loosened when people were + supposed to be abstracted from the cares of the world, as in + performing sacrifice or attending at funeral rites. A girdle was + also worn by the young women, even when the tunic was not girt up; + and it was only discontinued by them on the day of marriage. To + that circumstance, allusion is made in the present instance, as a + proof of the violence that had been committed on Proserpine.] + + [Footnote 61: _Had been carried away._--Ver. 471. Clarke + translates 'tunc denique raptam Scisset,' 'knew that she had been + kidnapped.'] + + [Footnote 62: _Alpheian Nymph._--Ver. 487. Alpheus was a river of + Elis, in the northwestern part of Peloponnesus. Its present name + is 'Carbon.'] + + [Footnote 63: _Beheld by my eyes._--Ver. 505. Ovid here makes + Arethusa the discoverer to Ceres of the fate of her daughter. In + the Fourth Book of the Fasti, he represents the Sun as giving her + that information, in which he follows the account given by Homer. + Apollodorus describes the descent of Pluto as taking place at + Hermione, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, and the people of + that place as informing Ceres of what had happened to her + daughter.] + + [Footnote 64: _If you call it finding._--Ver. 520. This remark of + the Goddess is very like that of the Irish sailor, who vowed that + a thing could not be said to be lost when one knows where it is; + and that his master's kettle was quite safe, for he knew it to be + at the bottom of the sea.] + + [Footnote 65: _Plucked a pomegranate._--Ver. 535. It was for this + reason that the Thesmophoriazusæ, in the performance of the rites + of Ceres, were especially careful not to taste the pomegranate. + This fruit was most probably called 'malum,' or 'pomum punicum,' + or 'puniceum,' from the deep red or purple color of the inside, + and not as having been first introduced from Phoenicia.] + + [Footnote 66: _Seven grains._--Ver. 537. He says here 'seven,' but + in the Fourth Book of the Fasti, only 'three' grains.] + + [Footnote 67: _Ascalaphus._--Ver. 539. He was the son of Acheron, + by the Nymph Orphne, or Gorgyra, according to Apollodorus. The + latter author says, that for his unseasonable discovery, Ceres + placed a rock upon him; but that, having been liberated by + Hercules, she changed him into an owl, called +ôton+. The Greek + name of a lizard being +askalabos+, Mellman thinks that the + transformation of the boy into a newt, or kind of lizard, which + has just been related by the Poet, may have possibly originated in + a confused version of the story of Ascalaphus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Avernus._--Ver. 540. Avernus was a lake of + Campania, near Baiæ, of a fetid smell and gloomy aspect. Being + feigned to be the mouth, or threshold, of the Infernal Regions, + its name became generally used to signify Tartarus, or the + Infernal Regions. The name is said to have been derived from the + Greek word +aornos+, 'without birds,' or 'unfrequented by birds,' + as they could not endure the exhalations that were emitted by it.] + + [Footnote 69: _Phlegethon._--Ver. 544. This was a burning river of + the Infernal Regions; which received its name from the Greek word + +phlegô+, 'to burn.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Acheloüs._--Ver. 552. The Sirens were said to be + the daughters of the river Acheloüs and of one of the Muses, + either Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Apollodorus says, that the terms of the treaty respecting Proserpine + were, that she should stay on earth nine months with Ceres, and three + with Pluto, in the Infernal Regions. Other writers divide the time + equally; six months to Ceres, and six to Pluto. They also tell us that + the story of Ascalaphus is founded on the fact, that he was one of the + courtiers of Pluto, who, having advised his master to carry away + Proserpine, did all that lay in his power to obstruct the endeavors of + Ceres, and hinder the restoration of her daughter, on which Proserpine + had him privately destroyed; to screen which deed the Fable was + invented; the pernicious counsels which he gave his master being + signified by the seeds of the pomegranate. It has also been suggested + that the story of his change into an owl was based on the circumstance + that he was the overseer of the mines of Pluto, in which he perished, + removed from the light of day. Perhaps he was there crushed to death + by the fall of a rock, which caused the poets to say that Proserpine + had covered him with a large stone, as Apollodorus informs us, who + also says that it was Ceres who inflicted the punishment upon him. The + name 'Ascalaphus' signifies, 'one that breaks stones,' and, very + probably, that name was only given him to denote his employment. Some + writers state that he was changed into a lizard, which the Greeks call + 'Ascalabos,' and, probably, the resemblance between the names gave + rise to this version of the story. + + Probably, the story of the Nymph Cyane reproaching Pluto with his + treatment of Proserpine, and being thereupon changed by him into a + fountain, has no other foundation than the propinquity of the place + where Pluto's emissaries embarked to a stream of that name near the + city of Syracuse; which was, perhaps, overflowing at that time, and + may have impeded their passage. + + Ovid, probably, feigned that the Sirens begged the Gods to change them + into birds, that they might seek for Proserpine, on the ground of some + existing tradition, that living on the coast of Italy, near the island + of Sicily, and having heard of the misfortune that had befallen her, + they ordered a ship with sails to be equipped to go in search of her. + Further reference to the Sirens will be made, on treating of the + adventures of Ulysses. + + +FABLE VI. [V.564-641] + + The Muse continues her song, in which Ceres, being satisfied with the + decision of Jupiter relative to her daughter, returns to Arethusa, to + learn the history of her adventures. The Nymph entertains the Goddess + with the Story of the passion of Alpheus, and his pursuit of her; to + avoid which, she implores the assistance of Diana, who changes her + into a fountain. + +"But Jupiter being the mediator between his brother and his disconsolate +sister, divides the rolling year equally {between them}. For {now}, the +Goddess, a common Divinity of two kingdoms, is so many months with her +mother, and just as many with her husband. Immediately the appearance of +both her mind and her countenance is changed; for the brow of the +Goddess, which, of late, might appear sad, even to Pluto, himself, is +full of gladness; as the Sun, which has lately been covered with watery +clouds, when he comes forth from the clouds, {now} dispersed. The genial +Ceres, {now} at ease on the recovery of her daughter, {thus} asks, 'What +was the cause of thy wanderings? Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred +spring?' The waters are silent, {and}, the Goddess raises her head from +the deep fountain; and, having dried her green tresses with her hand, +she relates the old amours of the stream of Elis.[71] + +"'I was,' says she, 'one of the Nymphs which exist in Achaia, nor did +any one more eagerly skim along the glades than myself, nor with more +industry set the nets. But though the reputation for beauty was never +sought by me, although, {too}, I was of robust make, {still} I had the +name of being beautiful. But my appearance, when so much commended, did +not please me; and I, like a country lass, blushed at those endowments +of person in which other females are wont to take a pride, and I deemed +it a crime to please. I remember, I was returning weary from the +Stymphalian[72] wood; the weather was hot, and my toil had redoubled the +intense heat. I found a stream gliding on without any eddies, without +any noise, {and} clear to the bottom; through which every pebble, at so +great a depth, might be counted, {and} which you could hardly suppose to +be in motion. The hoary willows[73] and poplars, nourished by the water, +furnished a shade, spontaneously produced, along the shelving banks. +I approached, and, at first, I dipped the soles of my feet, and then, as +far as the knee. Not content with that, I undressed, and I laid my soft +garments upon a bending willow; and, naked, I plunged into the waters. + +"'While I was striking them, and drawing them {towards me}, moving in a +thousand ways, and was sending forth my extended arms, I perceived a +most unusual murmuring noise beneath the middle of the stream; and, +alarmed, I stood on the edge of the nearer bank. 'Whither dost thou +hasten, Arethusa?' said Alpheus from his waves. 'Whither dost thou +hasten?' again he said to me, in a hollow tone. Just as I was, I fled +without my clothes; {for} the other side had my garments. So much the +more swiftly did he pursue, and become inflamed; and, because I was +naked, the more tempting to him did I appear. Thus was I running; thus +unrelentingly was he pursuing me; as the doves are wont to fly from the +hawk with trembling wings, and as the hawk is wont to pursue the +trembling doves, I held out in my course even as far as Orchomenus,[74] +and Psophis,[75] and Cyllene, and the Mænalian valleys, and cold +Erymanthus and Elis. Nor was he swifter than I, but unequal to {him} in +strength, I was unable, any longer, to keep up the chase; for he was +able to endure prolonged fatigue. However, I ran over fields {and} over +mountains covered with trees, rocks too, and crags, and where there was +no path. The sun was upon my back; I saw a long shadow advancing before +my feet, unless, perhaps, it was my fear that saw it. But, at all +events, I was alarmed at the sound of his feet, and his increased +hardness of breathing was {now} fanning the fillets of my hair. Wearied +with the exertion of my flight, I said, 'Give aid, Dictynna, to thy +armor-bearer, {or} I am overtaken; {I}, to whom thou hast so often given +thy bow to carry, and thy darts enclosed in a quiver.' The Goddess was +moved, and, taking one of the dense clouds, she threw it over me. The +river looked about for me, concealed in the darkness, and, in his +ignorance sought about the encircling cloud and twice, unconsciously did +he go around the place where the Goddess had concealed me, and twice did +he cry, 'Ho, Arethusa![76] Ho, Arethusa!' What, then, were my feelings +in my wretchedness? Were they not just those of the lamb, as it hears +the wolves howling around the high sheep-folds? Or of the hare, which, +lurking in the bush, beholds the hostile noses of the dogs, and dares +not make a single movement with her body? Yet he does not depart; for no +{further} does he trace any prints of my feet. He watches the cloud and +the spot. A cold perspiration takes possession of my limbs {thus} +besieged, and azure colored drops distil from all my body. Wherever I +move my foot, {there} flows a lake; drops trickle from my hair, and, in +less time than I take in acquainting thee with my fate, I was changed +into a stream. But still the river recognized the waters, the objects of +his love; and, having laid aside the shape of a mortal, which he had +assumed, he was changed into his own waters, that he might mingle with +me. {Thereupon}, the Delian Goddess cleaved the ground. Sinking, I was +carried through dark caverns to Ortygia,[77] which, being dear to me, +from the surname of my own Goddess, was the first to introduce me to the +upper air.'" + + [Footnote 71: _Stream of Elis._--Ver. 576. The Alpheus really rose + in Arcadia; but, as it ran through the territory of the Eleans, + and discharged itself into the sea, near Cyllene, the seaport of + that people, they worshipped it with divine honors.] + + [Footnote 72: _Stymphalian._--Ver. 585. Stymphalus was the name of + a city, mountain, and river of Arcadia, near the territory of + Elis.] + + [Footnote 73: _Hoary willows._--Ver. 590. The leaf of the willow + has a whitish hue, especially on one side of it.] + + [Footnote 74: _Orchomenus._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia, + in a marshy district, near to Mantinea. There was another place of + the same name, in Boeotia, between Elatea and Coronea, famous for a + splendid temple to the Graces, there erected.] + + [Footnote 75: _Psophis._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia + also, adjoining to the Elean territory, which received its name + from Psophis, the daughter of Lycaon, or of Eryx, according to + some writers. There were several other towns of the same name. + The other places here mentioned, with the exception of Elis, were + mountains of Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 76: _Ho, Arethusa!_--Ver. 625-6. Clarke thus translates + these lines:--'And twice called out Soho, Arethusa! Soho, + Arethusa! What thought had I then, poor soul!'] + + [Footnote 77: _To Ortygia._--Ver. 640. From the similarity of its + name to that of the Goddess Diana, who was called Ortygia, from + the Isle of Delos, where she was born.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river + Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her, + has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language + of the first inhabitants of Sicily. The Phoenicians, who went to settle + in that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it + the name of 'Alphaga,' or 'the fountain of the willows.' Others, + again, gave it the name of 'Arith,' signifying 'a stream.' The Greeks, + arriving there in after ages, not understanding the signification of + these words, and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis, + imagined that since the river and the fountain had nearly the same + name, Alpheus had crossed the sea, to arrive in Sicily. + + This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity, + they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of + the river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient + historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have + believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us, + that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises + again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more + learned, this fable gained credit; for we find the oracle of Delphi + ordering Archias to conduct a colony of Corinthians to Syracuse, and + the priestess giving the following directions:--'Go into that island + where the river Alpheus mixes his waters with the fair Arethusa.' + + Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as + a mere fable; but, not daring to dispute a fact established by the + response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river + running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it + can happen. + + +FABLE VII. [V.642-678] + + Ceres entrusts her chariot to Triptolemus, and orders him to go + everywhere, and cultivate the earth. He obeys her, and, at length, + arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, designing to kill him, is changed + into a lynx. The Muse then finishes her song, on which the daughters + of Pierus are changed into magpies. + +"Thus far Arethusa. The fertile Goddess yoked[78] two dragons to her +chariot, and curbed their mouths with bridles; and was borne through the +mid air of heaven and of earth, and guided her light chariot to the +Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; and she ordered him to scatter the +seeds that were entrusted {to him} partly in the fallow ground, {and} +partly {in the ground} restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now +had the youth been borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,[79] +and he arrived at the coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He +entered the house of the king. Being asked whence he came, and the +occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, 'My +country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came neither in +a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious sky made a +way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered over the wide +fields, are to yield {you} the fruitful harvests, and wholesome food.' +The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be {deemed} the author +of so great a benefit, he receives him with hospitality, and, when +overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the sword. {But}, while +attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him a lynx; and again sent +the Mopsopian[80] youth to drive the sacred drawers of her chariot +through the air. + +"The greatest of us[81] had {now} finished her learned song. But the +Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit +Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, {thus} vanquished, +began to scatter their abuse: 'Since,' said she, 'it is a trifling +matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you add +abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we shall +proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall +follow.' The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening +language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent +hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails, +and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the +other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the +woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the +motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, {as} magpies, the +scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness remains in +{them} as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their enormous love of +chattering." + + [Footnote 78: _Goddess yoked._--Ver. 642. Clarke renders 'geminos + Dea fertilis angues curribus admovit,' 'the fertile Goddess + clapped two snakes to her chariot.'] + + [Footnote 79: _Lands of Asia._--Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here + meant; the other parts of Asia being included under the term + 'Scythicas oras.'] + + [Footnote 80: _Mopsopian._--Ver. 661. This very uneuphonious name + is derived from Mopsopus, one of the ancient kings of Attica. It + here means 'Athenian.'] + + [Footnote 81: _The greatest of us._--Ver. 662. Namely, Calliope, + who had commenced her song as the representative of the Muses, at + line 341.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Triptolemus reigned at Eleusis at the time when the mysteries of Ceres + were established there. As we are told by Philochorus, he went with a + ship, to carry corn into different countries, and introduced there the + worship of Ceres, whose priest he was. This is, doubtless, the key for + the explanation of the story, that Ceres nursed him on her own milk, + and purified him by fire. Some have supposed that the fable refers to + the epoch when agriculture was introduced into Greece: but it is much + more probable that it relates simply to the introduction there of the + mysterious worship of Ceres, which was probably imported from Egypt. + It is possible that, at the same period, the Greeks may have learned + some improved method of tilling the ground, acquired by their + intercourse with Egypt. + + Probably, the dangers which Triptolemus experienced in his voyages and + travels, gave rise to the story of Lyncus, whose cruelty caused him to + be changed into a lynx. Bochart and Le Clerc think that the fable of + Triptolemus being drawn by winged dragons, is based upon the equivocal + meaning of a Phoenician word, which signified either 'a winged dragon,' + or 'a ship fastened with iron nails or bolts.' Philochorus, however, + as cited by Eusebius, says that his ship was called a flying dragon, + from its carrying the figure of a dragon on its prow. We learn from a + fragment of Stobæus, that Erectheus, when engaged in a war against the + Eleusinians, was told by the oracle that he would be victorious, if he + sacrificed his daughter Proserpine. This, perhaps, may have given + rise, or added somewhat, to the story of the rape of Proserpine by + Pluto. + + According to a fragment of Homer, cited by Pausanias, the names of the + first Greeks, who were initiated into the mysteries of Ceres, + were,--Celeus, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles. Clement of + Alexandria calls them Baubon, Dysaulus, Eubuleüs, Eumolpus, and + Triptolemus. Eumolpus being the Hierophant, or explainer of the + mysteries of Eleusis, made war against Erectheus, king of Athens. They + were both killed in battle, and it was thereupon agreed that the + posterity of Erectheus should be kings of Athens, and the descendants + of Eumolpus should, in future, retain the office of Hierophant. + + + + +BOOK THE SIXTH. + + +FABLE I. [VI.1-145] + + Arachne, vain-glorious of her ingenuity, challenges Minerva to a + contest of skill in her art. The Goddess accepts the challenge, and, + being enraged to see herself outdone, strikes her rival with her + shuttle; upon which, Arachne, in her distress, hangs herself. Minerva, + touched with compassion, transforms her into a spider. + +Tritonia had {meanwhile} lent an ear to such recitals as these, and she +approved of the songs of the Aonian maids, and their just resentment. +Then {thus she says} to herself: "To commend is but a trifling matter; +let us, too, deserve commendation, and let us not permit our divine +majesty to be slighted without {due} punishment." And {then} she turns +her mind to the fate of the Mæonian Arachne; who, as she had heard, did +not yield to her in the praises of the art of working in wool. She was +renowned not for the place {of her birth}, nor for the origin of her +family, but for her skill {alone}. Idmon, of Colophon,[1] her father, +used to dye the soaking wool in Phocæan[2] purple.[3] Her mother was +dead; but she, too, was of the lower rank, and of the same condition +with her husband. Yet {Arachne}, by her skill, had acquired a memorable +name throughout the cities of Lydia; although, born of a humble family, +she used to live in the little {town} of Hypæpæ.[4] Often did the Nymphs +desert the vineyards of their own Tymolus, that they might look at her +admirable workmanship; {often} did the Nymphs of the {river} Pactolus[5] +forsake their streams. And not only did it give them pleasure to look at +the garments when made, but even, too, while they were being made, so +much grace was there in her working. Whether it was that she was rolling +the rough wool into its first balls, or whether she was unravelling the +work with her fingers, and was softening the fleeces worked over again +with long drawings out, equalling the mists {in their fineness}; or +whether she was moving the {smooth} round spindle with her nimble thumb, +or was embroidering with the needle, you might perceive that she had +been instructed by Pallas. + +This, however, she used to deny; and, being displeased with a mistress +so famed, she said, "Let her contend with me. There is nothing which, if +conquered, I should refuse {to endure}." Pallas personates an old woman; +she both places false gray hair on her temples, and supports as well her +infirm limbs by a staff. Then thus she begins to speak: "Old age has not +everything which we should avoid; experience comes from lengthened +years. Do not despise my advice; let the greatest fame for working wool +be sought by thee among mortals. {But} yield to the Goddess, and, rash +woman, ask pardon for thy speeches with suppliant voice. She will grant +pardon at my entreaty." {The other} beholds her with scowling {eyes}, +and leaves the threads she has begun; and scarcely restraining her hand, +and discovering her anger by her looks, with such words as these does +she reply to the disguised Pallas: "Thou comest {here} bereft of thy +understanding, and worn out with prolonged old age; and it is thy +misfortune to have lived too long. If thou hast any daughter-in-law, if +thou hast any daughter {of thy own}, let her listen to these remarks. +I have sufficient knowledge for myself in myself, and do not imagine +that thou hast availed anything by thy advice; my opinion is {still} the +same. Why does not she come herself? why does she decline this contest?" + +Then the Goddess says, "Lo! she is come;" and she casts aside the figure +of an old woman, and shows herself {as} Pallas. The Nymphs and the +Mygdonian[6] matrons venerate the Goddess. The virgin alone is not +daunted. But still she blushes, and a sudden flush marks her reluctant +features, and again it vanishes; {just} as the sky is wont to become +tinted with purple, when Aurora is first stirring, and after a short +time to grow white from the influence of the Sun. She persists in her +determination, and, from a desire for a foolish victory, she rushes upon +her own destruction. Nor, indeed, does the daughter of Jupiter decline +{it}, or advise her any further, nor does she now put off the contest. +There is no delay; they both take their stand in different places, and +stretch out two webs {on the loom} with a fine warp. The web is tied +around the beam; the sley separates the warp; the woof is inserted in +the middle with sharp shuttles, which the fingers hurry along, and being +drawn within the warp, the teeth notched in the moving sley strike it. +Both hasten on, and girding up their garments to their breasts, they +move their skilful arms, their eagerness beguiling their fatigue. There +both the purple is being woven, which is subjected to the Tyrian brazen +vessel,[7] and fine shades of minute difference; just as the rainbow, +with its mighty arch, is wont to tint a long tract of the sky by means +of the rays reflected by the shower: in which, though a thousand +different colors are shining, yet the very transition eludes the eyes +that look upon it; to such a degree is that which is adjacent the same; +and yet the extremes are different. There, too, the pliant gold is mixed +with the threads, and ancient subjects are represented on the webs. + +Pallas embroiders the rock of Mars[8] in {Athens}, the citadel of +Cecrops, and the old dispute about the name of the country. Twice six[9] +celestial Gods are sitting on lofty seats in august state, with Jupiter +in the midst. His own proper likeness distinguishes each of the Gods. +The form of Jupiter is that of a monarch. She makes the God of the sea +to be standing {there}, and to be striking the rugged rocks with his +long trident, and a wild {horse} to be springing forth[10] out of the +midst of the opening of the rock; by which pledge {of his favor} he lays +claim to the city. But to herself she gives the shield, she gives the +lance with its sharp point; she gives the helmet to her head, {and} her +breast is protected by the Ægis. She {there} represents, too, the earth +struck by her spear, producing a shoot of pale olive with its berries, +and the Gods admiring it. Victory is the end of her work. But that the +rival of her fame may learn from precedents what reward to expect for an +attempt so mad, she adds, in four {different} parts, four contests +bright in their coloring, and distinguished by diminutive figures. One +corner contains Thracian Rhodope and Hæmus, now cold mountains, formerly +human bodies, who assumed to themselves the names of the supreme Gods. +Another part contains the wretched fate of the Pygmæan matron.[11] Her, +overcome in a contest, Juno commanded to be a crane, and to wage war +against her own people. She depicts, too, Antigone,[12] who once dared +to contend with the wife of the great Jupiter; {and} whom the royal Juno +changed into a bird; nor did Ilion protect her, or her father Laomedon, +from assuming wings, and {as} a white crane, from commending herself +with her chattering beak. The only corner that remains, represents the +bereft Cinyras;[13] and he, embracing the steps of a temple, {once} the +limbs of his own daughters, and lying upon the stone, appears to be +weeping. She surrounds the exterior borders with peaceful olive. That is +the close; and with her own tree she puts an end to the work. + +The Mæonian Nymph delineates Europa, deceived by the form of the bull; +and you would think it a real bull, and real sea. She herself seems to +be looking upon the land which she has left, and to be crying out to her +companions, and to be in dread of the touch of the dashing waters, and +to be drawing up her timid feet. She drew also Asterie,[14] seized by +the struggling eagle; and made Leda, reclining beneath the wings of the +swan. She added, how Jupiter, concealed under the form of a Satyr, +impregnated {Antiope},[15] the beauteous daughter of Nycteus, with a +twin offspring; {how} he was Amphitryon, when he beguiled thee, +Tirynthian[16] dame; how, turned to gold, he deceived Danaë; {how}, +changed into fire, the daughter of Asopus;[17] {how}, as a shepherd, +Mnemosyne;[18] and as a speckled serpent, Deois.[19] She depicted thee +too, Neptune, changed into a fierce bull, with the virgin daughter[20] +of Æolus. Thou, seeming to be Enipeus,[21] didst beget the Aloïdæ; as a +ram, thou didst delude {Theophane}, the daughter of Bisaltis.[22] Thee +too the most bounteous mother of corn, with her yellow hair, +experienced[23] as a steed; thee, the mother[24] of the winged horse, +with her snaky locks, received as a bird; Melantho,[25] as a dolphin. To +all these did she give their own likeness, and the {real} appearance of +the {various} localities. There was Phoebus, under the form of a rustic; +and how, {besides}, he was wearing the wings of a hawk at one time, at +another the skin of a lion; how, too, as a shepherd, he deceived +Isse,[26] the daughter of Macareus. How Liber deceived Erigone,[27] in a +fictitious bunch of grapes; {and} how Saturn[28] begot the two-formed +Chiron, in {the form of} a horse. The extreme part of the web, being +enclosed in a fine border, had flowers interwoven with the twining ivy. + +Pallas could not blame that work, nor could Envy {censure} it. The +yellow-haired Virgin grieved at her success, and tore the web +embroidered with the criminal acts of the Gods of heaven. And as she was +holding her shuttle {made of boxwood} from Mount Cytorus, three or four +times did she strike the forehead of Arachne, the daughter of Idmon. The +unhappy creature could not endure it; and being of a high spirit, she +tied up her throat in a halter. Pallas, taking compassion, bore her up +as she hung; and thus she said: "Live on indeed, wicked one,[29] but +still hang; and let the same decree of punishment be pronounced against +thy race, and against thy latest posterity, that thou mayst not be free +from care in time to come." After that, as she departed, she sprinkled +her with the juices of an Hecatean herb;[30] and immediately her hair, +touched by the noxious drug, fell off, and together with it her nose and +ears. The head of herself, {now} small as well throughout her whole +body, becomes very small. Her slender fingers cleave to her sides as +legs; her belly takes possession of the rest {of her}; but out of this +she gives forth a thread; and {as} a spider, she works at her web as +formerly. + + [Footnote 1: _Colophon._--Ver. 8. Colophon was an opulent city of + Lydia, famous for an oracle of Apollo there.] + + [Footnote 2: _Phocæan._--Ver. 9. Phocæa was a city of Æolia, in + Ionia, on the shores of the Mediterranean, famous for its purple + dye.] + + [Footnote 3: _Purple._--Ver. 9. 'Murex' was a shell-fish, now + called 'the purple,' the juices of which were much used by the + ancients for dyeing a deep purple color. The most valuable kinds + were found near Tyre and Phocæa, mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 4: _Hypæpæ._--Ver. 13. This was a little town of Lydia, + near the banks of the river Cayster. It was situate on the descent + of Mount Tymolus, or Tmolus, famed for its wines and saffron.] + + [Footnote 5: _Pactolus._--Ver. 16. This was a river of Lydia, + which was said to have sands of gold.] + + [Footnote 6: _Mygdonian._--Ver. 45. Mygdonia was a small territory + of Phrygia, bordering upon Lydia, and colonized by a people from + Thrace. Probably these persons had come from the neighboring + country, to see the exquisite works of Arachne. As the Poet tells + us, many were present when the Goddess discovered herself, and + professed their respect and veneration, while Arachne alone + remained unmoved.] + + [Footnote 7: _Brazen vessel._--Ver. 60. It seems that brazen + cauldrons were used for the purposes of dyeing, in preference to + those of iron.] + + [Footnote 8: _Rock of Mars._--Ver. 70. This was the spot called + Areiopagus, which was said to have received its name from the + trial there of Mars, when he was accused by Neptune of having + slain his son Halirrothius.] + + [Footnote 9: _Twice six._--Ver. 72. These were the 'Dii + consentes,' mentioned before, in the note to Book i., l. 172. They + are thus enumerated in an Elegiac couplet, more consistent with + the rules of prosody than the two lines there quoted:-- + + 'Vulcanus, Mars, Sol, Neptunus, Jupiter, Hermes, + Vesta, Diana, Ceres, Juno, Minerva, Venus.'] + + [Footnote 10: _To be springing forth._--Ver. 76-7. Clarke renders + 'facit--e vulnere saxi Exsiluisse ferum,' 'she makes a wild horse + bounce out of the opening in the rock.'] + + [Footnote 11: _Pygmæan matron._--Ver. 90. According to Ælian, the + name of this queen of the Pigmies was Gerane, while other writers + call her Pygas. She was worshipped by her subjects as a Goddess, + which raised her to such a degree of conceit, that she despised + the worship of the Deities, especially of Juno and Diana, on which + in their indignation, they changed her into a crane, the most + active enemy of the Pygmies. These people were dwarfs, living + either in India, Arabia, or Thrace, and they were said not to + exceed a cubit in height.] + + [Footnote 12: _Antigone._--Ver. 93. She was the daughter of + Laomedon, king of Troy, and was remarkable for the extreme beauty + of her hair. Proud of this, she used to boast that she resembled + Juno; on which the Goddess, offended at her presumption, changed + her hair into serpents. In compassion, the Deities afterwards + transformed her into a stork.] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyras._--Ver. 98. Cinyras had several daughters + (besides Myrrha), remarkable for their extreme beauty. Growing + insolent upon the strength of their good looks, and pretending to + surpass even Juno herself in beauty, they incurred the resentment + of that Goddess, who changed them into the steps of a temple, and + transformed their father into a stone, as he was embracing the + steps.] + + [Footnote 14: _Asterie._--Ver. 108. She was the daughter of Cæus, + the Titan, and of Phoebe, and was ravished by Jupiter under the + form of an eagle. She was the wife of Perses, and the mother of + Hecate. Flying from the wrath of Jupiter, she was first changed by + him into a quail; and afterwards into a stone.] + + [Footnote 15: _Antiope._--Ver. 110. Antiope was the daughter of + Nycteus, a king of Boeotia. Being seduced by Jupiter under the form + of a Satyr, she bore two sons, Zethus and Amphion. On being + insulted by Dirce, she was seized with madness, and was cured by + Phocus, whom she is said to have afterwards married.] + + [Footnote 16: _Tirynthian._--Ver. 112. Tirynthus was a city near + Argos, where Hercules was born and educated, and from which place + his mother, Alcmene, derived her present appellation.] + + [Footnote 17: _Daughter of Asopus._--Ver. 113. Jupiter changed + himself into fire, or, according to some, into an eagle, to seduce + Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, king of Boeotia. By her he was the + father of Æacus.] + + [Footnote 18: _Mnemosyne._--Ver. 114. This Nymph, as already + mentioned, became the mother of the Nine Muses, having been + seduced by Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 19: _Deois._--Ver. 114. Proserpine was called Deois, or + Dêous +Dêous korê+, from her mother Ceres, who was called +Dêô+ by + the Greeks, from the verb +dêô+, 'to find;' because as it was + said, when seeking for her daughter, the universal answer of those + who wished her success in her search, was, +dêeis+, 'You will find + her.'] + + [Footnote 20: _Virgin daughter._--Ver. 116. This was Canace, or + Arne, the daughter of Æolus, whom Neptune seduced under the form + of a bull.] + + [Footnote 21: _Enipeus._--Ver. 116. Under the form of Enipeus, + a river of Thessaly, Neptune committed violence upon Iphimedeia, + the wife of the giant Aloëus, and by her was the father of the + giants Otus and Ephialtes.] + + [Footnote 22: _Bisaltis._--Ver. 117. Theophane was the daughter of + Bisaltis. Changing her into a sheep, and himself into a ram, + Neptune begot the Ram with the golden fleece, that bore Phryxus to + Colchis.] + + [Footnote 23: _Experienced._--Ver. 119. 'Te sensit,' repeated + twice in this line, Clarke translates, not in a very elegant + manner, 'had a bout with thee,' and 'had a touch from thee.' By + Neptune, Ceres became the mother of the horse Arion; or, according + to some, of a daughter, whose name it was not deemed lawful to + mention.] + + [Footnote 24: _Thee the mother._--Ver. 119. This was Medusa, who, + according to some, was the mother of the horse Pegasus, by + Neptune, though it is more generally said that it sprang from her + blood, when she was slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Melantho._--Ver. 120. Melantho was the daughter + either of Proteus, or of Deucalion, and was the mother of Delphus, + by Neptune.] + + [Footnote 26: _Isse._--Ver. 124. She was a native of either + Lesbos, or Euboea. Her father, Macareus, was the son of Jupiter and + Cyrene.] + + [Footnote 27: _Erigone._--Ver. 125. She was the daughter of + Icarus, and was placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 28: _How Saturn._--Ver. 126. By Phillyra, Saturn was the + father of the Centaur Chiron. We may here remark, that Arachne was + not very complimentary to the Gods, in the choice of her subjects; + probably it was not her intention or wish to be so.] + + [Footnote 29: _Wicked one._--Ver. 136. Clarke translates + 'improba,' 'thou wicked jade.'] + + [Footnote 30: _An Hecatean Herb._--Ver. 139. This was aconite, or + wolfsbane, said to have been discovered by Hecate, the mother of + Medea. She was the first who sought after, and taught the + properties of poisonous herbs. Some accounts say, that the aconite + was produced from the foam of Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules + from the infernal regions.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Arachne is most probably based upon the simple fact, that + she was the most skilful artist of her time, at working in silk and + wool. Pliny the Elder tells us, that Arachne, the daughter of Idmon, + a Lydian by birth, and of low extraction, invented the art of making + linen cloths and nets; which invention was also by some attributed to + Minerva. This competition, then, for the merit of the invention, is + the foundation of the challenge here described by the Poet. As, + however, Arachne is said to have hanged herself in despair, she + probably fell a prey to some cause of grief or discontent, the + particulars of which, in their simple form, have not come down to us. + Perhaps the similarity of her name and employment with those of the + spider, as known among the Greeks, gave rise to the story of her + alleged transformation; unless we should prefer to attribute the story + to the fact of the Hebrew word "arag," signifying to spin, and, in + some degree, resembling her name. + + In this story, Ovid takes the opportunity of touching upon several + fables, the subjects whereof he states to have been represented in the + works of Minerva and Arachne. He alludes, among other matters, to the + dispute between Neptune and Minerva, about giving a name to the city + of Athens. St. Augustine, on the authority of Varro, says, that + Cecrops, in building that city, found an olive tree and a fountain, + and that the oracle at Delphi, on being consulted, stating that both + Minerva and Neptune had a right to name the city, the Senate decided + in favor of the Goddess; and this circumstance, he says, gave rise to + the story. According to some writers, it was based on the fact, that + Cranaüs changed the name of the city from Poseidonius, which it was + called after Neptune, to Athenæ, after his own daughter Athena: and as + the Areiopagus sanctioned this change, it was fabled that Neptune had + been overcome by the judgment of the Gods. + + The Jesuit Tournemine suggests the following explanation of the + story:--He says, that the aborigines of Attica, being conquered by the + Pelasgians, learned from them the art of navigation, which they turned + to account by becoming pirates. Cecrops, bringing a colony from Saïs, + in Egypt, tried to abolish this barbarous custom, and taught them a + more civilized mode of life; and, among other things, he showed them + how to till the earth, and to raise the olive, for the cultivation of + which he found the soil very favorable. He also introduced the worship + of Minerva, or Athena, as she was called, a Goddess highly honored at + Saïs, and to whom the olive tree was dedicated. Her the Athenians + afterwards regarded as the patroness of their city, which they called + after her name. Athens becoming famous for its olives, and, + considerable profit arising from their cultivation, the new settlers + attempted to wean the natives from piracy, by calling their attention + to agricultural pursuits. To succeed in this, they composed a fable, + in which Neptune was said to be overcome by Minerva; who, even in the + judgment of the twelve greater deities, had found out something of + more utility than he. This fable Tournemine supposes to have been + composed in the ancient language of the country, which was the + Phrygian, mingled with many Phoenician words; and, as in those + languages the same word signifies either a ship or a horse, those who + afterwards interpreted the fable, took the word in the latter + signification, and spoke of a horse instead of a ship, which was + really the original emblem employed in the fiction. + + Vossius thinks that the fable originated in a dispute between the + sailors of Athens, who acknowledged Neptune for their chief, and the + people, who followed the Senate, governed by Minerva. The people + prevailed, and a life of civilization, marked by attention to the + pursuits of agriculture, was substituted for one of piracy; which gave + occasion for the saying, that Minerva had overcome Neptune. + + With reference to the intrigues and lustful actions attributed to the + various Deities by Arachne in the delineations on her embroidery, we + may here remark, by way of elucidating the origin of these stories in + general, that, in early times, when the earth was sunk in ignorance + and superstition, and might formed the only right in the heathen + world, where a king or petty chieftain demanded the daughter of a + neighbor in marriage, and met with a refusal, he immediately had + recourse to arms, to obtain her by force. Their standards and ships, + on these expeditions, carrying their ensigns, consisting of birds, + beasts, or fabulous monsters, gave occasion to those who described + their feats of prowess to say, that the ravisher had changed himself + into a bull, an eagle, or a lion, for the purpose of effecting his + object. The kings and potentates of those days, being frequently + called Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, etc., and the priests of the Gods so + named often obtaining their ends by assuming the names of the + Divinities they served, we can account the more easily for the number + of intrigues and abominable actions, attended by changes and + transformations, which the poets and mythologists attribute to many of + the Deities. + + Palæphatus suggests a very ingenious method of accounting for these + stories; founded, however, it must be owned, on a very low estimate of + female virtue in those times. He says, that these fabulous narratives + originate in the figures of different animals which were engraved on + the coins of those times; and that, when money was given to buy over + or to procure the seduction of a female, it was afterward said that + the lover had himself taken the figure which was represented on the + coin, by means of which his object had been effected. + + Ovid, in common with many of the ancient historians, geographers, and + naturalists, mentions the Pygmies, of which, from the time of Homer + downwards, a nation was supposed to exist, in a state of continual + warfare with the Cranes. Aristotle, who believed in their existence, + placed them in Æthiopia; Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus in India, + near the source of the Ganges; others again, in Scythia, on the banks + of the Danube. Some of the moderns have attempted to explain the + origin of this prevalent notion. Olaüs Magnus thinks the Samoeids and + Laplanders to have been the Pygmies of Homer. Gesner and others fancy + that they have found their originals in Thuringia; while Albertus + Magnus supposed that the Pygmies were the monkeys, which are so + numerous in the interior of Africa, and which were taken for human + beings of diminutive stature. Vander Hart, who has written a most + ingenious treatise on the subject, suggests that the fable originated + in a war between two cities in Greece, Pagæ and Gerania, the + similarity of whose names to those of the Pygmies and the Cranes, gave + occasion to their neighbors, the Corinthians, to confer on them those + nicknames. It is most probable, however, that the story was founded + upon the diminutive stature of some of the native tribes of the + interior of Africa. + + As to the fable of Pygas being changed into a crane, Banier suggests, + that the origin of it may be found in the work of Antoninus Liberalis, + quoting from the Theogony of Boeus. That poet, whose works are lost, + says, that among the Pygmies there was a very beautiful princess, + named Oenoë, who greatly oppressed her subjects. Having married + Nicodamas, she had by him a son, named Mopsus, whom her subjects + seized upon, to educate him in their own way. She accordingly raised + levies against her own subjects; and that circumstance, together with + the name of Gerane, which, according to Ælian, she also bore, gave + rise to the fable, which said that she was changed into a crane; the + resemblance which it bore to 'geranos,' the Greek for 'a crane,' + suggesting the foundation of the story. + + +FABLE II. [VI.146-312] + + The Theban matrons, forming a solemn procession in honor of Latona, + Niobe esteems herself superior to the Goddess, and treats her and her + offspring with contempt; on which, Apollo and Diana, to avenge the + affront offered to their mother, destroy all the children of Niobe; + and she, herself, is changed into a statue. + +All Lydia is in an uproar, and the rumor of the fact goes through the +town of Phrygia, and fills the wide world with discourse {thereon}. +Before her own marriage Niobe had known her,[31] at the time, when still +single, she was inhabiting Mæonia and Sipylus.[32] And yet by the +punishment of her countrywoman, Arachne, she was not warned to yield to +the inhabitants of Heaven, and to use less boastful words. Many things +augmented her pride; but yet, neither the skill of her husband, nor the +descent of them both, nor the sovereignty of a mighty kingdom, pleased +her so much (although all of them did please her) as her own progeny; +and Niobe might have been pronounced the happiest of mothers, if she had +not so seemed to herself. + +For Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, foreknowing the future, urged by a +divine impulse, had proclaimed through the middle of the streets, "Ye +women of Ismenus, go all of you,[33] and give to Latona, and the two +children of Latona, the pious frankincense, together with prayers, and +wreathe your hair with laurel; by my mouth does Latona command {this}." +Obedience is paid; and all the Theban women adorn their temples with +leaves {of laurel}, as commanded, and offer frankincense on the sacred +fires, and words of supplication. Lo! Niobe comes, surrounded with a +crowd of attendants, conspicuous for the gold interwoven in her Phrygian +garments, and beautiful, so far as anger will allow; and tossing her +hair, hanging down on both shoulders, with her graceful head, she stands +still; and as she loftily casts around her haughty eyes, she says, "What +madness is this to prefer the inhabitants of Heaven, that you have +{only} heard of, to those who are seen? or why is Latona worshipped at +the altars, {and} my Godhead is still without its {due} frankincense? +Tantalus was my father, who alone was allowed to approach the tables of +the Gods above. The sister of the Pleiades[34] is my mother; the most +mighty Atlas is my grandsire, who bears the æthereal skies upon his +neck. Jupiter is my other grandsire; of him, too, I boast as my +father-in-law.[35] The Phrygian nations dread me; the palace of Cadmus +is subject to me as its mistress; and the walls that were formed by the +strings of my husband's {lyre}, together with their people, are governed +by me and my husband; to whatever part of the house I turn my eyes, +immense wealth is seen. To this is added a face worthy of a Goddess. Add +to this my seven daughters,[36] and as many sons, and, at a future day, +sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. Now inquire what ground my pride has +{for its existence}; and presume to prefer Latona the Titaness, the +daughter of some obscure Cæus, to whom, when in travail,[37] the great +earth once refused a little spot, to myself. Neither by heaven, nor by +earth, nor by water, was your Goddess received; she was banished the +world, till Delos, pitying the wanderer, said, "Thou dost roam a +stranger on the land, I in the waves;" and gave her an unstable place +{of rest}. She was made the mother of two children, that is {but} the +seventh part of my issue. I am fortunate, and who shall deny it? and +fortunate I shall remain; who, too, can doubt of that? Plenty has made +me secure; I am too great for Fortune possibly to hurt; and, though she +should take away many things from me, {even then} much more will she +leave me: my {many} blessings have now risen superior to apprehensions. +Suppose it possible for some part of this multitude of my children to be +taken away {from me}; still, thus stripped, I shall not be reduced to +two, the number of Latona; an amount, by the number of which, how far, +{I pray}, is she removed from one that is childless? Go from the +sacrifice; hasten away from the sacrifice, and remove the laurel from +your hair!" + +They remove it, and the sacrifice they leave unperformed; and what they +can do, they adore the Divinity in gentle murmurs. The Goddess was +indignant; and on the highest top of {Mount} Cynthus, she spoke to her +two children in such words as these: "Behold! I, your mother, proud of +having borne you, and who shall yield to no one of the Goddesses, except +to Juno {alone}, am called in question whether I am a Goddess, and, for +all future ages, I am driven from the altars devoted {to me}, unless you +give me aid. Nor is this my only grief; the daughter of Tantalus has +added abusive language to her shocking deeds, and has dared to postpone +you to her own children, and (what {I wish} may fall upon herself), she +has called me childless; and the profane {wretch} has discovered a +tongue like her father's."[38] To this relation Latona was going to add +entreaties, when Phoebus said, "Cease thy complaints, 'tis prolonging the +delay of her punishment." Phoebe said the same; and, by a speedy descent +through the air, they arrived, covered with clouds, at the citadel of +Cadmus. + +There was near the walls a plain, level, and extending far and wide, +trampled continually by horses, where multitudes of wheels and hard +hoofs had softened the clods placed beneath them. There, part of the +seven sons of Amphion are mounting upon their spirited steeds, and press +their backs, red with the Tyrian dye, and wield the reins heavy with +gold; of these, Ismenus, who had formerly been the first burden of his +mother, while he is guiding the steps of the horses in a perfect circle, +and is curbing their foaming mouths, cries aloud, "Ah, wretched me!" +and, pierced through the middle of his breast, bears a dart {therein}; +and the reins dropping from his dying hand, by degrees he falls on his +side, over {the horse's} shoulder. The next {to him}, Sipylus, on +hearing the sound of a quiver in the air, gives rein[39] {to his horse}; +as when the pilot, sensible of the storm {approaching}, flies on seeing +a cloud, and unfurls the hanging sails on every side, that the light +breeze may by no means escape them. He gives rein, {I said}; while thus +giving it, the unerring dart overtakes him, and an arrow sticks +quivering in the top of his neck, and the bare steel protrudes from his +throat. He, as he is bending forward, rolls over the neck, {now} let +loose, and {over} the mane, and stains the ground with his warm blood. +The unhappy Phædimus, and Tantalus, the heir to the name of his +grandsire, when they had put an end to their wonted exercise {of +riding}, had turned to the youthful exercises of the palæstra, glowing +with oil;[40] and now had they brought[41] breast to breast, struggling +in a close grapple, when an arrow, sped onward from the stretched bow, +pierced them both, just as they were united together. At the same +instant they groaned aloud, and together they laid their limbs on the +ground, writhing with pain; together as they lay, for the last time, +they rolled their eyeballs, and together they breathed forth their life. + +Alphenor sees this, and, beating his torn breast, flies to them, to lift +up their cold limbs in his embrace, and falls in this affectionate duty. +For the Delian God pierces the inner part of his midriff with the fatal +steel. Soon as it is pulled out, a part of his lungs is dragged forth on +the barbs, and his blood is poured forth, with his life, into the air; +but no single wound reaches the unshaven Damasicthon. He is struck where +the leg commences, and where the sinewy ham makes the space between the +joints soft; and while he is trying with his hand to draw out the fatal +weapon, another arrow is driven through his neck, up to the feathers. +The blood drives this out, and itself starting forth, springs up on +high, and, piercing the air, spouts forth afar. The last {of them}, +Ilioneus, had raised his unavailing arms in prayer, and had said, +"O, all ye Gods, in common, (not knowing that all were not to be +addressed) spare me!" The {God}, the bearer of the bow, was moved, when +now his arrow could not be recalled; yet he died with the slightest +wound {of all}, his heart not being struck deep by the arrow. + +The report of this calamity, and the grief of the people, and the tears +of her family, made the mother acquainted with a calamity so sudden, +wondering that it could have happened, and enraged that the Gods above +had dared this, {and} that they enjoyed a privilege so great. For +Amphion the father, thrusting his sword through his breast, dying, had +ended his grief together with his life. Alas! how different is this +Niobe from that Niobe who had lately driven the people from the altars +of Latona, and, with lofty head, had directed her steps through the +midst of the city, envied by her own people, but now to be pitied even +by an enemy! She falls down upon the cold bodies, and with no +distinction she distributes her last kisses among all her sons. Raising +her livid arms from these towards heaven, she says, "Glut thyself, cruel +Latona, with my sorrow; glut thyself, and satiate thy breast with my +mourning; satiate, too, thy relentless heart with seven deaths. I have +received my death-blow;[42] exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But +why victorious? More remains to me, in my misery, than to thee, in thy +happiness. Even after so many deaths, I am the conqueror." {Thus} she +spoke; {when} the string twanged from the bent bow, which affrighted all +but Niobe alone; she {became} bold by her misfortunes. + +The sisters were standing in black array, with their hair dishevelled, +before the biers[43] of their brothers. One of these, drawing out the +weapon sticking in her entrails, about to die, swooned away, with her +face placed upon her brother. Another, endeavoring to console her +wretched parent, was suddenly silent, and was doubled together with an +invisible wound; and did not close her mouth, until after the breath had +departed. Another, vainly flying, falls down; another dies upon her +sister; another lies hid; another you might see trembling. And {now} six +being put to death, and having received different wounds, the last +{only} remains; her mother covering her with all her body, {and} with +all her garments, cries, "Leave me but one, and that the youngest; the +youngest only do I ask out of so many, and {that but} one." And while +she was entreating, she, for whom she was entreating, was slain. +Childless, she sat down among her dead sons and daughters and husband, +and became hardened by her woes. The breeze moves no hair {of hers}; in +her features is a color without blood; her eyes stand unmoved in her sad +cheeks; in her form there is no {appearance} of life. Her tongue itself, +too, congeals within, together with her hardened palate, and the veins +cease to be able to be moved. Her neck can neither be bent, nor can her +arms give any motion, nor her feet move. Within her entrails, too, it is +stone. + +Still did she weep on; and, enveloped in a hurricane of mighty wind, she +was borne away to her native land. There, fixed on the top of a +mountain,[44] she dissolves; and even yet does the marble distil tears. + + [Footnote 31: _Had known her._--Ver. 148. This was the more + likely, as Tantalus, the father of Niobe, was king of both Phrygia + and Lydia.] + + [Footnote 32: _Sipylus._--Ver. 149. This was the name of both a + city and a mountain of Lydia.] + + [Footnote 33: _Go all of you._--Ver. 159. Clarke renders the words + 'Ismenides, ite frequentes,' 'Go, ye Theban ladies in general.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Sister of the Pleiades._--Ver. 174. Taygete, one of + the Pleiades, was the mother of Niobe.] + + [Footnote 35: _As my father-in-law._--Ver. 176. Because Jupiter + was the father of her husband, Amphion.] + + [Footnote 36: _Seven daughters._--Ver. 182. Tzetzes enumerates + fourteen daughters of Niobe, and gives their names.] + + [Footnote 37: _When in travail._--Ver. 187. She alludes to the + occasion on which Latona fled from the serpent Python, which Juno, + in her jealousy, had sent against her; and when Delos, which had + hitherto been a floating island, became immovable, for the + convenience of Latona, in labor with Apollo and Diana. That island + was said to have received its name from the Greek, +dêlos+, + 'manifest,' or 'appearing,' from having risen to the surface of + the sea on that occasion.] + + [Footnote 38: _Like her father's._--Ver. 213. Latona alludes to + one of the crimes of Tantalus, the father of Niobe, who was + accused of having indiscreetly divulged the secrets of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 39: _Gives rein._--Ver. 230. This was done with the + intention of making his escape.] + + [Footnote 40: _Glowing with oil._--Ver. 241. Clarke renders this + line, 'Were gone to the juvenile work of neat wrestling.' It would + be hard to say what 'neat' wrestling is. He seems not to have + known, that the 'Palæstra' was called 'nitida,' as shining with + the oil which the wrestlers used for making their limbs supple, + and the more difficult for their antagonist to grasp. Juvenal + gives the epithet 'ceromaticum' to the neck of the athlete, or + wrestler, which word means 'rubbed with wrestler's oil.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Now had they brought._--Ver. 243-4. Clarke thus + translates 'Et jam contulerant arcto luctantia nexu Pectora + pectoribus;' 'And now they had clapped breast to breast, + struggling in a close hug.'] + + [Footnote 42: _I have received my death-blow._--Ver. 283. + 'Efferor' literally means, 'I am carried out.' 'Effero' was the + term used to signify the carrying of the body out of the city + walls, for the purposes of burial.] + + [Footnote 43: _Before the biers._--Ver. 289. The body of the + deceased person was in ancient times laid out on a bed of the + ordinary kind, with a pillow for supporting the head and back; + among the Romans, it was placed in the vestibule of the house, + with its feet towards the door, and was dressed in the best robe + which the deceased had worn when alive. Among the better classes, + the body was borne to the place of burial, or the funeral pile, on + a couch, which was called 'feretrum,' or 'capulus.' This was + sometimes made of ivory, and covered with gold and purple.] + + [Footnote 44: _Top of a mountain._--Ver. 311. This was Mount + Sipylus, in Boeotia, which, as we learn from Pausanias, had on its + summit a rock, which, at a distance, strongly resembled a female + in an attitude of sorrow. This resemblance is said to exist even + at the present day.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + All the ancient historians agree with Diodorus Siculus and + Apollodorus, that Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and the sister + of Pelops; but she must not be confounded with a second Niobe, who was + the daughter of Phoroneus, and the first mortal (Homer tells us) with + whom Jupiter fell in love. Homer says that she was the mother of + twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Herodotus says, that she + had but two sons and three daughters. Diodorus Siculus makes her the + mother of fourteen children, seven of each sex. Apollodorus, on the + authority of Hesiod, says, that she had ten sons and as many + daughters; but gives the names of fourteen only. The story of the + destruction of her children is most likely based upon truth, and bears + reference to a historical fact. The plague, which ravaged the city of + Thebes, destroyed all the children of Niobe; and contagious distempers + being attributed to the excessive heat of the sun, it was fabled that + Apollo had killed them with his arrows; while women, who died of the + plague, were said to owe their death to the anger of Diana. Thus, + Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of Andromache were killed by + Diana. Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie, the wife of + Cyzicus, on the death of her mother, killed by the same Goddess; so + the Scholiast on Pindar (Pythia, ode iii.) says, on the authority of + Pherecydes, that Apollo sent Diana to kill Coronis and several other + women. Eustathius distinctly asserts, that the poets attributed the + deaths of men, who died of the plague, to Apollo; and those of women, + dying a similar death, to Diana. + + This supposition is based upon rational and just grounds; since many + contagious distempers may be clearly traced to the exhalations of the + earth, acted on by the intense heat of the sun. Homer, most probably, + means this, when he says that the plague came upon the Grecian camp, + on the God, in his anger, discharging his arrows against it; or, in + other words, when the extreme heat of his rays had caused a corruption + of the atmosphere. It may be here observed, that arrows were the + symbol of Apollo, when angry, and the harp when he was propitious. + Diogenes Laertius tells us, that, during the prevalence of the plague, + it was the custom to place branches of laurel on the doors of the + houses, in the hope that the God, being reminded of Daphne, would + spare the places which thereby claimed his protection. + + Ovid says, that the sons of Niobe were killed while managing their + horses; but Pausanias tells us that they died on Mount Cithæron, while + engaged in hunting, and that her daughters died at Thebes. Homer says, + that her children remained nine days without burial, because the Gods + changed the Thebans into stones, and that the offended Divinities + themselves performed the funeral rites on the tenth day; the meaning + probably, is, that, they dying of the plague, no one ventured to bury + them, and all seemed insensible to the sorrows of Niobe, as each + consulted his own safety. Ismenus, her eldest son, not being able to + endure the pain of his malady, is said to have thrown himself into a + river of Boeotia, which, from that circumstance, received his name. + After the death of her husband and children, Niobe is said to have + retired to Mount Sipylus, in Lydia, where she died. Here, as Pausanias + informs us, was a rock, resembling, at a distance, a woman overwhelmed + with grief; though according to the same author, who had visited it, + the resemblance could not be traced on approaching it. On this ground, + Ovid relates, that she was borne on a whirlwind to the top of a Lydian + mountain, where she was changed into a rock. + + Pausanias tells us, that Meliboea, or Chloris, and Amycle, two of her + daughters, appeased Diana, who preserved their lives; or that, in + other words, they recovered from the plague; though he inclines to + credit the version of Homer, who says that all of her children died by + the hands of Apollo and Diana. Meliboea received the surname of + Chloris, from the paleness which ensued on her alarm at the sudden + death of her sisters. + + +FABLE III. [VI.313-381] + + Latona, fatigued with the burden of her two children, during a long + journey, and parched with thirst, goes to drink at a pond, near which + some countrymen are at work. These clowns, in a brutal manner, not + only hinder her from drinking, but trouble the water to make it muddy; + on which, the Goddess, to punish their brutality, transforms them into + frogs. + +But then, all, both women and men, dread the wrath of the divinity, +{thus} manifested, and with more zeal {than ever} all venerate with +{divine} worship the great godhead of the Deity who produced the twins; +and, as {commonly} happens, from a recent fact they recur to the +narration of former events. + +One of them says, "Some countrymen of old, in the fields of fertile +Lycia, {once} insulted the Goddess, {but} not with impunity. The thing, +indeed, is but little known, through the obscure station of the +individuals, still it is wonderful. I have seen upon the spot, the pool +and the lake noted for the miracle. For my father being now advanced in +years, and incapable of travel, ordered me to bring thence some choice +oxen, and on my setting out, had given me a guide of that nation: with +whom, while I was traversing the pastures, behold! an ancient altar, +black with the ashes of sacrifices, was standing in the middle of a +lake, surrounded with quivering reeds. My guide stood still, and said in +a timid whisper, 'Be propitious to me;' and with a like whisper, I said, +'Be propitious.' However, I asked him whether it was an altar of the +Naiads, or of Faunus, or of some native God; when the stranger answered +me in such words; 'Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this +altar. She calls this her own, whom once the royal Juno banished from +the world; whom the wandering Delos, at the time when it was swimming as +a light island, hardly received at her entreaties. There Latona, leaning +against a palm, together with the tree of Pallas, brought forth twins, +in spite of their stepmother {Juno}. Hence, too, the newly delivered +{Goddess} is said to have fled from Juno, and in her bosom to have +carried the two divinities, her children. And now the Goddess, wearied +with her prolonged toil, being parched with the heat of the season, +contracted thirst in the country of Lycia, which bred the Chimæra[45] +when the intense sun was scorching the fields; the craving children, +too, had exhausted her suckling breasts. By chance she beheld a lake[46] +of fine water, in the bottom of a valley; some countrymen were there, +gathering bushy osiers, together with bulrushes, and sedge natural to +fenny spots. The Titaness approached, and bending her knee, she pressed +the ground, that she might take up the cool water to drink; the company +of rustics forbade it. The Goddess thus addressed them, as they forbade +her: 'Why do you deny me water? The use of water is common {to all}. +Nature has made neither sun, nor air, nor the running stream, the +property of any one. To her public bounty have I come, which yet I +humbly beg of you to grant me. I was not intending to bathe my limbs +here, and my wearied joints, but to relieve my thirst. My mouth, as I +speak, lacks moisture, and my jaws are parched, and scarce is there a +passage for my voice therein; a draught of water will be nectar to me, +and I shall own, that, together with it, I have received my life {at +your hands}. In {that} water you will be giving me life. Let these, too, +move you, who hold out their little arms from my bosom'; and by chance +the children were holding out their arms. + +"What person might not these kindly words of the Goddess have been able +to influence? Still, they persist in hindering {the Goddess thus} +entreating them; and moreover add threats and abusive language, if she +does not retire to a distance. Nor is this enough. They likewise muddy +the lake itself {with} their feet and hands; and they raise the soft mud +from the very bottom of the water, by spitefully jumping to and fro. +Resentment removes her thirst. For now no longer does the daughter of +Cæus supplicate the unworthy {wretches}, nor does she any longer endure +to utter words below {the majesty of} a Goddess; and raising her hands +to heaven, she says, 'For ever may you live in that pool.' The wish of +the Goddess comes to pass. They delight to go beneath the water, and +sometimes to plunge the whole of their limbs in the deep pool; now to +raise their heads, and now to swim on the top of the water; oft to sit +on the bank of the pool, {and} often to leap back again into the cold +stream. And even now do they exercise their offensive tongues in strife: +and banishing {all} shame, although they are beneath the water, {still} +beneath the water,[47] do they try to keep up their abuse. Their voice, +too, is now hoarse, and their bloated necks swell out; and their very +abuse dilates their extended jaws. Their backs are united to their +heads: their necks seem as though cut off; their backbone is green; +their belly, the greatest part of their body, is white; and {as} +new-made frogs, they leap about in the muddy stream." + + [Footnote 45: _The Chimæra._--Ver. 339. The Chimæra, according to + the poets, was a monster having the head of a lion, the body of a + goat, and the tail of a dragon. It seems, however, that it was + nothing more than a volcanic mountain of Lycia, in Asia Minor, + whence there were occasional eruptions of flame. The top of it was + frequented by lions; the middle afforded plentiful pasture for + goats; and towards the bottom, being rocky, and full of caverns, + it was infested by vast numbers of serpents, that harbored there.] + + [Footnote 46: _Beheld a lake._--Ver. 343. Probus, in his + Commentary on the Second Book of the Georgics, says that the name + of the spring was Mela, and that of the shepherd who so churlishly + repulsed Latona, was Neocles. Antoninus Liberalis says, that the + name of the stream was Melites, and that Latona required the water + for the purpose of bathing her children. He further tells us, that + on being repulsed, she carried her children to the river Xanthus, + and returning thence, hurled stones at the peasants, and changed + them into frogs.] + + [Footnote 47: _Beneath the water._--Ver. 376. Some commentators + are so fanciful as to say, that the repetition of the words 'sub + aqua,' in the line 'Quamvis sint sub aquâ, sub aquâ, maledicere + tentant,' not inelegantly [non ineleganter] expresses the croaking + noise of the frogs. A man's fancy must, indeed, be exuberant to + find any such resemblance; more so, indeed, than that of + Aristophanes, who makes his frogs say, by way of chorus, + 'brekekekekex koäx koäx.' Possibly, however, that might have been + the Attic dialect among frogs.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This story may possibly be based upon some current tradition of Latona + having been subjected to such cruel treatment from some country + clowns; or, which is more probable, it may have been originally + invented as a satire on the rude manners and uncouth conduct of the + peasantry of ancient times. The story may also have been framed, to + account, in a poetical manner, for the origin of frogs. + + +FABLE IV. [VI.382-411] + + The Satyr Marsyas, having challenged Apollo to a trial of skill on the + flute, the God overcomes him, and then flays him alive for his + presumption. The tears that are shed on the occasion of his death + produce the river that bears his name. + +When thus one, who, it is uncertain, had related the destruction of +{these} men of the Lycian race, another remembers {that of} the +Satyr;[48] whom, overcome {in playing} on the Tritonian reed, the son of +Latona visited with punishment. "Why," said he, "art thou tearing me +from myself? Alas! I {now} repent; alas," cried he, "the flute is not of +so much value!" As he shrieked aloud, his skin was stript[49] off from +the surface of his limbs, nor was he aught but {one entire} wound. Blood +is flowing on every side; the nerves, exposed, appear, and the quivering +veins throb without any skin. You might have numbered his palpitating +bowels, and the transparent lungs within his breast. The inhabitants of +the country, the Fauns, Deities of the woods, and his brothers the +Satyrs, and Olympus,[50] even then renowned, and the Nymphs lamented +him; and whoever {besides} on those mountains was feeding the +wool-bearing flocks, and the horned herds. + +The fruitful earth was moistened, and being moistened received the +falling tears, and drank them up in her lowest veins, which, when she +had turned into a stream, she sent forth into the vacant air. And then, +as the clearest river in Phrygia, running towards the rapid sea within +steep banks, it bears the name of Marsyas. + +From narratives such as these the people return at once to the present +events, and mourn Amphion extinct together with {all} his race. The +mother is {an object} of hatred. Yet {her brother} Pelops is said alone +to have mourned for her as well; and after he had drawn his clothes from +his shoulder towards his breast, he discovered the ivory on his left +shoulder. This shoulder, at the time of his birth, was of the same color +with the right one, and {was} formed of flesh. They say that the Gods +afterwards joined his limbs cut asunder by the hands of his father; and +the rest of them being found, that part which is midway between the +throat and the top of the arm, was wanting. Ivory was inserted there, in +the place of the part that did not appear; and so by that means Pelops +was made entire. + + [Footnote 48: _The Satyr._--Ver. 382. Herodotus tells this story + of the Satyr Marsyas, under the name of Silenus. Fulgentius + informs us, that in paintings, Marsyas was represented with the + tail of a pig.] + + [Footnote 49: _His skin was stript._--Ver. 387. Apollo fastened + him to a pine-tree, or, according to Pliny the Elder, + a plane-tree, which was to be seen even in his day. The skin was + afterwards suspended by Apollo in the city of Celenæ. Hyginus + says, that Apollo hewed Marsyas to pieces. The description here of + the flaying is, perhaps, very natural; but it is all the more + disgusting for being so. A commentator justly says, that it might + suit a Roman, whose eyes were familiar with bloodshed, much better + than the taste of the reader of modern times.] + + [Footnote 50: _Olympus._--Ver. 393. He was a Satyr, the brother + and pupil of Marsyas. Pausanias describes a picture, painted by + Polygnotus, in which Olympus was represented as sitting by + Marsyas, clad as a youth, and learning to play on the flute. + Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis (l. 576) says that Olympus + discovered some new measures for the 'tibia,' or flute. From + Hyginus we learn, that Apollo delivered to him the body of Marsyas + for burial.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Marsyas was the son of Hyagnis, the inventor of a peculiar kind of + flute, and of the Phrygian measure. Livy and Quintus Curtius tell us, + that the story of Apollo and Marsyas is an allegory; and that the + river Marsyas gave rise to it. They say that the river, falling from a + precipice, in the neighborhood of the town of Celenæ, in Phrygia, made + a very stunning and unpleasant noise; but that the smoothness of its + course afterwards gave occasion for the saying, that the vengeance of + Apollo had rendered it more tractable. + + It is, however, not improbable that the story may have been based on + historical facts. Having learned from his father, Hyagnis, the art of + playing on the flute, and, proud of his skill, at a time when the + musical art was yet in its infancy, Marsyas may have been rash enough + to challenge either a priest of Apollo, or some prince who bore that + name, and, for his presumption, to have received the punishment + described by Ovid. Herodotus certainly credited the story; for he says + that the skin of the unfortunate musician was to be seen, in his time, + in the town of Celenæ. Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius also + believe its truth. Suidas tells us, that Marsyas, mortified at his + defeat, threw himself into the river that runs near Celenæ, which, + from that time, bore his name. Strabo says, that Marsyas had stolen + the flute from Minerva, which proved so fatal to him, and had thereby + drawn upon himself the indignation of that Divinity. Ovid, in the + Sixth Book of the Fasti, and Pausanias, quoting from Apollodorus, tell + us, that Minerva, having observed, by seeing herself in the river + Meander, that, when she played on the flute, her cheeks were swelled + out in an unseemly manner, threw aside the flute in her disgust, and + Marsyas finding it, learned to play on it so skilfully, that he + challenged Apollo to a trial of proficiency. Hyginus, in his 165th + Fable, says that Marsyas was the son of Oeagrius, and not Hyagnis; + perhaps, however, this is a corrupt reading. + + +FABLE V. [VI.412-586] + + Tereus, king of Thrace, having married Progne, the daughter of + Pandion, king of Athens, falls in love with her sister Philomela, whom + he ravishes, and then, having cut out her tongue, he shuts her up in a + strong place in a forest, to prevent a discovery. The unfortunate + Philomela finds means to acquaint her sister with her misfortunes; + for, weaving her story on a piece of cloth, she sends it to Progne by + the hands of one of her keepers. + +The neighboring princes met together; and the cities that were near, +entreated their kings to go to console {Pelops, namely}, Argos and +Sparta, and the Pelopean Mycenæ, and Calydon,[51] not yet odious to the +stern Diana, and fierce Orchomeneus, and Corinth famous for its +brass,[52] and fertile Messene, and Patræ, and humble Cleonæ,[53] and +the Neleian Pylos, and Troezen not yet named from Pittheus;[54] and other +cities which are enclosed by the Isthmus between the two seas, and those +which, situated beyond, are seen from the Isthmus between the two seas. +Who could have believed it? You, Athens, alone omitted it. A war +prevented this act of humanity; and barbarous troops[55] brought +{thither} by sea, were alarming the Mopsopian walls. The Thracian Tereus +had routed these by his auxiliary forces, and by his conquest had +acquired an illustrious name. Him, powerful both in riches and men, and, +as it happened, deriving his descent from the mighty Gradivus, Pandion +united to himself, by the marriage of {his daughter} Progne. + +Neither Juno, the guardian of marriage rites, nor yet Hymeneus, nor the +Graces,[56] attended those nuptials. {On that occasion}, the Furies +brandished torches, snatched from the funeral pile. The Furies prepared +the nuptial couch, and the ill-boding owl hovered over the abode, and +sat on the roof of the bridal chamber. With these omens were Progne and +Tereus wedded; with these omens were they made parents. Thrace, indeed, +congratulated them, and they themselves returned thanks to the Gods, and +they commanded the day, upon which the daughter of Pandion was given to +the renowned prince, and that upon which Itys was born, to be considered +as festivals. So much does our true interest lie concealed {from us}. +Now Titan had drawn the seasons of the repeated year through five +autumns, when Progne, in gentle accents, said to her husband, "If I have +any influence {with thee}, either send me to see my sister, or let my +sister come hither. Thou shalt promise thy father-in-law that she shall +return in a short time. As good as a mighty God {wilt thou be} to me, if +thou shalt allow me to see my sister." + +He {thereupon} ordered ships to be launched;[57] and with sails and oars +he entered the Cecropian harbor, and landed upon the shores of the +Piræus.[58] As soon as ever an opportunity was given of {addressing} his +father-in-law, and right hand was joined to right hand, with evil omen +their discourse began. He had commenced to relate the occasion of his +coming, {and} the request of his wife, and to promise a speedy return +for {Philomela, if} sent. {When} lo! Philomela comes, richly adorned in +costly apparel; richer {by far} in her charms; such as we hear {of} the +Naiads and Dryads {as they} haunt the middle of the forests, if you were +only to give them the like ornaments and dress. Tereus was inflamed upon +seeing the virgin, no otherwise than if one were to put fire beneath the +whitening ears of corn, or were to burn leaves and {dry} grass laid up +in stacks. Her beauty, indeed, is worthy {of love}; but inbred lust, as +well, urges him on, and the people in those regions are {naturally} much +inclined to lustfulness. He burns, both by his own frailty and that of +his nation. He has a desire to corrupt the care of her attendants, and +the fidelity of her nurse, and {besides}, to tempt herself with large +presents, and to spend his whole kingdom {in so doing}; or else, to +seize her, and, when seized, to secure her by a cruel war. And there is +nothing which, being seized by an unbridled passion, he may not dare; +nor does his breast contain the internal flame. And now he ill bears +with delay; and with eager mouth returns to {urge} the request of +Progne, and under it he pleads his own wishes; passion makes him +eloquent. As oft as he presses beyond what is becoming, he pretends +that Progne has thus desired. He adds tears as well, as though she had +enjoined them too. O ye Gods above, how much of dark night do the +breasts of mortals contain! Through his very attempt at villany, Tereus +is thought to be affectionate, and from his crime does he gather praise. + +And how is it, too, that Philomela desires the same thing? and fondly +embracing the shoulders of her father with her arms, she begs, even by +her own safety (and against it too), that she may visit her sister. +Tereus views her, and, while viewing her, is embracing her beforehand in +imagination; and, as he beholds her kisses, and her arms around {her +father's} neck, he receives them all as incentives, and fuel, and the +food of his furious passion; and, as often as she embraces her father, +he could wish to be {that} father, and, even then, he would have been +not the less impious. The father is overcome by the entreaties of them +both. She rejoices, and returns thanks to her parent, and, to her +misfortune, deems that the success of both, which will be the cause of +sorrow to them both. Now but little of his toil was remaining for +Phoebus, and his steeds were beating with their feet the descending track +of Olympus; a regal banquet was set on the tables, and wine in golden +{vessels}; after this, their bodies were given up to gentle sleep. But +the Odrysian king,[59] though he was withdrawn, still burned for her; +and, recalling her form, her movements, her hands, fancies that which he +has not yet seen, to be such as he wishes; and he himself feeds his own +flames, his anxiety preventing sleep. + +It was {now} day; and Pandion, grasping the right hand of his +son-in-law, about to depart, with tears bursting forth, recommended his +companion {to his care}. "I commit her, my dear son-in-law, to thee, +because reasons, grounded on affection, have compelled me, and both {my +daughters} have desired it, and thou as well, Tereus, hast wished it; +and I entreat thee, begging by thy honor, by thy breast {thus} allied to +us, {and} by the Gods above, to protect her with the love of a father; +and do send back to me, as soon as possible, this sweet comfort of my +anxious old age, {for} all delay will be tedious to me, and do thou, +too, Philomela, if thou hast any affection for me, return as soon as +possible: 'tis enough that thy sister is so far away." {Thus} did he +enjoin, and at the same time he gave kisses to his daughter, and his +affectionate tears fell amid his instructions. He {then} demanded the +right hands of them both, as a pledge of their fidelity, and joined them +together when given, and bade them, with mindful lips, to salute for him +his absent daughter and grandson, and with difficulty[60] uttered the +last farewell, his mouth being filled with sobs; and he shuddered at the +presages of his own mind. But as soon as Philomela was put on board of +the painted ship, and the sea was urged by the oars, and the land was +left behind, he exclaimed, "I have gained my point; the object of my +desires is borne along with me." The barbarian exults, too, and with +difficulty defers his joy in his intention, and turns not his eyes +anywhere away from her. No otherwise than when the ravenous bird of +Jupiter, with crooked talons, has placed a hare in his lofty nest; there +is no escape for the captive; the plunderer keeps his eye on his prey. +And now the voyage is ended, and now they have gone forth from the +wearied ship, upon his own shore; when the king drags the daughter of +Pandion into a lofty dwelling, concealed in an ancient wood, and there +he shuts her up, pale and trembling, and dreading everything, and now +with tears inquiring where her sister is; and confessing his baseness, +he masters by force her a maiden, and but one, while she often vainly +calls on her father, often on her sister, and on the great Gods above +all. She trembles like a frightened lamb, which, wounded, being snatched +from the mouth of a hoary wolf, does not as yet seem to itself in +safety; and as a dove, its feathers soaked with its own blood, still +trembles, and dreads the ravening talons wherein it has been {lately} +held. {But} soon, when consciousness returned, tearing her dishevelled +hair like one mourning, and beating her arms in lamentation, stretching +out her hands, she said, "Oh, barbarous {wretch}, for thy dreadful +deeds; oh, cruel {monster}! have neither the requests of my father, with +his affectionate tears, moved thee, nor a regard for my sister, nor my +virgin state, nor the laws of marriage? Thou hast confounded all. I am +become the supplanter of my sister; thou, the husband of both of us. +This punishment was not my due. Why dost thou not take away this life, +that no villany, perfidious {wretch}, may remain {unperpetrated} by +thee? and would that thou hadst done it before thy criminal embraces! +{then} I might have had a shade void of {all} crime. Yet, if the Gods +above behold these things, if the majesty of the Gods be anything; if, +with myself, all things are not come to ruin; one time or other thou +shalt give me satisfaction. I myself, having cast shame aside, will +declare thy deeds. If opportunity is granted me, I will come among the +people; if I shall be kept imprisoned in the woods, I will fill the +woods, and will move the conscious rocks. Let Heaven hear these things, +and the Gods, if there are any in it." + +After the wrath of the cruel tyrant was aroused by such words, and his +fear was not less than it, urged on by either cause, he drew the sword, +with which he was girt, from the sheath, and seizing her by the hair, +her arms being bent behind her back, he compelled her to submit to +chains. Philomela was preparing her throat, and, on seeing the sword, +had conceived hopes of her death. He cut away, with his cruel weapon, +her tongue seized with pincers, while giving vent to her indignation, +and constantly calling on the name of her father, and struggling to +speak. The extreme root of the tongue {still} quivers. {The tongue} +itself lies, and faintly murmurs, quivering upon the black earth; and as +the tail of a mangled snake is wont to writhe about, {so} does it throb, +and, as it dies, seeks the feet of its owner. It is said, too, that +often after this crime (I could hardly dare believe it) he satisfied his +lust upon her mutilated body. + +He has the effrontery, after such deeds, to return to Progne, who, on +seeing her husband, inquires for her sister; but he heaves feigned +sighs, and tells a fictitious story of her death; and his tears procure +him credit. Progne tears from her shoulders her robes, shining with +broad gold, and puts on black garments, and erects an honorary +sepulchre, and offers expiation to an imaginary shade; and laments the +death of a sister not thus to be lamented. + +The God {Apollo}, the year being completed, had run through the twice +six signs {of the Zodiac}. What can Philomela do? A guard prevents her +flight; the walls of the house are hard, built of solid stone: her +speechless mouth is deprived of the means of discovering the crime. But +in grief there is extreme ingenuity, and inventive skill arises in +misfortunes. She skilfully suspends the warp in a web of Barbarian +design,[61] and interweaves purple marks with white, as a mode of +discovering the villany {of Tereus}; and delivers it, when finished, to +one {of her attendants}, and begs her, by signs, to carry it to her +mistress. As desired, she carries it to Progne, and does not know what +she is delivering in it. The wife of the savage tyrant unfolds the web, +and reads the mournful tale[62] of her sister, and (wondrous that she +can be so!) she is silent. 'Tis grief that stops her utterance, and +words sufficiently indignant fail her tongue, in want of them; nor is +there room for weeping. But she rushes onward, about to confound both +right and wrong, and is wholly {occupied} in the contrivance of revenge. + + [Footnote 51: _Calydon._--Ver. 415. This was a city of Ætolia, + which derived its name from Calydon, the son of Endymion. Diana, + being incensed against Oeneus, its king, because he omitted her + when offering the first fruits to the other Deities, sent an + immense boar to ravage its fields, which was slain by Meleager. + Ovid recounts these circumstances in the eighth book of the + Metamorphoses. Argos, Sparta, and Mycenæ, are also included in one + line, by Homer, as having been under the particular tutelage of + Juno.] + + [Footnote 52: _Famous for its brass._--Ver. 416. According to some + writers, the Corinthian brass became famous after the fall of + Corinth, when it was taken and burnt by the Consul Mummius. On + that occasion, they say, that from the immense number of statues + melted in the conflagration, a stream of metal poured through the + streets, consisting of melted gold, silver, and copper; in which, + of course, the latter would be predominant. If that was the ground + on which the Corinthian brass was so much commended, Ovid is here + guilty of an anachronism.] + + [Footnote 53: _Cleonæ._--Ver. 417. This was a little town, situate + between Argos and Corinth. It is called 'humilis,' not from its + situation, but from the small number of its inhabitants. Patræ was + a city of Achaia.] + + [Footnote 54: _Pittheus._--Ver. 418. He was the uncle of Theseus; + and was (after the time here mentioned) the king of Troezen, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 55: _Barbarous troops._--Ver. 423. Some suggest that it + is here meant that Attica was invaded by the Amazons at this time; + and they rely on a passage of Justin in support of the position. + The story is, however, very improbable.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Graces._--Ver. 429. The Graces, who were the + attendants of Venus, were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and + Euphrosyne.] + + [Footnote 57: _To be launched._--Ver. 445. The ships were launched + into the sea by means of rollers placed beneath them, from which + circumstance they were said 'deduci,' 'to be led down.'] + + [Footnote 58: _Shores of the Piræus._--Ver. 446. The Piræus was + the arsenal and the harbor of the Athenians, and owed its + magnificence to the vast conceptions of Themistocles.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Odrysian king._--Ver. 490. Tereus is thus + called, from the Odrysæ, a people of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 60: _With difficulty._--Ver. 510. Clarke translates + 'vix,' 'with much ado.'] + + [Footnote 61: _Barbarian design._--Ver. 576. Probably of a + Phrygian design.] + + [Footnote 62: _The mournful tale._--Ver. 582. This line is + translated by Clarke, 'And reads the miserable ditty of her + sister.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The gravest authors among the ancients, such as Strabo and Pausanias, + speaking of this tragical story, agree that the narrative, divested of + its poetical ornaments, is strictly conformable to truth; though, of + course, the sequel bears evident marks of embellishment either by the + fancy of the Poet, or the superstition of the vulgar. + + +FABLE VI. [VI.587-676] + + Progne delivers her sister Philomela from captivity, and brings her to + the court of Tereus, where she revolves in her mind her different + projects of revenge. Her son Itys, in the meantime, comes into her + apartment, and is murdered by his mother and aunt. Progne afterwards + serves him up at a feast, which she prepares for her husband; on + which, being obliged to fly from the fury of the enraged king, she is + changed into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Tereus + himself into a lapwing. + +It is {now} the time[63] when the Sithonian[64] matrons are wont to +celebrate the triennial festival of Bacchus. Night is conscious of their +rites; by night Rhodope resounds with the tinklings of the shrill +cymbal. By night the queen goes out of her house, and is arrayed +according to the rites of the God, and carries the arms of the frantic +solemnity. Her head is covered with vine leaves; from her left side hang +down the skins of a deer;[65] upon her shoulder rests a light spear. +{Then} the terrible Progne rushing through the woods, a multitude of her +followers attending her, and agitated by the fury of her resentment, +pretends, Bacchus, that it is {inspired} by thee. + +She comes at length to the lonely dwelling, and howls aloud, and cries +"Evoë!" and breaks open the gates, and seizes her sister, and puts upon +her, {so} seized, the badges of Bacchus, and conceals her countenance +under the foliage of ivy; and dragging her along, full of amazement, +leads her within her threshold. When Philomela perceives that she has +arrived at that accursed house,[66] the wretched woman shudders, and +paleness spreads over her whole face. Progne having {now} got a +{fitting} place {for so doing}, takes away the symbols of the rites,[67] +and unveils the blushing face of her wretched sister; and holds her in +her embraces. But she, on the other hand, cannot endure to lift up her +eyes; seeming to herself the supplanter of her sister, and fixing her +looks on the ground, her hand is in the place of voice to her, as she +desires to swear and to call the Gods to witness that this disgrace has +been brought upon her by violence. Progne burns {with rage}, and +contains not her anger; and checking the grief of her sister, she says, +"We must not act in this matter with tears, but with the sword, {and +even} with anything, if {such} thou hast, that can possibly outdo the +sword. I have, sister, prepared myself for every crime! Either, when I +shall have set fire to the royal palace with torches, I will throw the +artful Tereus into the midst of the flames, or with the steel will I cut +away his tongue or his eyes, or the members that have deprived thee of +thy chastity, or by a thousand wounds will I expel his guilty soul {from +his body}. Something tremendous am I prepared for; what it is, I am +still in doubt." + +While Progne was uttering such expressions, Itys came to his mother. By +him she was put in mind of what she might do; and looking at him with +vengeful eyes, she said, "Ah! how like thou art to thy father!" And +saying no more, she prepared for a horrible deed, and burned with silent +rage. Yet when her son came to her, and saluted his mother and drew her +neck {towards him} with his little arms, and added kisses mingled with +childish endearments, the mother, in truth, was moved, and her anger +abated, and her eyes, in spite of her, became wet with tears {thus} +forced {from her}. But soon as she found the mother {in her} shrinking +from excess of affection, from him again did she turn towards the +features of her sister; and looking at them both by turns, she said, +"Why does the one employ endearments, {while} the other is silent with +her tongue torn from her? Why does she not call her sister, whom he +calls mother? Consider to what kind of husband thou art married, +daughter of Pandion. Thou dost grow degenerate. Tenderness in the wife +of Tereus is criminality." No {more} delay {is there}; she drags Itys +along, just as the tigress of the banks of the Ganges {does} the +suckling offspring of the hind, through the shady forests. And when they +are come to a remote part of the lofty house, Progne strikes[68] him +with the sword, extending his hands, and as he beholds his fate, crying +now "Alas!" and now "My mother!" and clinging to her neck, where his +breast joins his side; nor does she turn away her face. Even one wound +{alone} is sufficient for his death; Philomela cuts his throat with the +sword; and they mangle his limbs, still quivering and retaining somewhat +of life. Part of them boils,[69] in the hollow cauldrons; part hisses on +spits; the inmost recesses stream with gore. His wife sets Tereus, in +his unconsciousness, before this banquet; and falsely pretending rites +after the manner of her country, at which it is allowed one man only to +be present, she removes his attendants and servants. Tereus himself, +sitting aloft on the throne of his forefathers, eats and heaps his own +entrails into his own stomach. And so great is the blindness of his +mind, {that} he says, "Send for Itys." Progne is unable to conceal her +cruel joy; and now, desirous to be the discoverer of her having murdered +him, she says, "Thou hast within {thee}, that for which thou art +asking." He looks around, and inquires where he is; as he inquires, and +calls him again, Philomela springs forth, just as she is, with her hair +disordered by the infernal murder, and throws the bloody head of Itys in +the face of his father; nor at any time has she more longed to be able +to speak, and to testify her joy by words such as are deserved. + +The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons the +Viperous sisters[70] from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he +desires, if he {only} can, by opening his breast to discharge thence the +horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he weeps, and +pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and then he +follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would have +thought the bodies of the Cecropian[71] Nymphs were supported by wings; +{and} they were supported by wings. The one of them makes for the woods, +the other takes her place beneath the roofs {of houses}. Nor {even} as +yet have the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers +are {still} stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his +desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a +crested {plume}; a prolonged bill projects in place of the long spear. +The name of the bird is 'epops' [{lapwing}]; its face appears to be +armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of Tartarus +before his day, and the late period of protracted old age. + + [Footnote 63: _Now the time._--Ver. 587. This was the festival of + Bacchus, before mentioned as being celebrated every three years, + in memory of his Indian expedition.] + + [Footnote 64: _Sithonian._--Ver. 588. Sithonia was a region of + Thrace, which lay between Mount Hæmus and the Euxine sea. The + word, however, is often used to signify the whole of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 65: _Skins of a deer._--Ver. 593. These were the + 'nebrides,' or skins of fawns and deer, which the Bacchanals wore + when celebrating the orgies. The lance mentioned here was, no + doubt, the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 66: _That accursed house._--Ver. 601. Clarke translates + this line, 'As soon as Philomela perceived she had got into the + wicked rogue's house.'] + + [Footnote 67: _Symbols of the rites._--Ver. 603. These were the + ivy, the deer-skins, and the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Progne strikes._--Ver. 641. 'Ense ferit Progne' is + translated by Clarke, 'Progne strikes with the sword poor Itys.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Part of them boils._--Ver. 645-6. Clarke gives this + comical translation: 'Then part of them bounces about in hollow + kettles; part hisses upon spits; the parlor runs down with gore.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Viperous sisters._--Ver. 662. Tereus invokes the + Furies, who are thus called from having their hair wreathed with + serpents. Clarke translates, 'ingenti clamore,' in line 661, 'with + a huge cry.'] + + [Footnote 71: _Cecropian._--Ver. 667. The Cecropian or Athenian + Nymphs are Progne and Philomela, the daughters of Pandion, king of + Athens.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + By the symbolical changes of Philomela, Progne, and Tereus, those who + framed this termination of the story intended to depict the different + characters of the persons whose actions are there represented. As the + lapwing delights in filth and impurity, the ancients thereby portrayed + the unscrupulous character of Tereus; and, as the flight of that bird + is but slow, it shows that he was not able to overtake his wife and + her sister. The nightingale, concealed in the woods and thickets, + seems there to be concealing her misfortunes and sorrows; and the + swallow, which frequents the abodes of man, shows the restlessness of + Progne, who seeks in vain for her son, whom, in her frantic fit, she + has so barbarously murdered. + + Anacreon and Apollodorus, however, reverse the story, saying that + Philomela was changed into a swallow, and Progne into a nightingale. + This event is said by some writers to have happened not in Thrace, but + at Daulis, a town of Phocis, where Tereus is supposed to have gone to + settle. Pausanias tells us, that the tomb of Tereus was to be seen + near Athens, so that it is probable that he died at a distance from + Thrace, his native country. Homer alludes to the story of Philomela in + somewhat different terms; speaking of the grounds of the grief of + Penelope, he says, that 'she made her complaints to be heard like the + inconsolable Philomela, the daughter of Pandarus, always hidden among + the leaves and branches of trees. When the Spring arrives, she makes + her voice echo through the woods, and laments her dear Itylus, whom + she killed by an unhappy mistake; varying, in her continued plaints, + the mournful melody of her notes.' By this, Homer seems to have known + nothing of Tereus or of Progne, and to have followed a tradition, + which was to the following effect:--Pandarus had three daughters, + Ædon, Mecrope, and Cleothera. Ædon, the eldest, was married to Zethus, + the brother of Amphion, by whom she had one son, who was named Itylus. + Envying the more numerous family of Niobe, her sister-in-law, she + resolved to despatch the eldest of her nephews; and, as her son was + brought up with his cousin, and was his bedfellow, she bade him change + his place in the bed, on the night on which she intended to commit the + crime. Itylus forgot her commands, and consequently his mother killed + him by mistake for her nephew. + + +FABLE VII. [VI.677-721] + + Boreas, not obtaining the consent of Erectheus, king of Athens, for + the marriage of his daughter, Orithyïa, takes that princess in his + arms, and carries her away into Thrace. By her he has two sons, Calaïs + and Zethes, who have wings, like their father, and afterwards embark + with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. + +Erectheus[72] received the sceptre of {that} country, and the government +of the state; it is a matter of doubt whether he was more powerful +through his justice, or by his mighty arms. He had, indeed, begotten +four sons, and as many of the female sex: but the beauty of two {of +them} was equal. Of these, Cephalus,[73] the son of Æolus, was blessed +with thee, Procris, for his wife; Tereus and the Thracians were an +obstacle to Boreas; and long was {that} God without his much-loved +Orithyïa, while he was entreating, and choosing rather to use prayers +than force. But when nothing was effected by blandishments, terrible +with that rage which is his wont, and but too natural with that wind, he +said, "And {this is} deservedly {done}; for why did I relinquish my own +weapons, my violence, my strength, my anger, and my threatening spirit, +and turn to prayers, the employment of which ill becomes me? Violence is +suitable for me; by violence do I dispel the lowering clouds, by +violence do I arouse the seas, and overthrow the knotted oaks, and +harden the snow, and beat the earth with hail. I too, when I have met +with my brothers in the open air (for that is {peculiarly} my field), +struggle with efforts so great, that the intermediate sky thunders again +with our onset, and fires flash, struck forth from the hollow clouds. +I too, when I have descended into the hollow recesses of the earth, and +in my rage have placed my back against its lowest depths, disturb the +shades below, and the whole globe with earthquakes. By these means +should I have sought this alliance; and Erectheus ought not to have been +entreated {to be} my father-in-law, but made so by force." + +Boreas, having said these words, or some not less high-sounding than +these, shakes his wings, by the motion of which all the earth is fanned, +and the wide sea becomes ruffled; and the lover, drawing his dusty +mantle over the high tops {of mountains}, sweeps the ground, and, wrapt +in darkness, embraces with his tawny wings Orithyïa, as she trembles +with fear. As she flies, his flame, being agitated, burns more fiercely. +Nor does the ravisher check the reins of his airy course, before he +reaches the people and the walls of the Ciconians.[74] There, too, is +the Actæan damsel made the wife of the cold sovereign, and {afterwards} +a mother, bringing forth twins at a birth, who have the wings of their +father, the rest {like} their mother. Yet they say that these {wings} +were not produced together with their bodies; and while their long +beard, with its yellow hair, was away, the boys Calaïs and Zethes were +without feathers. {But} soon after, at once wings began to enclose both +their sides, after the manner of birds, and at once their cheeks {began} +to grow yellow {with down}. When, therefore, the boyish season of youth +was passed, they sought,[75] with the Minyæ, along the sea {before} +unmoved,[76] in the first ship {that existed}, the fleece that glittered +with shining hair {of gold}. + + [Footnote 72: _Erectheus._--Ver. 677. This personage really was + king of Athens before Pandion, the father of Progne and Philomela, + and not after him, as Ovid here states; at least, such is the + account given by Pausanias and Eusebius: the order of succession + being Actæus, Cecrops, Cranaüs, Amphictyon, Erecthonius, Pandion, + Erectheus, Cecrops II., Pandion II., Ægeus, Theseus.] + + [Footnote 73: _Cephalus._--Ver. 681. He was the son of Deioneus, + and the grandson of Æolus. According to some writers, he was the + son of Mercury; in and the Art of Love (Book iii. l. 725) he is + called 'Cyllenia proles.' Strabo says that he was the son-in-law + of Deioneus. His story is related at length in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._--Ver. 710. The Cicones were a + people of Thrace, living near Mount Ismarus, and the Bistonian + lake.] + + [Footnote 75: _They sought._--Ver. 720. This was the fleece of the + ram that carried Phryxus along the Hellespont to Colchis, which is + mentioned again in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 76: _Before unmoved._--Ver. 721. This passage may mean + that that part of the sea had not been navigated before; though + many of the poets assert that the Argo was the first ship that was + ever built. It is more probable that it was the first vessel that + was ever fitted out as a ship of war.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plato tells us that the story of the rape of Orithyïa is but an + allegory, which signifies that, by accident, she was blown by the wind + into the sea, where she was drowned. Apollodorus and Pausanias, + however, assert that this story is based on historical facts, and that + Boreas, king of Thrace, seized Orithyïa, the daughter of Erectheus, + king of Athens, and sister of Procris, as she was passing the river + Ilissus, and carried her into his dominions, where she became the + mother of twins, Calaïs and Zethes. In the Argonautic expedition, + these chiefs delivered Phineus, the king of Bithynia, from the + persecution of the Harpies, which were in the habit of snatching away + the victuals served up at his table. + + + + +BOOK THE SEVENTH. + + +FABLE I. [VII.1-158] + + Jason, after having met with various adventures, arrives with the + Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the Golden Fleece. Medea falls in + love with Jason, and by the power of her enchantments preserves him + from the dangers he has to encounter in obtaining it. He obtains the + prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in triumph to Thessaly. + +And now the Minyæ[1] were ploughing the sea in the Pagasæan ship;[2] and +Phineus prolonging a needy old age under perpetual night, had been +visited, and the youthful sons of the North wind had driven the birds +with the faces of virgins from {before} the mouth of the distressed old +man;[3] and having suffered many things under the famous Jason, had +reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy Phasis. + +And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged to +Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of +mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of Æetes[4] conceives a +violent flame; and having long struggled {against it}, after she is +unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: "In vain, Medea, dost +thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a wonder +too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is called +'love.' For why do the commands of my father appear too rigid for me? +and yet too rigid they are. Why am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen +{but} so lately, should perish? What is the cause of alarm so great? +Banish the flames conceived in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy +{creature}. If I could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws +me on, against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another. +I see which is the more proper {course}, and I approve of it, {while} I +follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning for a +stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? This +land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether he +shall live, or whether die, is in {the disposal of} the Gods. Yet he may +survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what {fault} +has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not the +{youthful} age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? Whom, +though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? at +least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he will +be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with his +own {kindred} crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will be given +as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I will +confess that I was born of a tigress; then, {too}, that I carry steel +and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him perish? Why not, +too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not stimulate the bulls +against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and the never-sleeping +dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet these things are not +to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. Shall I {then} betray +the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall some stranger, I know not +who, be saved; that being delivered by my means, he may spread his sails +to the winds without me, and be the husband of another; and I, Medea, be +left for punishment? If he can do this, and if he is capable of +preferring another to me, let him perish in his ingratitude. But not +such is his countenance, not such that nobleness of soul, that +gracefulness of person, that I should fear treachery, and forgetfulness +of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will +oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou +dread, {thus} secure? Haste {then},[5] and banish {all} delay. Jason +will ever be indebted to thee for his preservation; thee will he unite +to himself in the rites of marriage, and throughout the Pelasgian +cities[6] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver +{of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my +sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native +soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my +brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my +favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be +relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the +credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better +country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the +politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of Æson, whom +I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole +world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to +the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know +not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves, +and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at +another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is +said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and +clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas; +embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my +husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage, +and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider +how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst, +fly from guilt." + +{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and +Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the +ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady +grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved, +and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of +Æson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with +blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont +to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay +concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and +aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now +declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she +beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her +eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of Æson was more beauteous +than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and keeps her +eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for the first +time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the face of a +mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger began to +speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance with a +humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears running +down, "I see what I ought to do; and it will not be ignorance of the +truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou shalt be saved; when +saved, grant what thou hast promised." + +He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the Deity +which is in that grove, and by the sire[13] of his future father-in-law, +who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by dangers so +great. Being believed {by her}, he immediately received some enchanted +herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went away rejoicing +to his abode. The next morning had {now} dispersed the twinkling stars, +{when} the people repaired to the sacred field of Mavors, and ranged +themselves on the hills. In the midst of the assembly sat the king +himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a sceptre of ivory. +Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames[14] from their +adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is on fire. And +as the forges filled {with fire} are wont to roar, or when flints[15] +dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat by the sprinkling +of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth the flames enclosed +within, and their scorched throats, resound. Yet the son of Æson goes +forth to meet them. The fierce {bulls} turn their terrible features, and +their horns pointed with iron, towards his face as he advances, and with +cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty ground, and fill the place with +lowings, that send forth clouds of smoke. The Minyæ are frozen with +horror. He comes up, and feels not the flames breathed forth by them, so +great is the power of the incantations. He even strokes their hanging +dewlaps with a bold right hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges +them to draw the heavy weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share +the plain {till now} unused to it.[16] + +The Colchians are astonished; the Minyæ fill {the air} with their +shouts, and give him {fresh} courage. Then in a brazen helmet he takes +the dragon's teeth,[17] and strews them over the ploughed up fields. The +ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and +the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the +infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there +formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until +at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the +pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more +surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the +Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at +the head of the Hæmonian youth, they lowered their countenances and +their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had +rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked +by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear}, +sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had +been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary +charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy +stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from +himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual +wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress +the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too, +barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; 'twas modesty that +opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard +for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do, +{thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest +thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them. + +It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who, +distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his +hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled +him with herbs of Lethæan juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that +cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean, +{and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that +were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of Æson, gains the gold; and +proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a +second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of +Iolcos.[19] + + [Footnote 1: _The Minyæ._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyæ were a + people of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.] + + [Footnote 2: _Pagasæan ship._--Ver. 1. Pagasæ was a seaport of + Thessaly, at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was + built.] + + [Footnote 3: _Distressed old man._--Ver. 4. Clarke translates + 'miseri senis ore,' 'from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.'] + + [Footnote 4: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter + of Æetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded + Venus to inspire Medea with love for him.] + + [Footnote 5: _Haste then._--Ver. 47. Clarke translates + 'accingere,' more literally than elegantly, 'buckle to.'] + + [Footnote 6: _Pelasgian cities._--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly + that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The + province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its + name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of + Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names + of 'Apia' and 'Pelasgia.' Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived + their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers + assert that they were so called from +pelargoi+, 'storks,' from + their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the + present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.] + + [Footnote 7: _My sister._--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who + had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children + being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to + Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards + commended him to the care of Medea.] + + [Footnote 8: _And my brother._--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus, + whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.] + + [Footnote 9: _Is barbarous._--Ver. 53. It was certainly 'barbara' + in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in + the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.] + + [Footnote 10: _The youth of Greece._--Ver. 56. These were the + Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of + Greece.] + + [Footnote 11: _What mountains._--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean + rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.] + + [Footnote 12: _Hecate._--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have + been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the + account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who, + according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of Phoebus, and the + brother of Æetes. Marrying her uncle Æetes, she is said to have + been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she + is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with + the Moon, she has the epithets 'Triceps' and 'Triformis,' often + given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full, + sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.] + + [Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the + Sun, who was said to be the father of Æetes, the destined + father-in-law of Jason.] + + [Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the + God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus + says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (+pharmakon+) to rub over + himself and his armor.] + + [Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to + determine whether 'silices' here means 'flint-stones,' or + 'lime-stone;' probably the latter, from the mention of water + sprinkled over them. If the meaning is 'flint-stones,' the passage + may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making + which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.] + + [Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to + Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.] + + [Footnote 17: _Dragon's teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of + the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva + had sent to Æetes.] + + [Footnote 18: _Lethæan juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the + infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and + forgetfulness.] + + [Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of + Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history + of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the + fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the + expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the + fabulous ages. + + Athamas, the son of Æolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of + Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to + divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He + afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus + and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two + sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele, + sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship + to be privately prepared; and taking his father's treasures, sailed + with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of Æetes, his + kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis, + where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He + there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes, + Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, Æetes caused him to be + assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather, + Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until + found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having + mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them, + and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to + Medea. Æetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of + Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to + avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother Æson from the + throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason, + took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised + both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The + uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an + oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of Æolus, + and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one + shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron, + lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was + desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced + him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an + undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece + repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when + they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of + which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of + Argonauts. + + Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness; + while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its + builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart, + however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phoenician word + 'arco,' which signifies 'long,' and suggests, that before that time + the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first + who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many + adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the + women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the + Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his + companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they + were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus, + its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit + of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of + hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces + of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as + far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris + appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further, + promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To + explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters + of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him + in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the + victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast + swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a + famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word 'arbati,' whence the term + 'Harpy' is derived, signifying 'a grasshopper;' and that the North + wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying, + that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not + mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts + at the court of Phineus. + + After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. Æetes, + or Æeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a + stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a + custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His + daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her + assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were + exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do + so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a + false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying + them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining + the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in + supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the + Phoenician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks + invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls. + Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word 'gaza,' + signifies either 'a treasure,' or 'a fleece.' 'Saur,' which means 'a + wall,' also means 'a bull;' and in the same language the same word, + 'nachas,' signifies both 'brass,' 'iron,' and 'a dragon.' Hence, + instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea, + carried away the treasures which Æetes kept within walls, with bolts, + or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship + with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated + by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother, + sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that + its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of + Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend + with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the + story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named 'Draco,' or + 'Dragon,' and that the garrison of the stronghold of Æetes was brought + from the 'Tauric' Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the + skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he + had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object + so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused + them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The + dragon's teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops + which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to + alienate from Æetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes + but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts. + + +FABLE II. [VII.159-349] + + Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father + Æson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias, + she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by + making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in + compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death. + Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot. + +The Hæmonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving +their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames, +and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But Æson is not +among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the +years of old age; when thus the son of Æson {addresses Medea}: "O wife, +to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me +everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if +{thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not +effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to +{those of} my father." + +And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the +affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, Æetes, left behind, +recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess +any such feelings. "What a piece of wickedness, husband," said she, "has +escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring +to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost +thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a +favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we +will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not +by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but +assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking." Three nights +were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and +might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked +down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the +house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having +her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed +her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep +has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the +hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy +air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up +her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she +besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells +she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she +says, "O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden +Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, +three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms +and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the +enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, +rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of +night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run +back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I +calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds, +and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise +them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells; +I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own +{native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too, +to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from +their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the +Temesæan[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot +of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my +enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the +curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke. +You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among +themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece}, +that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent +the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by +means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of +life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will +give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in +vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons." + +A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had +mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had +shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked +down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the +chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the +lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater +than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she +cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that +grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks} +of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and +the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of +Boebe.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the Euboean Anthedon,[28] +not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now +the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the +fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she +returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the +plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her +arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied +by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and +erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the +left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain +and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off, +she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black +ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon +goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk; +she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the +earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his +ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of +life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and +prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of Æson to be +brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by +her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him. + +She orders the son of Æson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to +go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her +mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes +round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her +torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and +lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34] +purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with +sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving +in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with +swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Hæmonian valleys, +and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the +most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has +washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the +moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its +flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change +its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there +wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37] +and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds +the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine +ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the +barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal +{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she +stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest. +Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first +becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly +loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth +from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the +earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up. + +Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a +drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his +veins} with juices. Soon as Æson has drunk them in, either received in +his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their +hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his +paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with +additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. Æson is +astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten +years before. + +Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a +prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his +nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of Æetes.[42] + +And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited +quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of +Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters +receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to +herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the +greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of Æson have +been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is +suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art +their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and +repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is +silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense, +as they ask, with an affected gravity. + +Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, "That there may be the +greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your +sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this +preparation." Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable +years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples; +whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Hæmonian knife, and +stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the +limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow +copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, +and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a +low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering +at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and +seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after +her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still +more strongly. Phoebus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking +in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were +twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of Æetes set pure water upon a +blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, +their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together +with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting +tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had +entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded +the bed; "Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your +swords," says she, "and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish +his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father +is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain +hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with +your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood." + +Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes +especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits +wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they +turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance +blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises +his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the +couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale +arms, he says, "What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against +the life of your parent?" Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As +he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with +his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron. + + [Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess + of enchantment.] + + [Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare + was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites, + though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present + instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought, + according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called + 'nudipedalia,' were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the + Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.] + + [Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and + the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently + considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes. + The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a + horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter, + a human head.] + + [Footnote 23: _Temesæan._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the + Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It + was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa, + a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.] + + [Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the + characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she + now alighted.] + + [Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius + and Cælius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting + herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and + in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the + witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.] + + [Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were + rivers of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 27: _Shores of Boebe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of + lake Boebeis, near the town of Boebe, in Thessaly. It was not far + from the mouth of the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Boeotia, + opposite to Euboea, being situated on the Euripus, now called the + straits of Negropont.] + + [Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was + changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is + related at the end of the 13th Book.] + + [Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine + seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.] + + [Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also + called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the + daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the + cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.] + + [Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. 'Carchesia.' The 'carchesium' + was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early + times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two + handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in + the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood, + wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the + Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.] + + [Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and + Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, 'And prays + to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not + be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of + life.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders + this and the two following lines: 'And purifies the old gentleman + three times with flame, three times with water, and three times + with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and + bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.'] + + [Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of + the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, 'Make the hell-broth thick and + slab.'] + + [Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. 'Strigis.' The 'strix' + is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird + with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of + assuming that form. From the description given of the 'striges' in + the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the + qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.] + + [Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The 'chelydrus' was a + venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The + Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here + meant.] + + [Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to + live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.] + + [Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates + the words 'quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis + jugulum,' 'which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the + old gentleman with a drawn sword.'] + + [Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some + writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color + to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of + the warm bath.] + + [Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii. + l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseïdes; but in the Fifth Book + of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number + of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from + Pherecydes, calls them 'Dodonides.'] + + [Footnote 42: _Daughter of Æetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most + of the MSS. here is Tetheiâ, or 'Thetide;' but Burmann has + replaced it by Æetide, 'the daughter of Æetes.' It has been justly + remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of + the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld + Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of Æson?] + + [Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. 'Neve doli cessent' is + translated by Clarke, 'and that her tricks might not cease.'] + + [Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of Æson, and + had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.] + + [Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or + Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of + Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river + Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin + of the story of the restitution of Æson to youth, are much divided in + their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of + reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood. + It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of + being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the + virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to Æson, + which furnished him with new spirits and strength. + + The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of + Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought + upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous + herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him. + + +FABLE III. [VII.350-401] + + Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to + Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the + daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the + princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two + children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight. + +And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would +not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady +Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over +Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47] +He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the +ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being +overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she +leaves the Æolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made +out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen +bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too, +where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and +the fields which Mæra[52] alarmed by her unusual barking. + +The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore +horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence}; +Phoebean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58] +corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly +hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over +the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60] +was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of +his daughter. + +After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62] +which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there +Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce +lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; +and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, +{when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said, +"Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;" and {then} leaped from a +high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he +hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not +knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake +{called} after her own name. + +Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the +daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings. +After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona, +conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife, +into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was +{one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far +hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson, +changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68] +lamenting his son in the air. + +At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian +Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early +ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But +after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and +both seas beheld the king's house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed +in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously +revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her +Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee, +most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying +together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed +wings. + + [Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of + Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph + Phillyra, lived there.] + + [Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting + from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the + foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs, + who changed him into a scarabæus, or winged beetle. Flying to the + heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he + thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into + a bird.] + + [Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of Ætolia, in + Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.] + + [Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most + probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or + serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.] + + [Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida, + in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of + Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some + Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to + screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus + with the garb of a hunter.] + + [Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the + father of Corythus, by Oenone. He was said to have been buried at + Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Mæra._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of + Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his + master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation, + under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea + was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet + refers to the transformation of some female, named Mæra, into a + dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius + expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to + the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line + 406; and that 'Mæra' is a corruption for some other name of + Hecuba.] + + [Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the + Isle of Cos, in the Ægean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as + an augur.] + + [Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that + the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that + of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were + changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that + these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of + Ægeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno + transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is + made in the present passage.] + + [Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the + chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having + slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.] + + [Footnote 56: _Phoebean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes, + in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to + the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.] + + [Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of + the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been + founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or + Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from + Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account + they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being + magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.] + + [Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed + by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but + to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was + turned.] + + [Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the + Ægean sea, near Euboea. Carthæa was a city there, the ruins of + which are still in existence.] + + [Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says, + that Alcidamas lived not at Carthæa, but at Iülis, another city in + the Isle of Cea.] + + [Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of + Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her + son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.] + + [Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian + Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of + Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of Ætolia, + near Mount Curius. It was far distant from Boeotia and Lake Hyrie. + Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be + Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the + Curetes of Ætolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount + Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who + discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from + that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters + to her husband.] + + [Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between + Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred + to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in + exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.] + + [Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he + committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his + daughter.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in + Boeotia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus, + and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here + referred to.] + + [Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patræ, on + the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged + chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while + his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He + is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be 'natum,' + and not 'natam.' Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter + was changed into a bird.] + + [Footnote 69: _Pirenian Ephyre._--Ver. 391. Corinth was so called + from Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was said to have lived + there. Its inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.] + + [Footnote 70: _Titanian dragons._--Ver. 398. Her dragons are so + called, either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the + blood of the Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition, + the chariot and winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun, + one of whose names was Titan.] + + [Footnote 71: _Phineus._--Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the + person here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest 'Phini,' + and that some female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making + the adjective 'justissime' of the feminine gender.] + + [Footnote 72: _Periphas._--Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of + Attica, before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been + changed into an eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed + into an osprey.] + + [Footnote 73: _Polypemon._--Ver. 401. This was a name of the + robber Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the + daughter of his son Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence, + was thrown into the sea by her father, on which she was changed + into a kingfisher, which bore her name.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to + his son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or + Creüsa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to + that place, left her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to + Creon's palace, where he and his daughter were consumed to ashes, + after which she killed her own children. Euripides, in his tragedy of + Medea, makes a chorus of Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians + themselves committed the murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on + the city, as a punishment for the deed. Pausanias also says, that the + tomb of Medea's children, whom the Corinthians stoned to death, was + still to be seen in his time; and that the Corinthians offered + sacrifices there every year, to appease their ghosts, as the oracle + had commanded them. + + Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that + Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible + nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn + so furiously, that the young princess perished in the greatest misery. + Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to give her + assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to + perform. Going thence to Athens, she married Ægeus. + + The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact, + that her ship was called 'the Dragon.' In recounting the particulars + of her flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the + most of which are entirely unknown to us. With regard to these + fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as affording a + key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any imminent + danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. If, to + avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said to be + transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from excess of + grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, if a + damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The + resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus, + Alopis was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a + crow; and Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories + here alluded to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be + remarked, that the account of the women of Cos being changed into + cows, is thought by some to have been founded on the cruel act of the + companions of Hercules, who sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the + country. The inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been + changed into rocks, because they perished in an inundation, which laid + a part of that island under water, and particularly the town of + Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it + to be said, that she was changed into a dove. The rage of Mæra is + shown by her transformation into a bitch; and Arne was changed into a + daw, because, having sold her country, her avarice was well depicted + under the symbol of that bird, which, according to the popular + opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the mother of the Centaur Chiron, + was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she + happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is + called +philura+. + + +FABLE IV. [VII.402-468] + + Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the + Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at + Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king, + however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches + away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. Ægeus then + makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of + Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several + princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of + his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there. + +Ægeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality +is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage. +And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by +his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas. +For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought +with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the +teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark +entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the +Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes +sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains +formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with +triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields +with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the +nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of +being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock, +the rustics call it aconite.[75] + +This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father Ægeus himself presented +to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the +presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived +upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck +the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised +clouds by her enchantments. + +But the father, although he rejoices at his son's being safe, astonished +that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape +from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with gifts; +and the axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns +bound with wreaths. No day is said {ever} to have shone upon the people +of Erectheus more famous than that--the senators and the common people +keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. "Thee, +greatest Theseus," said they, "Marathon[78] admired for {shedding} the +blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon[79] in +safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means the +country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan[80] fall; {and} +the banks of the river Cephisus[81] saw the cruel Procrustes {fall by +thee}. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the death of Cercyon.[82] +Sinnis[83] fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who was able +to bend {huge} beams, and used to pull pine trees from aloft to the +earth, destined to scatter {human} bodies far and wide. The road to +Alcathoë,[84] the Lelegeïan city, is now open in safety, Scyron[85] +being laid low {in death}: {and} the earth denies a resting-place, the +water, {too}, denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber +scattered piecemeal; these, long tossed about, length of time is +reported to have hardened into rocks. To {these} rocks the name of +Scyron adheres. If we should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy +years, thy actions would exceed thy years {in number}. For thee, bravest +{hero}, we make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of +wine." The palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the +prayers of those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout +the whole city. + +And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some anxiety +is {ever} interposing amid joyous circumstances), Ægeus does not have +his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos prepares for war; +who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in shipping, is still +strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, with retributive +arms, avenges the death of {his son} Androgeus. Yet, before the war, he +obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea with a swift fleet, in +which he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe[86] to +himself; and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of +Astypale by conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky +lands of Cimolus,[87] and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, and the level +Seriphos;[88] Paros, too, abounding in marble, and {the island} wherein +the treacherous Sithonian[89] betrayed the citadel, on receiving the +gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She was changed into +a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the jackdaw {namely}, +black-footed, and covered with black feathers. + + [Footnote 74: _A gloomy cave._--Ver. 409. This cavern was called + Acherusia. It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near + the city of Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance + of the Infernal Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged + from Tartarus by Hercules, through this cave, which circumstance + was supposed to account for the quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane, + that grew there.] + + [Footnote 75: _Call it aconite._--Ver. 419. From the Greek + +akonê+, 'a whetstone.'] + + [Footnote 76: _Presented to his son._--Ver. 420. Medea was anxious + to secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus, + and was therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.] + + [Footnote 77: _Tokens of his race._--Ver. 423. Ægeus, leaving + Æthra at Troezen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore + a son, to rear him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed + his own sword and shoes under a large stone, and directed her to + send his son to him when he was able to lift the stone, and to + take them from under it; and he then returned to Athens, where he + married Medea. When Theseus had grown to the proper age, his + mother led him to the stone under which his father had deposited + his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and took them out. + It was, probably, by means of this sword that Ægeus recognized his + son in the manner mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 78: _Marathon._--Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica, + adjoining a plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the + command of Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense + slaughter. The bull which Theseus slew there was presented by + Neptune to Minos. Being brought into Attica by Hercules, it laid + waste that territory until it was slain by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 79: _Cromyon._--Ver. 435. This was a village of the + Corinthian territory, which was infested by a wild boar of + enormous size, that slew both men and animals. It was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Vulcan._--Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the + father of Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the + Peloponnesus. He was so formidable with his club, that he was + called Corynetas, from +korunê+, the Greek for 'a club.'] + + [Footnote 81: _Cephisus._--Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of + such extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the + extremities of his captives, according as they were shorter or + longer than his bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis, + in Attica, which was watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 82: _Cercyon._--Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge + travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the + contest, or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and + having overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially + dedicated to Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that + Goddess were held.] + + [Footnote 83: _Sinnis._--Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to + whom reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.] + + [Footnote 84: _Alcathoë._--Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoë, which + was founded by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was + rebuilt by Alcathoüs, the son of Pelops. He, flying from his + father, on being accused of the murder of his brother Chrysippus, + retired to the city of Megara, where, having slain a lion which + was then laying waste that territory, he was held in the highest + veneration by the inhabitants.] + + [Footnote 85: _Scyron._--Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks + in the neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who + became his guests washing his feet. This being done upon the + rocks, Scyron used to kick the strangers into the sea while so + occupied, where a tortoise lay ready to devour the bodies. Theseus + killed him, and threw his body down the same rocks, which derived + their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from this robber.] + + [Footnote 86: _Anaphe._--Ver. 461. This, and the other islands + here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those + times were subject to the sway of Minos.] + + [Footnote 87: _Cimolus._--Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that + this island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have + had much the properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color, + and was also employed for medicinal purposes.] + + [Footnote 88: _Seriphos._--Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to + know why Seriphos should here have the epithet 'plana,' 'level,' + inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt + reading.] + + [Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story + is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the + Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be + but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the + Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future + state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the + custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns + in which they kept their mummies. + + It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been + founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a + serpent which haunted the cavern of Tænarus, in Laconia, and ravaged + the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally + considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets + thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its + portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that + Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name + in the Greek language signified 'one that devours flesh.' The story + that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in + Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever + after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those + herbs were found in great quantities in that region. + + Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground + for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to + bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations; + which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these + women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their + magical operations. + + +FABLE V. [VII.469-613] + + Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been + refused by others, goes to the island of Ægina, where Æacus reigns, + to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without + success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from + Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of + the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in his country, + and of the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + +But Oliaros,[90] and Didyme, and Tenos,[91] and Andros,[92] and +Gyaros,[93] and Peparethos, fruitful in the smooth olive,[94] do not aid +the Gnossian ships. Then Minos makes for Oenopia,[95] the kingdom of +Æacus, lying to the left. The ancients called it Oenopia, but Æacus +himself called it Ægina, from the name of his mother. The multitude +rushes forth, and desires greatly to know a man of so great celebrity. +Both Telamon,[96] and Peleus, younger than Telamon, and Phocus, the +{king's} third son, go to meet him. Æacus himself, too, {though} slow +through the infirmity of old age, goes forth, and asks him what is the +reason of his coming? The ruler of a hundred cities, being put in mind +of his fatherly sorrow {for his son}, sighs, and gives him this answer: +"I beg thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party +in a war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction." To him +the grandson of Asopus says, "Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not +to be done by my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied +to the people of Cecropia. Such are {the terms of} our compact." {Minos} +goes away in sadness, and says, "This compact of thine will cost thee a +dear price;" and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to +wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely. + +Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Oenopian walls, +when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters +the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him} +the request of his native country. The youthful sons of Æacus recognize +Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and give their right +hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The graceful hero, +even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, enters; and, +holding a branch of his country's olive, being the elder, he has on his +right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and Butes, the sons +of Pallas.[98] After their first meeting has had words suitable +{thereto}, Cephalus relates the request of the people of Cecrops, and +begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and alliances of their +forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the whole of Achaia is +aimed at. After the eloquence {of Cephalus} has thus promoted the cause +entrusted to him, Æacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his +sceptre, says-- + +"Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond +doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let +all the forces of my kingdom go {along with thee}. Strength is not +wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for {opposing} +the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous time, and one that +can excuse no refusal of mine." "Yes, {and} be it so," says +Cephalus:[99] "and I pray that thy power may increase along with thy +citizens. Indeed, as I came along just now, I received {much} pleasure, +when a number of youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came +forward to meet me. Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw +when I was formerly entertained in this city." Æacus heaves a sigh, and +thus he says, with mournful voice: "A better fortune will be following a +lamentable beginning; I {only} wish I could relate this to you. I will +now tell it you without any order, that I may not be detaining you by +any long preamble.[100] They are {now} lying as bones and ashes, for +whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And how great a part were +they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my +people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country +named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the +baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the +resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now} +lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick +darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the +Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four +times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were +blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the +infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of +serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting +the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was +first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and +oxen, and among the wild beasts. The unfortunate ploughman wonders that +strong oxen fall down at their work, and lie stretched in the middle of +the furrow. {And} while the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings, +both their wool falls off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The +horse, once of high mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates +for the {purposes of} victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he +groans at the manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The +boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor +the bears to rush upon the powerful herds. + +"A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and +in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with +the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the +ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they +rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the +contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence +reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the +extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness, +and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The +tongue, {grown} rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its +throbbing veins; the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. {The +infected} cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their +hardened breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by +the ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no +physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who +administer remedies; and {their own} arts become an injury to their +owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he +attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the +fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the +end of their malady {only} in death, they indulge their humors, and +there is no concern as to what is to their advantage; for, {indeed}, +nothing is to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished, +they lie {promiscuously} close to the fountains and rivers, and deep +wells; and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their +life {is}. Many, overpowered {with the disease}, are unable to arise +thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks that +{water}. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched {creatures} +of their hated beds, {that} they leap out, or, if their strength forbids +them standing, they roll their bodies upon the ground, and every man +flies from his own dwelling; each one's house seems fatal to him: and +since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the place that is known is +blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, as +long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on the +ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They +stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens, +breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken +them. + +"What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to +hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever +side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the +earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and +acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple, +opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his +own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did +the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or} +the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing? +in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How +often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was +making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns, +fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering +sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the +victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any +blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the +diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings +of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen +the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very +altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}. +Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the +apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The +bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according +to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of} +the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are +laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no +distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on +fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the +souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about +unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for +the fires." + + [Footnote 90: _Oliaros._--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades, + in the Ægean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.] + + [Footnote 91: _Tenos._--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a + temple there, sacred to Neptune.] + + [Footnote 92: _Andros._--Ver. 469. This was an island in the Ægean + Sea, near Euboea. It received its name from Andros, the son of + Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the + comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.] + + [Footnote 93: _Gyaros._--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among + the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal + settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said + to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by + reason of its unfruitfulness.] + + [Footnote 94: _Smooth olive._--Ver. 470. Clarke translates 'nitidæ + olivæ' 'the neat olive.' 'Nitidus' here means 'smooth and + shining.'] + + [Footnote 95: _Oenopia._--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of + the isle of Ægina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native + place of the family of the Æacidæ. It obtained its later name from + Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of Æacus, whom + Jupiter carried thither.] + + [Footnote 96: _Telamon._--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, + were the three sons of Æacus.] + + [Footnote 97: _Lyctian._--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of + the cities of Crete.] + + [Footnote 98: _Pallas._--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son + of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus. + This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by + Theseus.] + + [Footnote 99: _Cephalus._--Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus, + or according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter + of Cecrops.] + + [Footnote 100: _Long preamble._--Ver. 520. Clarke translates 'neu + longâ ambage morer vos,' 'that I may not detain you with a + long-winded detail of it.'] + + [Footnote 101: _Country named._--Ver. 524. This was the island of + Ægina, so called from the Nymph who was carried thither by + Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 102: _Bowels are scorched._--Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly + renders the words 'viscera torrentur primo.' 'first people's + bowels are searched;' perhaps, however, the latter word is a + misprint for 'scorched.'] + + [Footnote 103: _Thou seest._--Ver. 587. As Æacus says this, he + must be supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.] + + [Footnote 104: _More odious._--Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed + to be particularly offensive to the Gods.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his + accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made + several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned, + and, at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet + is particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus + Siculus. + + The Feast of the Panathenæa being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his + son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was + sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby + acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the + friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of Ægeus. This + circumstance caused Ægeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more + especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him. + Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes, + he caused him to be assassinated near Oenoë, a town on the confines of + Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of + Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is + very possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view + of screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and + unjust. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that Ægeus + himself caused Androgeus to be murdered. + + On hearing the news of his son's death, Minos resolved on revenge. He + ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several + courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him; + and this, with the history of the plague at Ægina, forms the subject + of the present narrative. + + +FABLE VI. [VII.614-660] + + Jupiter, at the prayer of his son Æacus, transforms the ants that are + in the hollow of an old oak into men; these, from the Greek name of + those insects, are called Myrmidons. + +"Stupefied by so great an outburst of misery, I said, 'O Jupiter! if +stories do not falsely say that thou didst come into the embraces of +Ægina, the daughter of Asopus, and thou art not ashamed, great Father, +to be the parent of myself; either restore my people to me, or else bury +me, as well, in the sepulchre.' He gave a signal by lightnings, and by +propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, 'I pray that +these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest +me, I accept as a pledge.' By chance there was close by, an oak sacred +to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with +wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn, +in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and +keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their +numbers, I said, 'Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as +many in number, and replenish my empty walls.' The lofty oak trembled, +and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs +quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave +kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any +hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind. +Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my +eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches, +and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar +motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields +below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised +themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and +laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and +their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape. + +"Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained +that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace +there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men, +to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that +these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and, +opening the door, said, 'Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes +or expectations. Do come out.' I did go out, and I beheld and recognized +such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of +my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up +vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former +tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106] +and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast +beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they +formerly had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of +what they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and +in courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which +brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him), +shall have changed to the South." + + [Footnote 105: _From Dodona._--Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of + Chaonia, in Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter + and Europa. Near it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter, + which was famous for the number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves + were said to give oracular responses there, probably from the + circumstance that the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called + +peleiadai+. Some writers, however, say that the oaks had the gift + of speech, combined with that of prophesying.] + + [Footnote 106: _Myrmidons._--Ver. 654. From the Greek word + +murmêx+, 'an ant;' according to this version of the story.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of the + subjects of Æacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when + the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted, + and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is + probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the + young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance + would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of + Æacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a + barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in + caves, and who were brought thence by Æacus to people his island, + which had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their + name to the Greek word +murmêx+, signifying 'an ant,' most probably + gave occasion to the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men. + + +FABLE VII. [VII.661-793] + + Cephalus, having resisted the advances of Aurora, who has become + enamoured of him while hunting, returns in disguise to his wife, + Procris, to try if her affection for him is sincere. She, discovering + his suspicions, flies to the woods, and becomes a huntress, with the + determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on becoming reconciled + to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which Diana had once + given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a wild beast, + which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, after the + interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Oedipus. + +In these and other narratives they passed the day. The last part of the +day was spent in feasting, and the night in sleep. The golden Sun had +{now} shed his beams, {when} the East wind was still blowing, and +detained the sails about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to +Cephalus, who was stricken in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas, +together {with him}, {come} to the king; but a sound sleep still +possessed the monarch. Phocus, the son of Æacus, received them at the +threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war. +Phocus conducted the citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a +handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that +the grandson of Æolus[107] was holding in his hand a javelin made of an +unknown wood, the point of which was of gold. + +Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, he said, +"I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; still, from +what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, is cut, +I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were of wild ash, +it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would be knots in +it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not looked upon a +weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this." One of the +Athenian brothers replied, and said, "In it, thou wilt admire its +utility, {even} more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it +strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained +with blood, no one returning it." Then, indeed, does the Nereian +youth[108] inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and whence +{it came}? who was the author of a present of so great value? What he +asks, {Cephalus} tells him; but as to what he is ashamed to tell, {and} +on what condition he received it, he is silent; and, being touched with +sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus speaks, with tears bursting +forth: "Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who could have believed it?) +makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if the Fates shall grant me +long to live. 'Twas this that proved the destruction of me and of my +dear wife. Would that I had ever been without this present! Procris was +(if perchance {the fame of} Orithyïa[109] may have more probably reached +thy ears) the sister of Orithyïa, the victim of violence. If you should +choose to compare the face and the manners of the two, she was the more +worthy to be carried off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love, +{too}, united her to me. I was pronounced happy, and {so} I was. Not +thus did it seem {good} to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be +{so}. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, when +the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, beheld +me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from the highest summit +of the ever-blooming Hymettus,[110] and carried me off against my will. +By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; though she +is comely with her rosy face, {and} though she possesses the confines of +light, and possesses {the confines} of darkness, though she is nourished +with the draughts of nectar, {still} I loved Procris; Procris was {ever} +in my thoughts, Procris was ever on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties +of marriage, our late embraces, and our recent union, and the prior +engagements of my forsaken bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said, +'Cease thy complaints, ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind +is gifted with foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;'" +and {thus}, in anger, she sent me back to her. + +"While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess +within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly +observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be +apprehensive of her infidelity; {yet} her virtue forbade me to believe +it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom I was {just} +returning, was an example of {such} criminality: but we that are in +love, apprehend all {mishaps}. I {then} endeavored to discover that, by +reason of which I must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts[111] +upon her chaste constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and +changed my shape, {as} I seemed {then} to perceive. I entered Athens, +the city of Pallas, unknown {to any one}, and I went into my own house. +The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity, +and was in concern for the carrying off of its master. + +"Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by +means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, and +was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with +difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty +from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no +one could be more beautiful than she, {even} in her sadness; and she was +consuming with regret for her husband, torn from her. {Only} think, +Phocus, how great was the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much +become. Why should I tell how often her chaste manners repulsed {all} my +attempts? How often she said, 'I am reserved for {but} one, wherever he +is; for that one do I reserve my joys.' For whom, in his senses, would +not that trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? {Yet} I was +not content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give +vast sums for {but one} night, and forced her at last to waver, by +increasing the reward. {On this} I cried out, 'Lo! I, the gallant in +disguise, to my sorrow, {and} lavish in promises, to my misery, am thy +real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, {and} I the +witness.' She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with silent shame, she +fled from the house of treachery, together with her wicked husband; and +from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole race of men, she +used to wander[112] on the mountains, employed in the pursuits of Diana. +Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my bones, thus deserted. +I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in fault; and that I too might +have yielded to a similar fault, on presents being made; if presents so +large had been offered. Upon my confessing this, having first revenged +her offended modesty, she was restored to me, and passed the pleasant +years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as though in herself she +had given me but a small present, a dog as a gift, which when her own +Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, 'He will excel all dogs in +running.' She gave her, too, a javelin, which, as thou seest, I am +carrying in my hand. + +"Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other present--hear +{then}. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty of the wondrous fact. The +son of Laius[113] had solved the verses not understood by the wit of +others before him; and the mysterious propounder lay precipitated, +forgetful of her riddle. But the genial Themis,[114] forsooth, did not +leave such things unrevenged. Immediately another plague was sent forth +against Aonian Thebes; and many of the peasants fed the savage monster, +both by the destruction of their cattle, and their own as well. We, the +neighboring youth, came together, and enclosed the extensive fields with +toils. With a light bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the +topmost barriers of the toils that were set. The couples were taken off +the dogs, from which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no +otherwise than as a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with +eager demands, for my {dog} Lælaps [{Tempest}]; that was the name of {my +wife's} present. For some time already had he been struggling to get +free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained +him. Scarce was he well let loose; and {yet} we could not now tell where +he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, {but} he himself was +snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter than he {did}, nor +pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the light arrow from the +Gortynian bow.[115] The top of a hill, {standing} in the middle, looks +down upon the plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an +unusual chase; wherein the wild beast[116] one while seemed to be +caught, at another to elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a +direct course, and straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he +pursues it, and returns in circles, that its enemy may not have his full +career against it. He keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for +him; and {though} like as if he has caught it, {still} he fails to catch +it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was {now} turning to the resources of +my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, {and} while I was +attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs {of it}, I turned away my +eyes; and again I had directed them, recalled to the same spot, when, +{most} wondrous, I beheld two marble statues in the middle of the plain; +you would think the one was flying, the other barking {in pursuit}. Some +God undoubtedly, if any God {really} did attend to them, desired them +both to remain unconquered in this contest of speed." + + [Footnote 107: _Æolus._--Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus, + the parent of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.] + + [Footnote 108: _Nereian youth._--Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son + of Æacus, by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.] + + [Footnote 109: _Orithyïa._--Ver. 695. She was the daughter of + Erectheus, king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as + already stated.] + + [Footnote 110: _Hymettus._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + Attica, famous for its honey and its marble.] + + [Footnote 111: _To make attempts._--Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us + that she was found by her husband in company with a young man + named Pteleon, who had made her a present of a golden wreath. + Antoninus Liberalis says, that her husband tried her fidelity by + offering her a bribe, through the medium of a slave.] + + [Footnote 112: _Used to wander._--Ver. 746. Some writers say that + she fled to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the + attachment of Aurora for her husband, made her a present of a + javelin, which no person could escape; and gave her the dog + Lælaps, which no wild beast could outrun. Such is the version + given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus Liberalis say, + that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, made her + a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting + herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him + proofs of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to + give them to him, she exacted, as a condition, what must, + apparently, have resulted in a breach of the laws of conjugal + fidelity. On his assenting to the proposal, she discovered + herself, and afterwards made him the presents which he desired.] + + [Footnote 113: _The son of Laius._--Ver. 759. Oedipus was the son + of Laius, king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring + of Typhon and Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Oedipus + solved the riddle which it proposed for solution, on which the + monster precipitated itself from a rock. It had the face of a + woman, the wings of a bird, and the extremities of a lion.] + + [Footnote 114: _Genial Themis._--Ver. 762. Themis had a very + ancient oracle in Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 115: _Gortynian bow._--Ver. 778. Crete was called + Gortynian, from Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was + famous for the skill of its inhabitants in archery.] + + [Footnote 116: _The wild beast._--Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis + and Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called 'the + Teumesian,' from Teumesus, a mountain of Boeotia, and that the + Thebans, to appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to + devour every month. Palæphatus says that it was not a wild beast, + but a man called Alopis.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of + Mercury and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of + Deïoneus, king of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The + first was carried off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria; + the second married Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens. + Though Apollodorus seems, in the first instance, to follow this + genealogy, in his third book he confounds the actions of those two + princes. Ovid and other writers have spoken only of the son of + Deïoneus, who was carried off by Aurora, and having left her, + according to them, returned to Procris. + + +FABLE VIII. [VII.794-865] + + Procris, jealous of Cephalus, in her turn, goes to the forest, which + she supposes to be the scene of his infidelity, to surprise him. + Hearing the rustling noise which she makes in the thicket, where she + lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild beast, and, hurling the + javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he kills her. + +Thus far {did he speak}; and {then} he was silent. "But," said Phocus, +"what fault is there in that javelin?" {whereupon} he thus informed him +of the demerits of the javelin. "Let my joys, Phocus, be the first +portion of my sorrowful story. These will I first relate. O son of +Æacus, I delight to remember the happy time, during which, for the first +years {after my marriage}, I was completely blessed in my wife, {and} +she was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love +possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter +before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me, +not {even} if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the breasts {of +us both}. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains with his early +rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor into the woods, to +hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my horses, nor my +quick-scented hounds to go {with me}, nor the knotty nets to attend me; +I was safe with my javelin. But when my right hand was satiated with the +slaughter of wild beasts, I betook myself to the cool spots and the +shade, and the breeze which was breathing forth from the cool valleys. +The gentle breeze was sought by me, in the midst of the heat. For the +breeze was I awaiting; that was a refreshment after my toils: 'Come, +breeze,' I was wont to sing, for I remember it {full well}, 'and, most +grateful, refresh me, and enter my breast; and, as thou art wont, be +willing to assuage the heat with which I am parched.' Perhaps I may have +added ({for} so my destiny prompted me) many words of endearment, and I +may have been accustomed to say, 'Thou art my great delight; thou dost +refresh and cherish me; thou makest me to love the woods and lonely +haunts, and thy breath is ever courted by my face.' I was not aware that +some one was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and +thinking the name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that +of a Nymph, he believed some Nymph was beloved by me. + +"The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris, +and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a +credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with +sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she +was wretched, and {born} to a cruel destiny; and she complained about my +constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,[117] she dreads that which, +{indeed}, is nothing; {and} fears a name without a body; and, in her +wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. Yet she is often in +doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she may be deceived, and +denies credit to the information; and unless she beholds it herself, +will not pass sentence upon the criminality of her husband. The +following light of the morning had banished the night, when I sallied +forth, and sought the woods; and being victorious in the fields, I said, +'Come, breeze, and relieve my pain;' and suddenly I seemed to hear I +know not what groans in the midst of my words; yet I said, 'Come hither, +most delightful {breeze}.' Again, the falling leaves making a gentle +noise, I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon. +It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she +cried out, 'Ah, wretched me!' When the voice of my attached wife was +heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards {that} voice. I found her +dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, and drawing her +own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; I lifted up her +body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, and I bound up her +cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; and I endeavored to +stanch the blood, and besought her that she would not forsake me, {thus} +criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now expiring, forced +herself to utter these few words: + +"'I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the +Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of +thee, by that {as well}, and by the cause of my death, my love even now +enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}] +to share with thee my marriage ties.' She {thus} spoke; and then, at +last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But +what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies, +together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she +gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy +life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented +look." + +In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and, +lo! Æacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied; +which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms. + + [Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may + intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus + from the similarity of the name 'Aura' to that of her former + rival, Aurora.] + + [Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the + prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the + mouth.] + + [Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and + Peleus, who had levied these troops.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The love which Cephalus, the son of Deïoneus, bore for the chase, + causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his + sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife, + Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon, + and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert + attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife's + infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete, + who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of + Pasiphaë, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among + others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to + Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled + to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by + Ovid. + + The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by + him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands + of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which + ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which + some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea + robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some Cretan officer of Minos, + who escorted Procris back to her country, on their vessels being + shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the story that the + dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, Tzetzes says + distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, or fox, + Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought Procris + back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some share in + causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus condemned + Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, which + received its name from him, having been given to him by Amphitryon, he + retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded him. + + + + +The Hamilton, Locke and Clark + +SERIES OF + +Interlinear Translations + +Have long been the Standard and are now the _Best Translated_ and _Most +Complete_ Series of Interlinears published. + +=12mo., well bound in Half Leather.= + +=Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address.= + +_Latin Interlinear Translations:_ + + VIRGIL--By Hart and Osborne. + CÆSAR--By Hamilton and Clark. + HORACE--By Stirling, Nuttall and Clark. + CICERO--By Hamilton and Clark. + SALLUST--By Hamilton and Clark. + OVID--By George W. Heilig. + JUVENAL--By Hamilton and Clark. + LIVY--By Hamilton and Clark. + CORNELIUS NEPOS--By Hamilton and Underwood. + +_Greek Interlinear Translations:_ + + HOMER'S ILIAD--By Thomas Clark. + XENOPHON'S ANABASIS--By Hamilton and Clark. + GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN--By George W. Heilig. + +=S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:= + +"There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, +of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student +to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will +tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars +as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with +the Interlinear Classics." + +=DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia,= + +Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons. + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note on the Text: + +Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-1878, +B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as part of +Bohn's Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, uses +material from two reprints: + +George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition is described on +its title page as "reprinted from the stereotype plates". These may have +been the original 1851 plates, since the entire _Classical Library_ had +been sold by Bohn to Bell & Daldy, later George Bell. + +David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by +Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is +absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the +Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors. + +The McKay edition was the "base" of the e-text. The scanned, proofread +text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell edition, and +differences were in turn checked against page images of the printed +books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or more +versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay uses +American spelling such as "honor" for "honour", and compound forms such +as "northwest" for "north-west"; punctuation is often changed, though +some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing and +reproduction. Non-trivial differences are listed in the Errata, below. + +Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as +"Henry T. Riley, B.A.", while the McKay edition has "M.A." The sequence +of dates-- original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint 1893-- +supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict facsimile. + + * * * * * + * * * * + +_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_ + +Errors are grouped thematically: + significant errors and inconsistencies; + variant spellings, including name forms; + Greek; + punctuation; + line and footnote numbering. +Abbreviations in the form "II.XIV Exp" mean "Book II, Fable XIV, +Explanation" (appended to most Fables); "Syn" means Synopsis (prefaced +to each Fable). + + +_Shared errors and irregularities (present in both McKay and Bell +editions), with original text in brackets []_ + +I.XII: the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks + _read as "spread her careless locks behind her"_ + _in McKay, "her her" is printed at a line break and can easily be + mistaken for an error_ +I.XII Footnote 82, Pope quotation + _McKay reads "trembling dove" and "reached her"; other + modernizations in spelling are shared by both editions_ +I.V: the dreadful carcasses + _anomalous spelling: both editions normally use "carcase(s)"_ +II.I _and_ Footnote 16: Hæmus [Hoemus] +II.I Exp: Herse, the daughter of Cecrops (Hersa) +II.III Footnote 57: 2 Kings, xx. 11 [xx. 7] +II.XIV Exp: which Hesychius calls ... [Hesychus] +III.IV Footnote 62: ... Æneid (l. 620) [l. 260] +IV.I Footnote 3: Alcathoë, Leucippe, and Aristippe + _text unchanged; may be error for "Alcithoë"_ +IV.II Footnote 39: 'Virgo victa nitore Dei.' [uitore] +V.V Footnote 60: The zone, or girdle ... was much worn + _Bell has "was much wore"; McKay has "were much worn"_ +V.VI Footnote 75: adjoining to the Elean territory [Eleon] +VI.I: the sley separates the warp + _this technical term is missing from many dictionaries_ +VI.III Footnote 47: 'brekekekekex koäx koäx.' + _text unchanged (one syllable too many)_ +VII.IV Footnote 89: the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270 + _final paragraph of the Explanation of Fable VII.III_ +VII.V Footnote 92: The Andrian slave, who gives his name [its name] + + +_Errors or variations introduced by McKay, with original text in +brackets []. Unless otherwise noted, the Bell version was treated as +the correct form. Italics in the translation (here shown in braces {}) +are considered non-trivial because they indicate text added by the +translator, not present in the Latin original._ + +I.II Footnote 19: she was supposed to have her habitation + [habitations] +I.II Footnote 22: Ver. 64. [34] +I.III Exp: the ground became unfruitful [become] +--: as they really happened [happen] +I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum] + _intended text may have been "Dii majorum"_ +I.VIII Exp: ... that the sea joined its waters + [... the sea joined in its waters] +--: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition] +I.IX: {to endure} these sorrows [to {endure}] +I.X Exp: where he built a temple to Jupiter [when] +I.XII Footnotes 83, 84: Clarke [Clark] +I.XII: Thou, the same, shalt stand [shall] +I.XIII Footnote 92: mount Æta [Ætna] + _the reference is to the Greek mountain now spelled "Eta"_ +I.XIII Footnote 96: Pliny the Elder (Book iii. ch. 23) + ... Aous [Aeus] + _editions of Pliny vary; the cited passage may also be found as + iii.58 or iii.145_ +I.XIII: the wild beasts alone [beast] +I.XVI Exp: Argus was the son of Arestor [Argos] +I.XVII: Thou ... believest thy mother in all things [believes] +I.XVII Footnote 115: He was king of Ethiopia [Ethiopa] + +II.I: Ignorant what to do, he is stupefied + _McKay reads "stupei/fied" at page break_ + _Bell has "stupified" here, "stupefied" elsewhere_ +II.I Footnote 13: Thessaly [Thessalis] +II.I Footnote 18: This was a mountain [A mountain] +II.I Footnote 24: _Cithæron._ [Cithoeron] +II.I Footnote 41: Cape Matapan [Metapan] +II.I Exp: the Greek form of it [from] +II.II: a long tract through the air [track] + _Latin: longo ... tractu_ +II.VII: Larissæan[69] Coronis [Larissæn] +II.IX: the womb of his mother [the wound] +II.XI: The son of Atlas laughed [sun] +II.XIII Syn: her sister's apartment [apartments] + _both editions consistently use "apartment"_ +II.XIV: which thou seest [seeest] + _this spelling is normal in Bell, but McKay uses "seest" elsewhere_ +II.XIV Exp: Palæphatus and Tzetzes suggest [suggests] + +III.I Footnote 1: 'Thebe,' which signified 'an ox.' [signifies] +III.II: the victorious enemy of immense size [in immense size] +III.II Exp: sows the teeth [their] +III.III Footnote 24: _Phyale._ [Phyule] +III.III: Now thou mayst tell [mayest] +III.III Footnote 39: _Poemenis._ [Parmenis] +III.III: Leucon,[46] with snow-white hair [Luecon] +--: her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] [Harpaulus] +--: Lachne,[54] with a wire-haired body [white-haired] + _Bell text was substituted, but Latin simply has "hirsuta"_ +--: and Hylactor,[57] [Hylector] +III.III, Footnote 56: Ver. 224. [254] +III.V: become a woman from a man [became] + _participle: "having become"_ +III.VI: with the nearer flame did she burn + _word "did" illegible_ +III.VII: grief is taking away [has taken] + _reading "has taken" would require a metrically impossible Latin + "ademit" (long "e") for "adimit" (short "i")_ +III.VIII, Footnote 89: placed in the number of the Constellations + [the number of Constellations] +III.VIII: 'Lo! we are here,' says Opheltes, my chief mate [Ophletes] +--: this Alcimedon approved of [Alcemedon] +--: now confessing that he has offended [had offended] +III.VIII Exp: ... tore him in pieces. Pausanias, however ... + [to pieces, Pausanius] +--: The story ... is supposed by Bochart [Bochârt] + +IV.I Footnote 1: ... Pausanias says that the Boeotians + [Pausanius] +IV.I Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._ [Phyoneus] +IV.I: the grass wet with rime [went] +--: they determine, in the silent night [determined] +--: The arrangement suits them [arrangements] +--: the most unhappy cause and companion [anhappy] +IV.I Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._ + _footnote marker missing_ +IV.II Syn: the intrigue between Mars and Venus [betwen] +IV.II: nor {yet} Clytie [not] +IV.II Footnote 37: Abas, Acrisius, Danaë, Perseus [Danae, Persus] +IV.II: with her twirling spindle [with twirling spindle] +IV.V Footnote 48: (laborabat) ... 'auxiliares.' + [(laborat) ... 'auxiliaries.'] +IV.VII: And what madness can do [what madness man can do] + _"madness" is the grammatical subject: "quidque furor valeat"_ +IV.VII Footnote 57: These were the Furies [furies] +IV.VII Footnote 63: Tisiphone importuna [importune] +IV.VII Exp: by whom he had Helle and Phryxus [Phrysus] +IV.VIII Exp: Bochart says [Bochard] + _last letter of "Bochart" illegible in Bell_ +IV.X: Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her [So soon as] + _Bell wording adopted for consistency_ +--: When he has lighted {on the ground} + _"on the ground" not italicized_ +IV.X Footnote 84: præpetes [præptes] +IV.X: on the silent plain [on the salient plain] + _"salient" is clearly wrong, but "silent plain" is also an odd + translation of "vacuo ... arvo"_ +IV.X Exp: more common than it had been before [more common that] + +V.I: both by his merits and his words [its merits] +V.I Footnote 7: _Syene._ ... (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79) + _text reads "Book i. Ep. i. 79"; in the Bell printing the letter + "l" is damaged and could be misread as "i"_ +V.I: thou, both her uncle and her betrothed [though, both] +V.I Footnote 8: a swingeing bowl [swinging] +V.I: the middle of the neck {of Pettalus} [Pattalus] +V.II Footnote 32: Ver. 302. [303] +V.III Footnote 43: pressed down by Lilyboeum [Lilybæum] +V.IV: both her mother and her companions,[48] [and companions] +V.IV Footnote 50: _The Palici._ [Palaci] +V.IV Footnote 51: Dionysus [Dionysius] + _the names "Bacchius" and "Bacchus" in the same footnote are each + correct as printed_ +V.IV Footnote 57: Cinnus [Cinus] +V.IV Footnote 61: tunc denique raptam Scisset [raptum] + _Bell also has "tum" for "tunc"; both words are valid_ +V.IV Exp: the Isis of the Egyptians [the Isis of Egyptians] +--: the following circumstance: [circumstances:] +V.V Syn: Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search [the fruitless] +--: The Sirens have wings [rings] +V.V: it is {a mark of} affection [a {mark of}] +V.V: Footnote 67: The Greek name of a lizard being +askalabos+ + [a lizard askalabos] +V.VI: Erymanthus and Elis [Eyramanthus] +--: Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Arethusa! + _text reads "Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Ar-/thusa!" at line break_ +V.VI Exp: the oracle of Delphi [at Delphi] +V.VII: entrusted {to him} [to {him}] +V.VII Exp: which signified either 'a winged dragon,' or 'a ship fastened + with iron nails or bolts.' [signifies ... nails and bolts] +--: explainer of the mysteries of Eleusis [Eleusi] + +VI.I Footnote 3: the purple [purples] +VI.I Exp: unless we should prefer [he] +--: St. Augustine [Augustin] +--: calling their attention to agricultural pursuits [agricultual] +--: had himself taken the figure + _text has "the // the" at page break_ +--: numerous in the interior of Africa [is the] +VI.II: what {I wish} may fall upon herself [what I {wish}] +--: their wonted exercise {of riding} [of {riding}] +VI.III: her suckling breasts [sucking] +VI.IV: after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his + breast [shoulders] + _The Latin reads "... umeroque suas a pectore [or: ad pectora] + postquam / deduxit [or: diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse sinistro". It + is possible to construct a Latin variation that would translate as + "from his shoulders", but editorial or typographic error is a much + likelier explanation._ +VI.IV Exp: Livy and Quintus Curtius [Quintius] +--: Marsyas may have been rash enough [Maryas] +VI.V: beyond what is becoming [his] +VI.VI: forced {from her} [{from} her] +--: from excess of affection [from the excess] +VI.VII Footnote 73: and in the Art of Love [and the Art ...] + +VII.I: {is wont} to increase [is {wont}] +VII.II: a counterfeited quarrel [counterfeit] +--: the guards together with their king [with the king] + _Latin "rege suo"_ +--: they turn away their eyes [they, turning away their eyes] + _Latin "oculosque reflectunt"_ +VII.III Footnote 62: ... This was not Thessalian Tempe + _"w" in "was" invisible_ +VII.III Footnote 69: who was said to have lived there + [who was to have] +VII.III Exp: the young princess perished in the greatest misery + _text has "in / in" at line break_ +--: the account of the women of Cos being changed [accounts] +VII.IV Footnote 75: dragged from Tartarus by Hercules [Herculea] +VII.IV Footnote 86: Anaphe [Anophe] +VII.V Syn: the island of Ægina [islands] +VII.V: the grandson of Asopus says, "Thou askest in vain [asketh] +--: the souls of sons, and of husbands [the souls of the sons] +VII.VI Exp: gave occasion to the report [of the report] +VII.VII Syn: discovering his suspicions [suspicion] +VII.VII: {standing} in the middle [{standiny}] +VII.VIII Exp: as Apollodorus tells us [tell] + + +_Corrections made by McKay, with Bell/Bohn text shown in brackets_ + +III.VI Exp: phenomenon (_two occurrences_) + _Bell spells "phoenomenon" (error for "phænomenon")_ +IV.IV Exp: beloved by Smilax [Simlax] +IV.V heading: + _Bell misprints "Fable IV"_ +IV.VII Exp: Learchus and Melicerta [Melacerta] +V.I Footnote 17: _Now deceived._ [How deceived] + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VI.II Exp: Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie [Clyte] +VI.VI Exp: the ancients thereby portrayed [pourtrayed] +VI.VII Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VII.II Footnote 40: _And his hair._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ + + +_Variations_ + +The readings listed here are "wrong" in the sense that they are +different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they are +acceptable translations of the Latin. The Bell text is shown in +brackets. + +III.II: The Earth, too, scraped with the scales [his scales] +--: nor engage thyself in civil war [a civil war] +--: the youths ... beat with throbbing breast [breasts] +III.III: to bathe her virgin limbs in clear water [the clear water] +III.VIII: in vain try to restrain him [strive] +--: I made observations with my eyes [observation] +IV.I: the Sun, with its rays [his rays] +IV.VII: foam formed in the hollowed deep [hallowed] + _The Latin has at least three variant readings: "in medio ... + profundo", "immenso ... profundo" and "dio profundo". Riley's + translation must have been based on the "dio" (long "i" reading._ +IV.X: the name both of her country and herself + [... of the country and of herself] +V.IV: grasp {in your hand} [{in your hands}] + _the Latin has only the verb "prendere" (grasp)_ +V.VI: thy darts enclosed in a quiver [the quiver] +VI.III: oft to sit on the bank of the pool [often] +VI.V: delay will be tedious to me, and [to me. And] +VI.VI: she prepared for a horrible deed [horrid] +VII.II: to go far thence [afar] + + +_Unusual or Inconsistent Spellings and Name Forms_ + +Dieresis is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as "Phaeton", +"Ocyrrhöe" and "Danäe" are common, and have been silently corrected. +Since the ligatures "æ" and "oe" are used consistently, dieresis can be +assumed even when not explicitly indicated. + +_Unless otherwise noted, comments apply to both texts._ + +III.VIII Footnote 92: the buccanier Morgan +IV.VIII Exp: they beheld stedfastly +V.II, VI.V: villany + +Cæus, Calisto, Lilyboeus, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne + _these forms are used consistently; the original forms are Coeus + (+Koios+), Callisto (+Kallistô+), Lilybæus (+Lilubaios+), Phiale + (+Phialê+), Phrixus (+Phrixos+), Procne (+Proknê+). Note that in the + main text, the name "Callisto" is never used, probably on metrical + grounds._ +Damasicthon, Erectheus _and similar_ + _spellings in "-cth-" used consistently in place of "-chth-"). +Achæa/Achaia; Ethiopia/Æthiopia; Phocea/Phocæa; Proserpine/Proserpina + _both forms occur, with McKay text following Bell in all cases_ + + +_Greek_ + +_Most errors in Greek words can be attributed to a typesetter who did +not know Greek. Errors and omissions in diacritical marks have been +silently corrected; only the more significant errors are listed._ + +I.VII Footnote 47: +en tê era naiein+ [+hira naiein+ (McKay)] +II.XII Footnote 84: +dexai+ [+dezai+ (McKay)] +II.XIV Exp: +Hellôtis+ + _both texts read +Ellôtis+ with smooth breathing_ +III.III Footnote 50: +thoos+ + _both texts read +thous+_ +III.IV Exp: +Panbasileia+ [+Panbasigeia+ (McKay)] +III.VI Footnote 68: +Leirion+ [+Leioion+ (McKay)] +III.VIII Footnote 86: +akoitês+ + _McKay reads +hakoitês+ with rough breathing; both have misplaced + accent_ +III.VIII Footnote 87: +ôlenai+ + _both texts read +ôlênai+; McKay has initial accent for breathing + mark_ +IV.I Footnote 5: +Euoi Bakche, ô Iakche, Iô Bakche, Ouoi saboi+ + _text given as printed; exact form (with consistent capitalization) + is probably +Euoi Bakche, Ô Iakche, Iô Bakche, Ouoi sabai+_ +IV.I Footnote 6: +luein+ [+kuei+ (McKay)] +V.II Footnote 31: +chaire, chaire+ [+chaire, chsire+ (McKay)] +VII.VI Footnote 105: +peleiadai+ + _text unchanged, but intended form is probably +peleiades+_ +VII.VI Exp: +murmêx+ [+murmês+ (McKay)] + + +_Punctuation_ + +_The McKay (Philadelphia) edition sometimes uses double quotes where the +Bell (London) edition used single quotes. These are not individually +noted; neither is variation between colons and semicolons, and random +use of commas. Invisible punctuation at line-end has been supplied from +Bell._ + +_Shared errors and irregularities in punctuation_ + +IV.VII Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._ + _both print "grand-daughter" with anomalous hyphen_ +VI.III: 'Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this altar.... + _This embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor; + each double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied + by a single quote._ + +I.XII Footnote 80: quod amor non est / medicabilis herbis.' +IV.I: our words to our loving ears.' +IV.IV: I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty." +IV.X: {if} preserved by my valor." +IV.X: those snakes which she {thus} produced." +V.II: oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.' +V.II: Let the Nymphs decide the contest." + _close quote missing in all_ + +_Punctuation errors introduced in McKay edition_ + +[Verso of title page] Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + _period invisible_ +[General Introduction] about, ninety miles from Rome + _here and elsewhere, commas are as in the original_ +I.VI Exp: for it repenteth me that I have made them.'" [made them'] + _Bell omits quotes for Biblical citation_ +III.III: Thoüs,[50] [Thoüs,[50],] +IV.II: and he, no longer delaying [and, he,] +--: 'I am he .... thou art pleasing to me.' ['I am .... to me."] +IV.VII: with newly formed wings? [wings!] +V.VI: Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?' + _missing close quote_ +V.VI Exp: a mere fable; [fable!] +VI.II: she says, "What madness is this + _missing open quote_ +--: exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But why victorious? + [enemy, But why v'ctorious?] +VI.III: hold out their little arms from my bosom' + _missing close quote_ +VII.IV Exp: Egyptian notions on the future state of man. [of man,] +VII.V Syn: the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + _invisible hyphen_ +VII.V: says Cephalus:[99] "and I pray + _missing open quote_ +--: not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires." + _missing close quote_ +VII.VI: shall have changed to the South." + _missing close quote_ + + +_Footnote Numbers_ + +_Errors in McKay edition_ + +Bk. I, ll. 516-531 (Fable I.XII) + Footnotes on this page were printed as 66-69 instead of 76-79 + (e-text note numbers 78-81); other pages were not affected. +Bk. IV, note 17*. + The footnote tag was numbered as a second 17; the note itself was + numbered the first of two 18. + +_Adjustments_ + +In the original text-- both editions-- footnote numbers began from 1 in +each Book, and started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books +had duplications in the sequence, usually in the form "17*". In this +e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book, +without duplication; Books I and VII continue past 100. + + Interpolations: + Bk. I: 51*, 67* + Bk. II: 4*, 71* + Bk. III: 72*, 88* + Bk. IV: 17*, 37*, 77* + Bk. V: 46*, 76* + Bk. VI: (no change from original sequence) + Bk. VII: 4*, 73*, 2* (second series) + + +_Line Numbers (printed as page headers)_ + +Line numbers in the McKay edition were generally correct, although +different from those in Bell due to changes in pagination. Some book +numbers in the McKay edition were misprinted: + + [II. 550-564] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 605-632] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 632-651] _printed as Bk. XIV_ + [II. 652-675] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 676-693] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [IV. 233-237] _printed as Bk. I_ + [V. 95-123] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 123-151] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 350-373] _printed as Bk. IV_ + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Metamorphoses of Ovid, by Publius Ovidius Naso + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID *** + +***** This file should be named 21765-8.txt or 21765-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/1/7/6/21765/ + +Produced by Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Metamorphoses of Ovid + Vol. I, Books I-VII + +Author: Publius Ovidius Naso + +Translator: Henry Thomas Riley + +Release Date: June 8, 2007 [EBook #21765] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE METAMORPHOSES OF OVID *** + + + + +Produced by Louise Hope, Steve Schulze and the Online +Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + + [Transcriber's Note: + + This e-text is intended for users whose text readers cannot display + the "real" or Unicode (utf-8) version of the file. Greek words in the + Notes have been transliterated and shown between +marks+. The "oe" + ligature is written as the separate letters "oe". + + In the original text, words and phrases supplied by the translator + were printed in _italics_. In this e-text they are shown in {braces}. + Italics in the notes and commentary are shown conventionally with + _lines_, boldface by =marks=. + + Line numbers from the original Latin poem were printed as headnotes + on each page. For this e-text, only the line numbers of each complete + "Fable" are given. Line numbers used in footnotes are retained from + the original text; these, too, refer to the Latin poem and are + independent of line divisions in the translation. + + Parts of this e-text use material from another edition of the Riley + translation of the _Metamorphoses_: George Bell (London, 1893). + Details are given at the end of the text, before the Errata. Each + segment of the introductory material is individually identified.] + + + + + THE + METAMORPHOSES OF OVID + + Vol. I--Books I-VII + +LITERALLY TRANSLATED WITH NOTES AND EXPLANATIONS + + by + HENRY T. RILEY, M.A. + + With an Introduction by + EDWARD BROOKS, JR. + + + + + Copyright, 1899, By David McKay + + Press Of + Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [From Bell edition.] + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid are a compendium of the Mythological +narratives of ancient Greece and Rome, so ingeniously framed, as to +embrace a large amount of information upon almost every subject +connected with the learning, traditions, manners, and customs of +antiquity, and have afforded a fertile field of investigation to the +learned of the civilized world. To present to the public a faithful +translation of a work, universally esteemed, not only for its varied +information, but as being the masterpiece of one of the greatest Poets +of ancient Rome, is the object of the present volume. + +To render the work, which, from its nature and design, must, of +necessity, be replete with matter of obscure meaning, more inviting +to the scholar, and more intelligible to those who are unversed in +Classical literature, the translation is accompanied with Notes and +Explanations, which, it is believed, will be found to throw considerable +light upon the origin and meaning of some of the traditions of heathen +Mythology. + +In the translation, the text of the Delphin edition has been generally +adopted; and no deviation has been made from it, except in a few +instances, where the reason for such a step is stated in the notes; +at the same time, the texts of Burmann and Gierig have throughout been +carefully consulted. The several editions vary materially in respect to +punctuation; the Translator has consequently used his own discretion in +adopting that which seemed to him the most fully to convey in each +passage the intended meaning of the writer. + +The Metamorphoses of Ovid have been frequently translated into the +English language. On referring to Mr. Bohn's excellent Catalogue of the +Greek and Latin Classics and their Translations, we find that the whole +of the work has been twice translated into English Prose, while five +translations in Verse are there enumerated. A prose version of the +Metamorphoses was published by Joseph Davidson, about the middle of +the last century, which professes to be "as near the original as the +different idioms of the Latin and English will allow;" and to be +"printed for the use of schools, as well as of private gentlemen." A few +moments' perusal of this work will satisfy the reader that it has not +the slightest pretension to be considered a literal translation, while, +by its departure from the strict letter of the author, it has gained +nothing in elegance of diction. It is accompanied by "critical, +historical, geographical, and classical notes in English, from the best +Commentators, both ancient and modern, beside a great number of notes, +entirely new;" but notwithstanding this announcement, these annotations +will be found to be but few in number, and, with some exceptions in the +early part of the volume, to throw very little light on the obscurities +of the text. A fifth edition of this translation was published so +recently as 1822, but without any improvement, beyond the furbishing up +of the old-fashioned language of the original preface. A far more +literal translation of the Metamorphoses is that by John Clarke, which +was first published about the year 1735, and had attained to a seventh +edition in 1779. Although this version may be pronounced very nearly to +fulfil the promise set forth in its title page, of being "as literal as +possible," still, from the singular inelegance of its style, and the +fact of its being couched in the conversational language of the early +part of the last century, and being unaccompanied by any attempt at +explanation, it may safely be pronounced to be ill adapted to the +requirements of the present age. Indeed, it would not, perhaps, be too +much to assert, that, although the translator may, in his own words, +"have done an acceptable service to such gentlemen as are desirous of +regaining or improving the skill they acquired at school," he has, in +many instances, burlesqued rather than translated his author. Some of +the curiosities of his version will be found set forth in the notes; +but, for the purpose of the more readily justifying this assertion, a +few of them are adduced: the word "nitidus" is always rendered "neat," +whether applied to a fish, a cow, a chariot, a laurel, the steps of a +temple, or the art of wrestling. He renders "horridus," "in a rude +pickle;" "virgo" is generally translated "the young lady;" "vir" is +"a gentleman;" "senex" and "senior" are indifferently "the old blade," +"the old fellow," or "the old gentleman;" while "summa arx" is "the very +tip-top." "Misera" is "poor soul;" "exsilio" means "to bounce forth;" +"pellex" is "a miss;" "lumina" are "the peepers;" "turbatum fugere" is +"to scower off in a mighty bustle;" "confundor" is "to be jumbled;" and +"squalidus" is "in a sorry pickle." "Importuna" is "a plaguy baggage;" +"adulterium" is rendered "her pranks;" "ambages" becomes either "a long +rabble of words," "a long-winded detail," or "a tale of a tub;" +"miserabile carmen" is "a dismal ditty;" "increpare hos" is "to rattle +these blades;" "penetralia" means "the parlour;" while "accingere," more +literally than elegantly, is translated "buckle to." "Situs" is "nasty +stuff;" "oscula jungere" is "to tip him a kiss;" "pingue ingenium" is a +circumlocution for "a blockhead;" "anilia instrumenta" are "his old +woman's accoutrements;" and "repetito munere Bacchi" is conveyed to the +sense of the reader as, "they return again to their bottle, and take the +other glass." These are but a specimen of the blemishes which disfigure +the most literal of the English translations of the Metamorphoses. + +In the year 1656, a little volume was published, by J[ohn] B[ulloker,] +entitled "Ovid's Metamorphosis, translated grammatically, and, according +to the propriety of our English tongue, so far as grammar and the verse +will bear, written chiefly for the use of schools, to be used according +to the directions in the preface to the painfull schoolmaster, and more +fully in the book called, 'Ludus Literarius, or the Grammar school, +chap. 8.'" Notwithstanding a title so pretentious, it contains a +translation of no more than the first 567 lines of the first Book, +executed in a fanciful and pedantic manner; and its rarity is now the +only merit of the volume. A literal interlinear translation of the first +Book "on the plan recommended by Mr. Locke," was published in 1839, +which had been already preceded by "a selection from the Metamorphoses +of Ovid, adapted to the Hamiltonian system, by a literal and interlineal +translation," published by James Hamilton, the author of the Hamiltonian +system. This work contains selections only from the first six books, and +consequently embraces but a very small portion of the entire work. + +For the better elucidation of the different fabulous narratives and +allusions, explanations have been added, which are principally derived +from the writings of Herodotus, Apollodorus, Pausanias, Dio Cassius, +Dionysius of Halicarnassus, Strabo, Hyginus, Nonnus, and others of the +historians, philosophers, and mythologists of antiquity. A great number +of these illustrations are collected in the elaborate edition of Ovid, +published by the Abbe Banier, one of the most learned scholars of the +last century; who has, therein, and in his "Explanations of the Fables +of Antiquity," with indefatigable labour and research, culled from the +works of ancient authors, all such information as he considered likely +to throw any light upon the Mythology and history of Greece and Rome. + +This course has been adopted, because it was considered that a statement +of the opinions of contemporary authors would be the most likely to +enable the reader to form his own ideas upon the various subjects +presented to his notice. Indeed, except in two or three instances, space +has been found too limited to allow of more than an occasional reference +to the opinions of modern scholars. Such being the object of the +explanations, the reader will not be surprised at the absence of +critical and lengthened discussions on many of those moot points of +Mythology and early history which have occupied, with no very positive +result, the attention of Niebuhr, Lobeck, Mueller, Buttmann, and many +other scholars of profound learning. + + + + + A SYNOPTICAL VIEW + of the Principal Transformations Mentioned in + THE METAMORPHOSES. + + [From Bell edition, omitting Books VIII-XV.] + + +BOOK I. + +Chaos is divided by the Deity into four Elements: to these their +respective inhabitants are assigned, and man is created from earth and +water. The four Ages follow, and in the last of these the Giants aspire +to the sovereignty of the heavens; being slain by Jupiter, a new race of +men springs up from their blood. These becoming noted for their impiety, +Jupiter not only transforms Lycaon into a wolf, but destroys the whole +race of men and animals by a Deluge, with the exception of Deucalion and +Pyrrha, who, when the waters have abated, renew the human race, by +throwing stones behind them. Other animated beings are produced by heat +and moisture: and, among them, the serpent Python. Phoebus slays him, and +institutes the Pythian games as a memorial of the event, in which the +conquerors are crowned with beech; for as yet the laurel does not exist, +into which Daphne is changed soon after, while flying from Phoebus. On +this taking place, the other rivers repair to her father Peneus, either +to congratulate or to console him; but Inachus is not there, as he is +grieving for his daughter Io, whom Jupiter, having first ravished her, +has changed into a cow. She is entrusted by Juno to the care of Argus; +Mercury having first related to him the transformation of the Nymph +Syrinx into reeds, slays him, on which his eyes are placed by Juno in +the tail of the peacock. Io, having recovered human shape, becomes the +mother of Epaphus. + + +BOOK II. + +Epaphus, having accused Phaeton of falsely asserting that Phoebus is his +father, Phaeton requests Phoebus, as a proof of his affection towards his +child, to allow him the guidance of the chariot of the Sun for one day. +This being granted, the whole earth is set on fire by him, and the +AEthiopians are turned black by the heat. Jupiter strikes Phaeton with a +thunderbolt, and while his sisters and his kinsman Cyenus are lamenting +him, the former are changed into trees, and Cyenus into a swan. On +visiting the earth, that he may repair the damage caused by the +conflagration, Jupiter sees Calisto, and, assuming the form of Diana, he +debauches her. Juno, being enraged, changes Calisto into a bear; and her +own son Arcas being about to pierce her with an arrow, Jupiter places +them both among the Constellations. Juno having complained of this to +Oceanus, is borne back to the heavens by her peacocks, who have so +lately changed their colour; a thing which has also happened to the +raven, which has been lately changed from white to black, he having +refused to listen to the warnings of the crow (who relates the story of +its own transformation, and of that of Nyctimene into an owl), and +having persisted in informing Phoebus of the intrigues of Coronis. Her +son AEsculapius being cut out of the womb of Coronis and carried to the +cave of Chiron the Centaur, Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of Chiron, is changed +into a mare, while she is prophesying. Her father in vain invokes the +assistance of Apollo, for he, in the guise of a shepherd, is tending his +oxen in the country of Elis. He neglecting his herd, Mercury takes the +opportunity of stealing it; after which he changes Battus into a +touchstone, for betraying him. Flying thence, Mercury beholds Herse, the +daughter of Cecrops, and debauches her. Her sister Aglauros, being +envious of her, is changed into a rock. Mercury returns to heaven, on +which Jupiter orders him to drive the herds of Agenor towards the shore; +and then, assuming the form of a bull, he carries Europa over the sea to +the isle of Crete. + + +BOOK III. + +Agenor commands his son Cadmus to seek his sister Europa. While he is +doing this, he slays a dragon in Boeotia; and having sowed its teeth in +the earth, men are produced, with whose assistance he builds the walls +of Thebes. His first cause of grief is the fate of his grandson Actaeon, +who, being changed into a stag, is torn to pieces by his own hounds. +This, however, gives pleasure to Juno, who hates not only Semele, the +daughter of Cadmus, and the favourite of Jupiter, but all the house of +Agenor as well. Assuming the form of Beroe, she contrives the +destruction of Semele by the lightnings of Jupiter; while Bacchus, being +saved alive from his mother's womb, is brought up on the earth. Jupiter +has a discussion with Juno on the relative pleasures of the sexes, and +they agree to refer the question to Tiresias, who has been of both +sexes. He gives his decision in favour of Jupiter, on which Juno +deprives him of sight; and, by way of recompense, Jupiter bestows on him +the gift of prophesy. His first prediction is fulfilled in the case of +Narcissus, who, despising the advances of all females (in whose number +is Echo, who has been transformed into a sound), at last pines away with +love for himself, and is changed into a flower which bears his name. +Pentheus, however, derides the prophet; who predicts his fate, and his +predictions are soon verified; for, on the celebration of the orgies, +Bacchus having assumed a disguise, is brought before him; and having +related to Pentheus the story of the transformation of the Etrurian +sailors into dolphins, he is thrown into prison. On this, Pentheus is +torn in pieces by the Bacchanals, and great respect is afterwards paid +to the rites of Bacchus. + + +BOOK IV. + +Still Alcithoe and her sisters, neglecting the rites, attend to their +spinning, during the festivities, and pass the time in telling stories; +and, among others, that of Pyramus and Thisbe, by whose blood the +mulberry is turned from white to black, and that of the discovery of the +intrigues of Mars and Venus, on the information of the Sun. They also +tell how the Sun assumed the form of Eurynome, that he might enjoy her +daughter Leucothoe; how Clytie, becoming jealous of her sister, was +transformed into a sun-flower; and how Salmacis and Hermaphroditus had +become united into one body. After this, through the agency of Bacchus, +the sisters are transformed into bats, and their webs are changed into +vines. Ino rejoicing at this, Juno, in her hatred and indignation, sends +one of the Furies to her, who causes her to be struck with insanity, on +which she leaps into the sea, with her son Melicerta in her arms; but by +the intercession of Venus, they become sea Deities, and their Sidonian +attendants, who are bewailing them as dead, are changed into rocks. +Cadmus, afflicted at this fresh calamity, retires from Thebes, and flies +to Illyria, together with his wife, where they are both transformed into +serpents. Of those who despise Bacchus, Acrisius alone remains, the +grandfather of Perseus, who, having cut off the head of the Gorgon +Medusa, serpents are produced by her blood. Perseus turns Atlas into a +mountain, and having liberated Andromeda, he changes sea-weed into +coral, and afterwards marries her. + + +BOOK V. + +A tumult arising during the celebration of the nuptials, Phineus claims +Andromeda, who has been betrothed to him; and together with Proetus, he +and Polydectes are turned into stone. Pallas, who has aided Perseus, now +leaves him, and goes to Helicon, to see the fountain of Hippocrene. The +Muses tell her the story of Pyreneus and the Pierides, who were +transformed into magpies after they had repeated various songs on the +subjects of the transformation of the Deities into various forms of +animals; the rape of Proserpine, the wanderings of Ceres, the change of +Cyane into a fountain, of a boy into a lizard, of Ascalaphus into an +owl, of the Sirens into birds in part, of Arethusa into a spring, of +Lyncus into a lynx, and of the invention of agriculture by Triptolemus. + + +BOOK VI. + +Influenced by the example of the Muses, Pallas determines on the +destruction of Arachne. She enters with her into a contest for the +superiority in the art of weaving. Each represents various +transformations on her web, and then Arachne is changed into a spider. +Niobe, however, is not deterred thereby from preferring her own lot to +that of Latona; on account of which, all her children are slain by +Apollo and Diana, and she is changed into a rock. On learning this, +while one person relates the transformation by Latona of the Lycian +rustics into frogs, another calls to mind how Marsyas was flayed by +Apollo. Niobe is lamented by Pelops, whose shoulder is of ivory. To +console the Thebans in their afflictions, ambassadors come from the +adjacent cities. The Athenians alone are absent, as they are attacked by +hordes of barbarians, who are routed by Tereus, who marries Progne, the +daughter of Pandion. Tereus coming a second time to Athens, takes back +with him to his kingdom Philomela, his wife's sister; and having +committed violence on her, with other enormities, he is transformed into +a hoopoe, while Philomela is changed into a nightingale, and Progne +becomes a swallow. Pandion, hearing of these wondrous events dies of +grief. Erectheus succeeds him, whose daughter, Orithyia, is ravished by +Boreas, and by him is the mother of Calais and Zethes, who are of the +number of the Argonauts on the following occasion. + + +BOOK VII. + +Jason, by the aid of Medea, having conquered the bulls that breathe +forth flames, having sowed the teeth of a serpent, from which armed men +are produced, and having lulled the dragon to sleep, recovers the Golden +Fleece. Medea, accompanying Jason to Greece, restores AEson to youth by +the aid of drugs; and promising the same to Pelias, having first, as a +specimen, changed a ram into a lamb, by stratagem she kills him. Passing +through many places made remarkable by various transformations, and +having slain her children, she marries AEgeus, when Theseus returns home, +and narrowly escapes being poisoned by her magic potions. Minos +interrupts the joy of AEgeus on the return of his son, and wages war +against him; having collected troops from all parts, even from Paros, +where Arne has been changed into a jackdaw. Minos endeavours to gain the +alliance of AEacus, who, however, refuses it, and sends the Myrmidons, +(who have been changed into ants from men after a severe pestilence), +under the command of Cephalus to assist AEgeus. Cephalus relates to +Phocus, the son of AEacus, how, being carried off by Aurora and assuming +another shape, he had induced his wife Procris to prove faithless; and +how he had received from her a dog and a javelin, the former of which, +together with a fox, was changed into stone; while the latter, by +inadvertence, caused the death of his wife. + + + + +INTRODUCTION. + + [By Edward Brooks, Jr., from McKay edition.] + +P. Ovidius Naso--commonly known as Ovid--was born at Sulmo, about, +ninety miles from Rome, in the year 43 B.C. His father belonged to an +old equestrian family, and at an early age brought his son to Rome, +where he was educated under the most distinguished masters. Very little +is known of the poet's life, except that which is gathered from his own +writings. After finishing his education at home he visited Athens, in +company with the poet Macer, for the purpose of completing his studies, +and before returning visited the magnificent cities of Asia Minor and +spent nearly a year in Sicily. + +Although as a young man Ovid showed a natural taste and inclination for +poetical composition, he was by no means encouraged to indulge in this +pursuit. His father thought that the profession of law was much more apt +to lead to distinction and political eminence than the vocation of a +poet. He therefore dissuaded his son from writing poetry and urged him +to devote himself to the legal profession. Compliance with his father's +wishes led him to spend much time in the forum, and for a while poetry +was abandoned. Upon attaining his majority, he held several minor +offices of state; but neither his health nor his inclinations would +permit him to perform the duties of public life. Poetry was his love, +and in spite of the strong objections of his father, he resolved to +abandon the law courts and devote himself to a more congenial +occupation. He sought the society of the most distinguished poets of the +day, and his admiration for them amounted almost to reverence. He +numbered among his intimate friends the poets Macer, Propertius, +Ponticus and Bassus, while AEmilius Macer, Virgil's contemporary, used to +read his compositions to him, and even the fastidious Horace, it is +said, occasionally delighted the young man's ear with the charm of his +verse. + +Ovid was married three times. His first wife he married when little more +than a boy, and the union does not seem to have been a happy one, though +it was probably due to no fault of the wife. His second wife seems also +to have been of blameless character, but his love for her was of short +duration. His third wife was a lady of the great Fabian house and a +friend of the Empress Livia. She appears to have been a woman in every +way worthy of the great and lasting love which the poet lavished upon +her to the day of his death. + +Up to the age of fifty Ovid had lived a life of prosperity and +happiness. Though not a wealthy man, his means were such as to permit +him to indulge in the luxuries of refined life, and his attainments as a +poet had surrounded him with a circle of most desirable friends and +admirers. He had even obtained the favor and patronage of the royal +family. About the year 8 A.D. he, however, incurred the great +displeasure of Augustus, and was ordered by him to withdraw from Rome +and dwell in the colony of Tomi, on the shore of the Euxine sea. Leaving +behind him a wife to whom he was devotedly attached he obeyed the edict +of his emperor and entered upon an exile from which he was destined +never to return. He died in banishment at Tomi in the year 18 A.D. + +The exact reason for Ovid's banishment has never been clear, though +there have been many conjectures as to the cause. About two years +previous to his exile Ovid had published a composition which had greatly +displeased Augustus, on account of its immoral tendency. Almost +coincident with this publication was the discovery of the scandal +relating to Julia, daughter of the emperor. It is probable that the +proximity of these two events tended to intensify the imperial +displeasure, and when some time later there was made public the intrigue +of the emperor's granddaughter, the indignation of Augustus gave itself +vent in the banishment of Ovid. + +The writings of Ovid consist of the _Amores_ in three books; the _Heroic +Epistles_, twenty-one in number; the _Ars Amatoria_; the _Remedia +Amoris_; the _Metamorphoses_, in fifteen books; the _Fasti_, in six +books; the _Tristia_, in five books; the _Epistles_, in four books, and +a few minor poems. In the following pages will be found a translation of +the _Metamorphoses_. + + + + + + +THE METAMORPHOSES. + + + + +BOOK THE FIRST. + + +THE ARGUMENT. [I.1-4] + +My design leads me to speak of forms changed into new bodies.[1] Ye +Gods, (for you it was who changed them,) favor my attempts,[2] and bring +down the lengthened narrative from the very beginning of the world, +{even} to my own times.[3] + + [Footnote 1: _Forms changed into new bodies._--Ver. 1. Some + commentators cite these words as an instance of Hypallage as being + used for 'corpora mutata in novas formas,' 'bodies changed into + new forms;' and they fancy that there is a certain beauty in the + circumstance that the proposition of a subject which treats of the + changes and variations of bodies should be framed with a + transposition of words. This supposition is perhaps based rather + on the exuberance of a fanciful imagination than on solid grounds, + as if it is an instance of Hypallage, it is most probably quite + accidental; while the passage may be explained without any + reference to Hypallage, as the word 'forma' is sometimes used to + signify the thing itself; thus the words 'formae deorum' and + 'ferarum' are used to signify 'the Gods,' or 'the wild beasts' + themselves.] + + [Footnote 2: _Favor my attempts._--Ver. 3. This use of the word + 'adspirate' is a metaphor taken from the winds, which, while they + fill the ship's sails, were properly said 'adspirare.' It has been + remarked, with some justice, that this invocation is not + sufficiently long or elaborate for a work of so grave and + dignified a nature as the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 3: _To my own times._--Ver. 4. That is, to the days of + Augustus Caesar.] + + +FABLE I. [I.5-31] + + God reduces Chaos into order. He separates the four elements, and + disposes the several bodies, of which the universe is formed, into + their proper situations. + +At first, the sea, the earth, and the heaven, which covers all things, +were the only face of nature throughout the whole universe, which men +have named Chaos; a rude and undigested mass,[4] and nothing {more} than +an inert weight, and the discordant atoms of things not harmonizing, +heaped together in the same spot. No Sun[5] as yet gave light to the +world; nor did the Moon,[6] by increasing, recover her horns anew. The +Earth did not {as yet} hang in the surrounding air, balanced by its own +weight, nor had Amphitrite[7] stretched out her arms along the +lengthened margin of the coasts. Wherever, too, was the land, there also +was the sea and the air; {and} thus was the earth without firmness, the +sea unnavigable, the air void of light; in no one {of them} did its +{present} form exist. And one was {ever} obstructing the other; because +in the same body the cold was striving with the hot, the moist with the +dry, the soft with the hard, things having weight with {those} devoid of +weight. + +To this discord God and bounteous Nature[8] put an end; for he separated +the earth from the heavens, and the waters from the earth, and +distinguished the clear heavens from the gross atmosphere. And after he +had unravelled these {elements}, and released them from {that} confused +heap, he combined them, {thus} disjoined, in harmonious unison, {each} +in {its proper} place. The element of the vaulted heaven,[9] fiery and +without weight, shone forth, and selected a place for itself in the +highest region; next after it, {both} in lightness and in place, was the +air; the Earth was more weighty than these, and drew {with it} the more +ponderous atoms, and was pressed together by its own gravity. The +encircling waters sank to the lowermost place,[10] and surrounded the +solid globe. + + [Footnote 4: _A rude and undigested mass._--Ver. 7. This is very + similar to the words of the Scriptures, 'And the earth was without + form and void,' Genesis, ch. i. ver. 2.] + + [Footnote 5: _No Sun._--Ver. 10. Titan. The Sun is so called, on + account of his supposed father, Hyperion, who was one of the + Titans. Hyperion is thought to have been the first who, by + assiduous observation, discovered the course of the Sun, Moon, and + other luminaries. By them he regulated the time for the seasons, + and imparted this knowledge to others. Being thus, as it were, the + father of astronomy, he has been feigned by the poets to have been + the father of the Sun and the Moon.] + + [Footnote 6: _The Moon._--Ver. 11. Phoebe. The Moon is so called + from the Greek +phoibos+, 'shining,' and as being the sister of + Phoebus, Apollo, or the Sun.] + + [Footnote 7: _Amphitrite._--Ver. 14. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Doris, and the wife of Neptune, God of the Sea. Being + the Goddess of the Ocean, her name is here used to signify the + ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 8: _Nature._--Ver. 21. 'Natura' is a word often used by + the Poet without any determinate signification, and to its + operations are ascribed all those phenomena which it is found + difficult or impossible to explain upon known and established + principles. In the present instance it may be considered to mean + the invisible agency of the Deity in reducing Chaos into a form of + order and consistency. 'Et' is therefore here, as grammarians term + it, an expositive particle; as if the Poet had said, 'Deus sive + natura,' 'God, or in other words, nature.'] + + [Footnote 9: _The element of the vaulted heaven._--Ver. 26. This + is a periphrasis, signifying the regions of the firmament or upper + air, in which the sun and stars move; which was supposed to be of + the purest fire and the source of all flame. The heavens are + called 'convex,' from being supposed to assume the same shape as + the terrestrial globe which they surround.] + + [Footnote 10: _The lowermost place._--Ver. 31. 'Ultima' must not + be here understood in the presence of 'infima,' or as signifying + 'last,' or 'lowest,' in a strict philosophical sense, for that + would contradict the account of the formation of the world given + by Hesiod, and which is here closely followed by Ovid; indeed, it + would contradict his own words,--'Circumfluus humor coercuit + solidum orbem.' The meaning seems to be, that the waters possess + the lowest place only in respect to the earth whereon we tread, + and not relatively to the terrestrial globe, the supposed centre + of the system, inasmuch as the external surface of the earth in + some places rises considerably, and leaves the water to subside in + channels.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient philosophers, unable to comprehend how something could be + produced out of nothing, supposed a matter pre-existent to the Earth + in its present shape, which afterwards received form and order from + some powerful cause. According to them, God was not the Creator, but + the Architect of the universe, in ranging and disposing the elements + in situations most suitable to their respective qualities. This is the + Chaos so often sung of by the poets, and which Hesiod was the first to + mention. + + It is clear that this system was but a confused and disfigured + tradition of the creation of the world, as mentioned by Moses; and + thus, beneath these fictions, there lies some faint glimmering of + truth. The first two chapters of the book of Genesis will be found to + throw considerable light on the foundation of this Mythological system + of the world's formation. + + Hesiod, the most ancient of the heathen writers who have enlarged upon + this subject, seems to have derived much of his information from the + works of Sanchoniatho, who is supposed to have borrowed his ideas + concerning Chaos from that passage in the second verse of the first + Chapter of Genesis, which mentions the darkness that was spread over + the whole universe--'and darkness was upon the face of the deep'--for + he expresses himself almost in those words. Sanchoniatho lived before + the Trojan war, and professed to have received his information + respecting the original construction of the world from a priest of + 'Jehovah,' named Jerombaal. He wrote in the Phoenician language; but + we have only a translation of his works, by Philo Judaeus, which is by + many supposed to be spurious. It is, however, very probable, that from + him the Greeks borrowed their notions regarding Chaos, which they + mingled with fables of their own invention. + + +FABLE II. [I.32-88] + + After the separation of matter, God gives form and regularity to the + universe; and all other living creatures being produced, Prometheus + moulds earth tempered with water, into a human form, which is animated + by Minerva. + +When thus he, whoever of the Gods he was,[11] had divided the mass {so} +separated, and reduced it, so divided, into {distinct} members; in the +first place, that it might not be unequal on any side, he gathered it up +into the form of a vast globe; then he commanded the sea to be poured +around it, and to grow boisterous with the raging winds, and to surround +the shores of the Earth, encompassed {by it}; he added also springs, and +numerous pools and lakes, and he bounded the rivers as they flowed +downwards, with slanting banks. These, different in {different} places, +are some of them swallowed up[12] by {the Earth} itself; some of them +reach the ocean, and, received in the expanse of waters that take a +freer range, beat against shores instead of banks. + +He commanded the plains,[13] too, to be extended, the valleys to sink +down, the woods to be clothed with green leaves, the craggy mountains to +arise; and, as on the right-hand side,[14] two Zones intersect the +heavens, and as many on the left; {and as} there is a fifth hotter than +these, so did the care of the Deity distinguish this enclosed mass {of +the Earth} by the same number, and as many climates are marked out upon +the Earth. Of these, that which is the middle one[15] is not habitable +on account of the heat; deep snow covers two[16] {of them}. Between +either these he placed as many more,[17] and gave them a temperate +climate, heat being mingled with cold. + +Over these hangs the air, which is heavier than fire, in the same degree +that the weight of water is lighter than the weight of the earth. Here +he ordered vapors, here too, the clouds to take their station; the +thunder, too, to terrify the minds of mortals, and with the lightnings, +the winds that bring on cold. The Contriver of the World did not allow +these indiscriminately to take possession of the sky. Even now, +(although they each of them govern their own blasts in a distinct tract) +they are with great difficulty prevented from rending the world asunder, +so great is the discord of the brothers.[18] Eurus took his way[19] +towards {the rising of} Aurora and the realms of Nabath[20] and Persia, +and the mountain ridges exposed to the rays of the morning. The Evening +star, and the shores which are warm with the setting sun, are bordering +upon Zephyrus.[21] The terrible Boreas invaded Scythia,[22] and the +regions of the North. The opposite quarter is wet with continual clouds, +and the drizzling South Wind.[23] Over these he placed the firmament, +clear and devoid of gravity, and not containing anything of the dregs of +earth. + +Scarcely had he separated all these by fixed limits, when the stars, +which had long lain hid, concealed beneath that mass {of Chaos}, began +to glow through the range of the heavens. And that no region might be +destitute of its own {peculiar} animated beings, the stars and the forms +of the Gods[24] possess the tract of heaven; the waters fell to be +inhabited by the smooth fishes;[25] the Earth received the wild beasts, +{and} the yielding air the birds. + +{But} an animated being, more holy than these, more fitted to receive +higher faculties, and which could rule over the rest,[26] was still +wanting. {Then} Man was formed. Whether it was that the Artificer of all +things, the original of the world in its improved state, framed him from +divine elements;[27] or whether, the Earth, being newly made, and but +lately divided from the lofty aether, still retained some atoms of its +kindred heaven, which, tempered with the waters of the stream, the son +of Iapetus fashioned after the image of the Gods, who rule over all +things. And, whereas other animals bend their looks downwards upon the +Earth, to Man he gave a countenance to look on high and to behold the +heavens, and to raise his face erect to the stars. Thus, that which had +been lately rude earth, and without any regular shape, being changed, +assumed the form of Man, {till then} unknown. + + [Footnote 11: _Whoever of the Gods he was._--Ver. 32. By this + expression the Poet perhaps may intend to intimate that the God + who created the world was some more mighty Divinity than those who + were commonly accounted Deities.] + + [Footnote 12: _Are some of them swallowed up._--Ver. 40. He here + refers to those rivers which, at some distance from their sources, + disappear and continue their course under ground. Such was the + stream of Arethusa, the Lycus in Asia, the Erasinus in Argolis, + the Alpheus in Peloponnesus, the Arcas in Spain, and the Rhone in + France. Most of these, however, after descending into the earth, + appear again and discharge their waters into the sea.] + + [Footnote 13: _He commanded the plains._--Ver. 43. The use here of + the word 'jussit,' signifying 'ordered,' or 'commanded,' is + considered as being remarkably sublime and appropriate, and + serving well to express the ease wherewith an infinitely powerful + Being accomplishes the most difficult works. There is the same + beauty here that was long since remarked by Longinus, one of the + most celebrated critics among the ancients, in the words used by + Moses, 'And God said, Let there be light, and there was light,' + Genesis, ch. i. ver. 3.] + + [Footnote 14: _On the right-hand side._--Ver. 45. The "right hand" + here refers to the northern part of the globe, and the "left hand" + to the southern. He here speaks of the zones. Astronomers have + divided the heavens into five parallel circles. First, the + equinoctial, which lies in the middle, between the poles of the + earth, and obtains its name from the equality of days and nights + on the earth while the sun is in its plane. On each side are the + two tropics, at the distance of 23 deg. 30 min., and described by + the sun when in his greatest declination north and south, or at + the summer and winter solstices. That on the north side of the + equinoctial is called the tropic of Cancer, because the sun + describes it when in that sign of the ecliptic; and that on the + south side is, for a similar reason, called the tropic of + Capricorn. Again, at the distance of 231/2 degrees from the poles + are two other parallels called the polar circles, either because + they are near to the poles, or because, if we suppose the whole + frame of the heavens to turn round on the plane of the + equinoctial, these circles are marked out by the poles of the + ecliptic. By means of these parallels, astronomers have divided + the heavens into four zones or tracks. The whole space between the + two tropics is the middle or torrid zone, which the equinoctial + divides into two equal parts. On each side of this are the + temperate zones, which extend from the tropics to the two polar + circles. And lastly, the portions enclosed by the polar circles + make up the frigid zones. As the planes of these circles produced + till they reached the earth, would also impress similar parallels + upon it, and divide it in the same manner as they divide the + heavens, astronomers have conceived five zones upon the earth, + corresponding to those in the heavens, and bounded by the same + circles.] + + [Footnote 15: _That which is the middle one._--Ver. 49. The + ecliptic in which the sun moves, cuts the equator in two opposite + points, at an angle of 231/2 degrees; and runs obliquely from one + tropic to another, and returns again in a corresponding direction. + Hence, the sun, which in the space of a year, performs the + revolution of this circle, must in that time be twice vertical to + every place in the torrid zone, except directly under the tropics, + and his greatest distance from their zenith at noon, cannot exceed + 47 degrees. Thus his rays being often perpendicular, or nearly so, + and never very oblique, must strike more forcibly, and cause more + intense heat in that spot. Being little acquainted with the extent + and situation of the earth, the ancients believed it + uninhabitable. Modern discovery has shown that this is not the + case as to a considerable part of the torrid zone, though with + some parts of it our acquaintance is still very limited.] + + [Footnote 16: _Deep snow covers two._--Ver. 50. The two polar or + frigid zones. For as the sun never approaches these nearer than + the tropic on that side, and is, during one part of the year, + removed by the additional extent of the whole torrid zone, his + rays must be very oblique and faint, so as to leave these tracts + exposed to almost perpetual cold.] + + [Footnote 17: _He placed as many more._--Ver. 51. The temperate + zones, lying between the torrid and the frigid, partake of the + character of each in a modified degree, and are of a middle + temperature between hot and cold. Here, too, the distinction of + the seasons is manifest. For in either temperate zone, when the + sun is in that tropic, which borders upon it, being nearly + vertical, the heat must be considerable, and produce summer; but + when he is removed to the other tropic by a distance of 47 + degrees, his rays will strike but faintly, and winter will be the + consequence. The intermediate spaces, while he is moving from one + tropic to the other, make spring and autumn.] + + [Footnote 18: _The brothers._--Ver. 60. That is, the winds, who, + according to the Theogony of Hesiod, were the sons of Astreus, the + giant, and Aurora.] + + [Footnote 19: _Eurus took his way._--Ver. 61. The Poet, after + remarking that the air is the proper region of the winds, proceeds + to take notice that God, to prevent them from making havoc of the + creation, subjected them to particular laws, and assigned to each + the quarter whence to direct his blasts. Eurus is the east wind, + being so called from its name, because it blows from the east. As + Aurora, or the morning, was always ushered in by the sun, who + rises eastward, she was supposed to have her habitation in the + eastern quarter of the world; and often, in the language of + ancient poetry, her name signifies the east.] + + [Footnote 20: _The realms of Nabath._--Ver. 61. From Josephus we + learn that Nabath, the son of Ishmael, with his eleven brothers, + took possession of all the country from the river Euphrates to the + Red Sea, and called it Nabathaea. Pliny the Elder and Strabo speak + of the Nabataei as situated between Babylon and Arabia Felix, and + call their capital Petra. Tacitus, in his Annals (Book ii. + ch. 57), speaks of them as having a king. Perhaps the term + 'Nabathaea regna' implies here, generally, the whole of Arabia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Are bordering upon Zephyrus._--Ver. 63. The region + where the sun sets, that is to say, the western part of the world, + was assigned by the ancients to the Zephyrs, or west winds, so + called by a Greek derivation because they cherish and enliven + nature.] + + [Footnote 22: _Boreas invaded Scythia._--Ver. 34. Under the name + of Scythia, the ancients generally comprehended all the countries + situate in the extreme northern regions. 'Septem trio,' meaning + the northern region of the world, is so called from the 'Triones,' + a constellation of seven stars, near the North Pole, known also as + the Ursa Major, or Greater Bear, and among the country people of + our time by the name of Charles's Wain. Boreas, one of the names + of 'Aquilo,' or the 'north wind,' is derived from a Greek word, + signifying 'an eddy.' This name was probably given to it from its + causing whirlwinds occasionally by its violence.] + + [Footnote 23: _The drizzling South Wind._--Ver. 66. The South Wind + is especially called rainy, because, blowing from the + Mediterranean sea on the coast of France and Italy, it generally + brings with it clouds and rain.] + + [Footnote 24: _The forms of the Gods._--Ver. 73. There is some + doubt what the Poet here means by the 'forms of the Gods.' Some + think that the stars are meant, as if it were to be understood + that they are forms of the Gods. But it is most probably only a + poetical expression for the Gods themselves, and he here assigns + the heavens as the habitation of the Gods and the stars; these + last, according to the notion of the Platonic philosophers being + either intelligent beings, or guided and actuated by such.] + + [Footnote 25: _Inhabited by the smooth fishes._--Ver. 74. + 'Cesserunt nitidis habitandae piscibus;' Clarke translates 'fell + to the neat fishes to inhabit.'] + + [Footnote 26: _Could rule over the rest._--Ver. 77. This strongly + brings to mind the words of the Creator, described in the first + chapter of Genesis, ver. 28. 'And God said unto them--_have + dominion_ over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, + and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.'] + + [Footnote 27: _Framed him from divine elements._--Ver. 78. We have + here strong grounds for contending that the ancient philosophers, + and after them the poets, in their account of the creation of the + world followed a tradition that had been copied from the Books of + Moses. The formation of man, in Ovid, as well as in the Book of + Genesis, is the last work of the Creator, and was, for the same + purpose, that man might have dominion over the other animated + works of the creation.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Ovid, as in the book of Genesis, man is the last work of + the Creator. The information derived from Holy Writ is here presented + to us, in a disfigured form. Prometheus, who tempers the earth, and + Minerva, who animates his workmanship, is God, who formed man, and + 'breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.' + + Some writers have labored to prove that this Prometheus, of the + heathen Mythology, was a Scriptural character. Bochart believes him to + have been the same with Magog, mentioned in the book of Genesis. + Prometheus was the son of Iapetus, and Magog was the son of Japhet, + who, according to that learned writer, was identical with Iapetus. He + says, that as Magog went to settle in Scythia, so did Prometheus; as + Magog either invented, or improved, the art of founding metals, and + forging iron, so, according to the heathen poets, did Prometheus. + Diodorus Siculus asserts that Prometheus was the first to teach + mankind how to produce fire from the flint and steel. + + The fable of Prometheus being devoured by an eagle, according to some, + is founded on the name of Magog, which signifies 'a man devoured by + sorrow.' Le Clerc, in his notes on Hesiod, says, that Epimetheus, the + brother of Prometheus, was the same with the Gog of Scripture, the + brother of Magog. Some writers, again, have exerted their ingenuity to + prove that Prometheus is identical with the patriarch Noah. + + +FABLE III. [I.89-112] + + The formation of man is followed by a succession of the four ages of + the world. The first is the Golden Age, during which Innocence and + Justice alone govern the world. + +The Golden Age was first founded, which, without any avenger, of its own +accord, without laws, practised both faith and rectitude. Punishment, +and the fear {of it}, did not exist, and threatening decrees were not +read upon the brazen {tables},[28] fixed up {to view}, nor {yet} did the +suppliant multitude dread the countenance of its judge; but {all} were +in safety without any avenger. The pine-tree, cut from its {native} +mountains, had not yet descended to the flowing waves, that it might +visit a foreign region; and mortals were acquainted with no shores +beyond their own. Not as yet did deep ditches surround the towns; no +trumpets of straightened, or clarions of crooked brass,[29] no helmets, +no swords {then} existed. Without occasion for soldiers, the minds {of +men}, free from care, enjoyed an easy tranquillity. + +The Earth itself, too, in freedom, untouched by the harrow, and wounded +by no ploughshares, of its own accord produced everything; and men, +contented with the food created under no compulsion, gathered the fruit +of the arbute-tree, and the strawberries of the mountain, and cornels, +and blackberries adhering to the prickly bramble-bushes, and acorns +which had fallen from the wide-spreading tree of Jove. {Then} it was an +eternal spring; and the gentle Zephyrs, with their soothing breezes, +cherished the flowers produced without any seed. Soon, too, the Earth +unploughed yielded crops of grain, and the land, without being renewed, +was whitened with the heavy ears of corn. Then, rivers of milk, then, +rivers of nectar were flowing, and the yellow honey was distilled from +the green holm oak. + + [Footnote 28: _Read upon the brazen tables._--Ver. 91. It was the + custom among the Romans to engrave their laws on tables of brass, + and fix them in the Capitol, or some other conspicuous place, that + they might be open to the view of all.] + + [Footnote 29: _Clarions of crooked brass._--Ver. 98. 'Cornu' seems + to have been a general name for the horn or trumpet; whereas the + "tuba" was a straight trumpet, while the 'lituus' was bent into a + spiral shape. Lydus says that the 'lituus' was the sacerdotal + trumpet, and that it was employed by Romulus when he proclaimed + the title of his newly-founded city. Acro says that it was + peculiar to the cavalry, while the 'tuba' belonged to the + infantry. The notes of the 'lituus' are usually described as harsh + and shrill.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The heathen poets had learned, most probably from tradition, that our + first parents lived for some time in peaceful innocence; that, without + tillage, the garden of Eden furnished them with fruit and food in + abundance; and that the animals were submissive to their commands: + that after the fall the ground became unfruitful, and yielded nothing + without labor; and that nature no longer spontaneously acknowledged + man for its master. The more happy days of our first parents they seem + to have styled the Golden Age, each writer being desirous to make his + own country the scene of those times of innocence. The Latin writers, + for instance, have placed in Italy, and under the reign of Saturn and + Janus, events, which, as they really happened, the Scriptures relate + in the histories of Adam and of Noah. + + +FABLE IV. [I.113-150] + + In the Silver Age, men begin not to be so just, nor, consequently, so + happy, as in the Golden Age. In the Brazen Age, which succeeds, they + become yet less virtuous; but their wickedness does not rise to its + highest pitch until the Iron Age, when it makes its appearance in all + its deformity. + +Afterwards (Saturn being driven into the shady realms of Tartarus), the +world was under the sway of Jupiter; {then} the Silver Age succeeded, +inferior to {that of} gold, but more precious than {that of} yellow +brass. Jupiter shortened the duration of the former spring, and divided +the year into four periods by means of winters, and summers, and +unsteady autumns, and short springs. Then, for the first time, did the +parched air glow with sultry heat, and the ice, bound up by the winds, +was pendant. Then, for the first time, did men enter houses; {those} +houses were caverns, and thick shrubs, and twigs fastened together with +bark. Then, for the first time, were the seeds of Ceres buried in long +furrows, and the oxen groaned, pressed by the yoke {of the ploughshare}. + +The Age of Brass succeeded, as the third {in order}, after these; +fiercer in disposition, and more prone to horrible warfare, but yet free +from impiety. The last {Age} was of hard iron. Immediately every species +of crime burst forth, in this age of degenerated tendencies;[30] +modesty, truth, and honor took flight; in their place succeeded fraud, +deceit, treachery, violence, and the cursed hankering for acquisition. +The sailor now spread his sails to the winds, and with these, as yet, he +was but little acquainted; and {the trees}, which had long stood on the +lofty mountains, now, {as} ships bounded[31] through the unknown waves. +The ground, too, hitherto common as the light of the sun and the +breezes, the cautious measurer marked out with his lengthened boundary. + +And not only was the rich soil required to furnish corn and due +sustenance, but men even descended into the entrails of the Earth; and +riches were dug up, the incentives to vice, which the Earth had hidden, +and had removed to the Stygian shades.[32] Then destructive iron came +forth, and gold, more destructive than iron; then War came forth, that +fights through the means of both,[33] and that brandishes in his +blood-stained hands the clattering arms. Men live by rapine; the guest +is not safe from his entertainer, nor the father-in-law from the +son-in-law; good feeling, too, between brothers is a rarity. The husband +is eager for the death of the wife, she {for that} of her husband. +Horrible stepmothers {then} mingle the ghastly wolfsbane; the son +prematurely makes inquiry[34] into the years of his father. Piety lies +vanquished, and the virgin Astraea[35] is the last of the heavenly +{Deities} to abandon the Earth, {now} drenched in slaughter. + + [Footnote 30: _Age of degenerated tendencies._--Ver. 128. 'Vena' + signifies among other things, a vein or track of metal as it lies + in the mine. Literally, 'venae pejoris' signifies 'of inferior + metal.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Now as ships bounded._--Ver. 134. 'Insultavere + carinae.' This line is translated by Clarke, 'The keel-pieces + bounced over unknown waves.'] + + [Footnote 32: _To the Stygian shades._--Ver. 139. That is, in deep + caverns, and towards the centre of the earth; for Styx was feigned + to be a river of the Infernal Regions, situate in the depths of + the earth.] + + [Footnote 33: _Through the means of both._--Ver. 142. Gold forms, + perhaps, more properly the sinews of war than iron. The history of + Philip of Macedon gives a proof of this, as he conquered Greece + more by bribes than the sword, and used to say, that he deemed no + fortress impregnable, where there was a gate large enough to admit + a camel laden with gold.] + + [Footnote 34: _Prematurely makes inquiry._--Ver. 148. Namely, by + inquiring of the magicians and astrologers, that by their skill in + casting nativities, they might inform them the time when their + parents were likely to die, and to leave them their property.] + + [Footnote 35: _Astraea._--Ver. 150. She was the daughter of Astraeus + and Aurora, or of Jupiter and Themis, and was the Goddess of + Justice. On leaving the earth, she was supposed to have taken her + place among the stars as the Constellation of the Virgin.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Poet here informs us, that during the Golden Age, a perpetual + spring reigned on the earth, and that the division of the year into + seasons was not known until the Silver Age. This allusion to Eden is + very generally to be found in the works of the heathen poets. The + Silver Age is succeeded by the Brazen, and that is followed by the + Iron Age, which still continues. The meaning is, that man gradually + degenerated from his primeval innocence, and arrived at that state of + wickedness and impiety, of which the history of all ages, ancient and + modern, presents us with so many lamentable examples. + + The limited nature of their views, and the fact that their exuberant + fancy was the source from which they derived many of their alleged + events, naturally betrayed the ancient writers into great + inconsistencies. For in the Golden Age of Saturn, we find wars waged, + and crimes committed. Saturn expelled his father, and seized his + throne; Jupiter, his son, treated Saturn as he had done his father + Uranus; and Jupiter, in his turn, had to wage war against the Giants, + in their attempt to dispossess him of the heavens. + + +FABLE V. [I.151-162] + + The Giants having attempted to render themselves masters of heaven, + Jupiter buries them under the mountains which they have heaped + together to facilitate their assault; and the Earth, animating their + blood, forms out of it a cruel and fierce generation of men. + +And that the lofty {realms of} aether might not be more safe than the +Earth, they say that the Giants aspired to the sovereignty of Heaven, +and piled the mountains, heaped together, even to the lofty stars. Then +the omnipotent Father, hurling his lightnings, broke through +Olympus,[36] and struck Ossa away from Pelion, that lay beneath it. +While the dreadful carcasses lay overwhelmed beneath their own +structure, they say that the Earth was wet, drenched with the plenteous +blood of her sons, and that she gave life to the warm gore; and that, +lest no memorial of this ruthless race should be surviving, she shaped +them into the form of men. But that generation, too, was a despiser of +the Gods above, and most greedy of ruthless slaughter, and full of +violence: you might see that they derived their origin from blood. + + [Footnote 36: _Olympus._--Ver. 154. Olympus was a mountain between + Thessaly and Macedonia. Pelion was a mountain of Thessaly, towards + the Pelasgic gulf; and Ossa was a mountain between Olympus and + Pelion. These the Giants are said to have heaped one on another, + in order to scale heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The war of the giants, which is here mentioned, is not to be + confounded with that between Jupiter and the Titans, who were + inhabitants of heaven. The fall of the angels, as conveyed by + tradition, probably gave rise to the story of the Titans; while, + perhaps, the building of the tower of Babel may have laid the + foundation of that of the attempt by the giants to reach heaven. + Perhaps, too, the descendants of Cain, who are probably the persons + mentioned in Scripture as the children 'of men' and 'giants,' were the + race depicted under the form of the Giants, and the generation that + sprung from their blood. See Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 2, 4. + + +FABLE VI. [I.163-215] + + Jupiter, having seen the crimes of this impious race of men, calls a + council of the Gods, and determines to destroy the world. + +When the Father {of the Gods}, the son of Saturn, beheld this from his +loftiest height, he groaned aloud; and recalling to memory the polluted +banquet on the table of Lycaon, not yet publicly known, from the crime +being but lately committed, he conceives in his mind vast wrath, and +such as is worthy of Jove, and calls together a council; no delay +detains them, thus summoned. + +There is a way on high,[37] easily seen in a clear sky, and which, +remarkable for its very whiteness, receives the name of the Milky {Way}. +Along this is the way for the Gods above to the abode of the great +Thunderer and his royal palace. On the right and on the left side the +courts of the ennobled Deities[38] are thronged, with open gates. The +{Gods of} lower rank[39] inhabit various places; in front {of the Way}, +the powerful and illustrious inhabitants of Heaven have established +their residence. This is the place which, if boldness may be allowed to +my expression, I should not hesitate to style the palatial residence of +Heaven. When, therefore, the Gods above had taken their seats in the +marble hall of assembly; he himself, elevated on his seat, and leaning +on his sceptre of ivory, three or four times shook the awful locks[40] +of his head, with which he makes the Earth, the Seas, and the Stars to +tremble. Then, after such manner as this, did he open his indignant +lips:-- + +"Not {even} at that time was I more concerned for the empire of the +universe, when each of the snake-footed monsters was endeavoring to lay +his hundred arms on the captured skies. For although that was a +dangerous enemy, yet that war was with but one stock, and sprang from a +single origin. Now must the race of mortals be cut off by me, wherever +Nereus[41] roars on all sides of the earth; {this} I swear by the Rivers +of Hell, that glide in the Stygian grove beneath the earth. All methods +have been already tried; but a wound that admits of no cure, must be cut +away with the knife, that the sound parts may not be corrupted. I have +{as subjects}, Demigods, and I have the rustic Deities, the Nymphs,[42] +and the Fauns, and the Satyrs, and the Sylvans, the inhabitants of the +mountains; these, though as yet, we have not thought them worthy of the +honor of Heaven, let us, at least, permit to inhabit the earth which we +have granted them. And do you, ye Gods of Heaven, believe that they will +be in proper safety, when Lycaon remarkable for his cruelty, has formed +a plot against {even} me, who own and hold sway over the thunder and +yourselves?" + +All shouted their assent aloud, and with ardent zeal they called for +vengeance on one who dared such {crimes}. Thus, when an impious band[43] +{madly} raged to extinguish the Roman name in the blood of Caesar, the +human race was astonished with sudden terror at ruin so universal, and +the whole earth shook with horror. Nor was the affectionate regard, +Augustus, of thy subjects less grateful to thee, than that was to +Jupiter. Who, after he had, by means of his voice and his hand, +suppressed their murmurs, all of them kept silence. Soon as the clamor +had ceased, checked by the authority of their ruler, Jupiter again broke +silence in these words: + +"He, indeed, (dismiss your cares) has suffered {dire} punishment; but +what was the offence and what the retribution, I will inform you. The +report of the iniquity of the age had reached my ears; wishing to find +this not to be the truth, I descended from the top of Olympus, and, +a God in a human shape, I surveyed the earth. 'Twere an endless task to +enumerate how great an amount of guilt was everywhere discovered; the +report itself was below the truth." + + [Footnote 37: _There is a way on high._--Ver. 168. The Poet here + gives a description of the court of heaven; and supposing the + galaxy, or Milky Way, to be the great road to the palace of + Jupiter, places the habitations of the Gods on each side of it, + and adjoining the palace itself. The mythologists also invented a + story, that the Milky Way was a track left in the heavens by the + milk of Juno flowing from the mouth of Hercules, when suckled by + her. Aristotle, however, suspected what has been since confirmed + by the investigations of modern science, that it was formed by the + light of innumerable stars.] + + [Footnote 38: _The ennobled Deities._--Ver. 172. These were the + superior Deities, who formed the privy councillors of Jupiter, and + were called 'Di majorum gentium,' or, 'Di consentes.' Reckoning + Jupiter as one, they were twelve in number, and are enumerated by + Ennius in two limping hexameter lines:-- + + 'Juno, Vesta, Minerva, Ceres, Diana, Venus, Mars, + Mercurius, Jovis, Neptunus, Vulcanus, Apollo.'] + + [Footnote 39: _The Gods of lower rank._--Ver. 173. These were the + 'Dii minorum gentium,' or inferior Deities.] + + [Footnote 40: _Shook the awful locks._--Ver. 179. This awful nod + of Jupiter, the sanction by which he confirms his decrees, is an + idea taken from Homer; by whom it is so vividly depicted at the + end of the first book of the Iliad, that Phidias, in his statue of + that God, admired for the awful majesty of its looks, is said to + have derived his conception of the features from that description. + Virgil has the same idea in the AEneid, book x; 'Annuit, et totum + metu tremefecit Olympum.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Nereus._--Ver. 187. He was one of the most ancient + of the Deities of the sea, and was the son of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 42: _The Nymphs._--Ver. 192. The terrestrial Nymphs were + the Dryads and Hamadryads, who haunting the woods, and the + duration of their existence depending upon the life of particular + trees, derived their name from the Greek word +drus+, 'an oak.' + The Oreades were nymphs who frequented the mountains, while the + Napeae lived in the groves and valleys. There were also Nymphs of + the sea and of the rivers; of which, the Nereids were so called + from their father Nereus, and the Oceanitides, from Oceanus. There + were also the Naiads, or nymphs of the fountains, and many + others.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thus when an impious band._--Ver. 200. It is a + matter of doubt whether he here refers to the conspiracies of + Brutus and Cassius against Julius Caesar, or whether to that + against Augustus, which is mentioned by Suetonius, in the + nineteenth chapter of his History. As Augustus survived the latter + conspiracy, and the parallel is thereby rendered more complete, + probably this is the circumstance here alluded to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is to be presumed, that Ovid here follows the prevailing tradition + of his time; and it is surprising how closely that tradition adheres + to the words of Scripture, relative to the determination of the + Almighty to punish the earth by a deluge, as disclosed in the sixth + chapter of Genesis. The Poet tells us, that the King of heaven calls + the Gods to a grand council, to deliberate upon the punishment of + mankind, in retribution for their wickedness. The words of Scripture + are, "And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, + and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil + continually. And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the + earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the Lord said, 'I will + destroy man, whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man + and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air: for it + repenteth me that I have made them.'" --Genesis, ch. vi. ver. 5, 6, 7. + + Tradition seems to have faithfully carried down the fact, that, amid + this universal corruption, there was still at least one just man, and + here it attributes to Deucalion the merit that belonged to Noah. + + +FABLE VII. [I.216-243] + + Lycaon, king of Arcadia, in order to discover if it is Jupiter himself + who has come to lodge in his palace, orders the body of an hostage, + who had been sent to him, to be dressed and served up at a feast. The + God, as a punishment, changes him into a wolf. + +I had {now} passed Maenalus, to be dreaded for its dens of beasts of +prey, and the pine-groves of cold Lycaeus, together with Cyllene.[44] +After this, I entered the realms and the inhospitable abode of the +Arcadian tyrant, just as the late twilight was bringing on the night. +I gave a signal that a God had come, and the people commenced to pay +their adorations. In the first place, Lycaon derided their pious +supplications. Afterwards, he said, I will make trial, by a plain proof, +whether this is a God, or whether he is a mortal; nor shall the truth +remain a matter of doubt. He then makes preparations to destroy me, when +sunk in sleep, by an unexpected death; this mode of testing the truth +pleases him. And not content with that, with the sword he cuts the +throat of an hostage that had been sent from the nation of the +Molossians,[45] and then softens part of the quivering limbs, in boiling +water, and part he roasts with fire placed beneath. Soon as he had +placed these on the table, I, with avenging flames, overthrew the house +upon the household Gods,[46] worthy of their master. Alarmed, he himself +takes to flight, and having reached the solitude of the country, he +howls aloud, and in vain attempts to speak; his mouth gathers rage from +himself, and through its {usual} desire for slaughter, it is directed +against the sheep, and even still delights in blood. His garments are +changed into hair, his arms into legs; he becomes a wolf, and he still +retains vestiges of his ancient form. His hoariness is still the same, +the same violence {appears} in his features; his eyes are bright as +before; {he is still} the same image of ferocity. + +"Thus fell one house; but one house alone did not deserve to perish; +wherever the earth extends, the savage Erinnys[47] reigns. You would +suppose that men had conspired to be wicked; let all men speedily feel +that vengeance which they deserve to endure, for such is my +determination." + + [Footnote 44: _Together with Cyllene._--Ver. 217. Cyllenus, or + Cyllene, was a mountain of Arcadia, sacred to Mercury, who was + hence called by the poets Cyllenius. Lycaeus was also a mountain of + Arcadia, sacred to Pan, and was covered with groves of + pine-trees.] + + [Footnote 45: _Of the Molossians._--Ver. 226. The Molossi were a + people of Epirus, on the eastern side of the Ambracian gulf. Ovid + here commits a slight anachronism, as the name was derived from + Molossus, the son of Neoptolemus, long after the time of Lycaon. + Besides, as Burmann observes, who could believe that 'wars could + be waged at such an early period between nations so distant as the + Molossi and the Arcadians?' Apollodorus says, that it was a child + of the same country, whose flesh Lycaon set before Jupiter. Other + writers say that it was Nyctimus, the son of Lycaon, or Arcas, his + grandson, that was slain by him.] + + [Footnote 46: _Upon the household Gods._--Ver. 231. This + punishment was awarded to the Penates, or household Gods of + Lycaon, for taking such a miscreant under their protection.] + + [Footnote 47: _The savage Erinnys._--Ver. 241. Erinnys was a + general name given to the Furies by the Greeks. They were three in + number--Alecto, Tisiphone, and Megaera. These were so called, + either from the Greek +eris nou+, 'the discord of the mind,' or + from +en te era naiein+, 'their inhabiting the earth,' watching + the actions of men.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If Ovid is not here committing an anachronism, and making Jupiter, + before the deluge, relate the story of a historical personage, who + existed long after it, the origin of the story of Lycaon must be + sought in the antediluvian narrative. It is just possible that the + guilty Cain may have been the original of Lycaon. The names are not + very dissimilar: they are each mentioned as the first murderer; and + the fact, that Cain murdered Abel at the moment when he was offering + sacrifice to the Almighty, may have given rise to the tradition that + Lycaon had set human flesh before the king of heaven. The Scripture, + too, tells us, that Cain was personally called to account by the + Almighty for his deed of blood. + + The punishment here inflicted on Lycaon was not very dissimilar to + that with which Cain was visited. Cain was sentenced to be a fugitive + and a wanderer on the face of the earth; and such is essentially the + character of the wolf, shunned by both men and animals. Of course, + there are many points to which it is not possible to extend the + parallel. Some of the ancient writers tell us, that there were two + Lycaons, the first of whom was the son of Phoroneus, who reigned in + Arcadia about the time of the patriarch Jacob; and the second, who + succeeded him, polluted the festivals of the Gods by the sacrifice of + the human race; for, having erected an altar to Jupiter, at the city + of Lycosura, he slew human victims on it, whence arose the story + related by the Poet. This solution is given by Pausanias, in his + Arcadica. We are also told by that historian, and by Suidas, that + Lycaon was, notwithstanding, a virtuous prince, the benefactor of his + people, and the promoter of improvement. + + +FABLE VIII. [I.244-312] + + Jupiter, not thinking the punishment of Lycaon sufficient to strike + terror into the rest of mankind, resolves, on account of the universal + corruption, to extirpate them by a universal deluge. + +Some, by their words approve the speech of Jupiter, and give spur to +him, {indignantly} exclaiming; others, by {silent} assent fulfil their +parts. Yet the {entire} destruction of the human race is a cause of +grief to them all, and they inquire what is to be the form of the earth +in future, when destitute of mankind? who is to place frankincense[48] +on the altars? and whether it is his design to give up the nations for a +prey to the wild beasts? The ruler of the Gods forbids them making these +enquiries, to be alarmed (for that the rest should be his care); and he +promises, {that} from a wondrous source {he will raise} a generation +unlike the preceding race. + +And now he was about to scatter his thunder over all lands; but he was +afraid lest, perchance, the sacred aether might catch fire, from so many +flames, and the extended sky might become inflamed. He remembers, too, +that it was in the {decrees of} Fate, that a time should come,[49] at +which the sea, the earth, and the palace of heaven, seized {by the +flames}, should be burned, and the laboriously-wrought fabric of the +universe should be in danger of perishing. The weapons forged by the +hands of the Cyclops are laid aside; a different {mode of} punishment +pleases him: to destroy mankind beneath the waves, and to let loose the +rains from the whole tract of Heaven. At once he shuts the North Wind in +the caverns of AEolus, and {all} those blasts which dispel the clouds +drawn over {the Earth}; and {then} he sends forth the South Wind. With +soaking wings the South Wind flies abroad, having his terrible face +covered with pitchy darkness; his beard {is} loaded with showers, the +water streams down from his hoary locks, clouds gather upon his +forehead, his wings and the folds of his robe[50] drip with wet; and, as +with his broad hand he squeezes the hanging clouds, a crash arises, and +thence showers are poured in torrents from the sky. Iris,[51] the +messenger of Juno, clothed in various colors, collects the waters, and +bears a supply {upwards} to the clouds. + +The standing corn is beaten down, and the expectations of the +husbandman, {now} lamented by him, are ruined, and the labors of a long +year prematurely perish. Nor is the wrath of Jove satisfied with his own +heaven; but {Neptune}, his azure brother, aids him with his auxiliary +waves. He calls together the rivers, which, soon as they had entered the +abode of their ruler, he says, "I must not now employ a lengthened +exhortation; pour forth {all} your might, so the occasion requires. Open +your abodes, and, {each} obstacle removed, give full rein to your +streams." {Thus} he commanded; they return, and open the mouths of their +fountains,[52] and roll on into the ocean with unobstructed course. He +himself struck the Earth with his trident, {on which} it shook, and with +a tremor laid open the sources of its waters. The rivers, breaking out, +rush through the open plains, and bear away, together with the standing +corn, the groves, flocks, men, houses, and temples, together with their +sacred {utensils}. If any house remained, and, not thrown down, was able +to resist ruin so vast, yet the waves, {rising} aloft, covered the roof +of that {house}, and the towers tottered, overwhelmed beneath the +stream. And now sea and land had no mark of distinction; everything now +was ocean; and to that ocean shores were wanting. One man takes +possession of a hill, another sits in a curved boat, and plies the oars +there where he had lately ploughed; another sails over the standing +corn, or the roof of his country-house under water; another catches a +fish on the top of an elm-tree. An anchor (if chance so directs) is +fastened in a green meadow, or the curving keels come in contact with +the vineyards, {now} below them; and where of late the slender goats had +cropped the grass, there unsightly sea-calves are now reposing their +bodies. + +The Nereids wonder at the groves, the cities, and the houses under +water; dolphins get into the woods, and run against the lofty branches, +and beat against the tossed oaks. The wolf swims[53] among the sheep; +the wave carries along the tawny lions; the wave carries along the +tigers. Neither does the powers of his lightning-shock avail the wild +boar, nor his swift legs the stag, {now} borne away. The wandering bird, +too, having long sought for land, where it may be allowed to light, its +wings failing, falls down into the sea. The boundless range of the sea +had overwhelmed the hills, and the stranger waves beat against the +heights of the mountains. The greatest part is carried off by the water: +those whom the water spares, long fastings overcome, through scantiness +of food. + + [Footnote 48: _To place frankincense._--Ver. 249. In those early + ages, corn or wheaten flour, was the customary offering to the + Deities, and not frankincense, which was introduced among the + luxuries of more refined times. Ovid is consequently guilty of an + anachronism here.] + + [Footnote 49: _That a time should come._--Ver. 256. Lactantius + informs us that the Sibyls predicted that the world should perish + by fire. Seneca also, in his consolation to Marcia, and in his + Quaestiones Naturales, mentions the same destined termination of + the present state of the universe. It was a doctrine of the Stoic + philosophers, that the stars were nurtured with moisture, and that + on the cessation of this nourishment the conflagration of the + universe would ensue.] + + [Footnote 50: _The folds of his robe._--Ver. 267. 'Rorant pennae + sinusque,' is quaintly translated by Clarke, 'his wings and the + plaits of his coat drop.'] + + [Footnote 51: _Iris._--Ver. 271. The mention of Iris, the goddess + of the rainbow, in connection with the flood of Deucalion, cannot + fail to remind us of the 'bow set in the cloud, for a token of the + covenant between God and the earth,' on the termination of Noah's + flood.--Gen. x. 14.] + + [Footnote 52: _The mouths of their fountains._--Ver. 281. The + expressions in this line and in line 283, are not unlike the words + of the 11th verse of the 7th chapter of Genesis, 'The fountains of + the great deep were broken up.'] + + [Footnote 53: _The wolf swims._--Ver. 304. One commentator remarks + here, that there was nothing very wonderful in a dead wolf + swimming among the sheep without devouring them. Seneca is, + however, too severe upon our author in saying that he is trifling + here, in troubling himself on so serious an occasion with what + sheep and wolves are doing: for he gravely means to say, that the + beasts of prey are terrified to that degree that they forget their + carnivorous propensities.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias makes mention of five deluges. The two most celebrated + happened in the time of Ogyges, and in that of Deucalion. Of the last + Ovid here speaks; and though that deluge was generally said to have + overflowed Thessaly only, he has evidently adopted in his narrative + the tradition of the universal deluge, which all nations seem to have + preserved. He says, that the sea joined its waters to those falling + from heaven. The words of Scripture are (Genesis, vii. 11), 'All the + fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven + were opened.' In speaking of the top of Parnassus alone being left + uncovered, the tradition here followed by Ovid probably referred to + Mount Ararat, where Noah's ark rested. Noah and his family are + represented by Deucalion and Pyrrha. Both Noah and Deucalion were + saved for their virtuous conduct; when Noah went out of the ark, he + offered solemn sacrifices to God; and Pausanias tells us that + Deucalion, when saved, raised an altar to Jupiter the Liberator. The + Poet tells us, that Deucalion's deluge was to be the last: God + promised the same thing to Noah. Josephus, in his Antiquities, Book + i., tells us, that the history of the universal deluge was written by + Nicolas of Damascus, Berosus, Mnaseas, and other ancient writers, from + whom the Greeks and Romans received it. + + +FABLE IX. [I.313-366] + + Neptune appeases the angry waves; and he commands Triton to sound his + shell, that the sea may retire within its shores, and the rivers + within their banks. Deucalion and Pyrrha are the only persons saved + from the deluge. + +Phocis separates the Aonian[54] from the Actaean region; a fruitful land +while it was a land; but at that time {it had become} a part of the sea, +and a wide plain of sudden waters. There a lofty mountain rises towards +the stars, with two tops, by name Parnassus,[55] and advances beyond the +clouds with its summit. When here Deucalion (for the sea had covered all +other places), borne in a little ship, with the partner of his couch, +{first} rested; they adored the Corycian Nymphs,[56] and the Deities of +the mountain, and the prophetic Themis,[57] who at that time used to +give out oracular responses. No man was there more upright than he, nor +a greater lover of justice, nor was any woman more regardful of the +Deities than she. + +Soon as Jupiter {beholds} the world overflowed by liquid waters, and +sees that but one man remains out of so many thousands of late, and sees +that but one woman remains out of so many thousands of late, both +guiltless, and both worshippers of the Gods, he disperses the clouds; +and the showers being removed by the North Wind, he both lays open the +earth to the heavens, and the heavens to the earth. The rage, too, of +the sea does not continue; and his three-forked trident {now} laid +aside, the ruler of the deep assuages the waters, and calls upon the +azure Triton standing above the deep, and having his shoulders covered +with the native purple shells;[58] and he bids him blow[59] his +resounding trumpet, and, the signal being given, to call back the waves +and the streams. The hollow-wreathed trumpet[60] is taken up by him, +which grows to a {great} width from its lowest twist; the trumpet, +which, soon as it receives the air in the middle of the sea, fills with +its notes the shores lying under either sun. Then, too, as soon as it +touched the lips of the God dripping with his wet beard, and being +blown, sounded the bidden retreat;[61] it was heard by all the waters +both of earth and sea, and stopped all those waters by which it was +heard. Now the sea[62] {again} has a shore; their channels receive the +full rivers; the rivers subside; the hills are seen to come forth. The +ground rises, places increase {in extent} as the waters decrease; and +after a length of time, the woods show their naked tops, and retain the +mud left upon their branches. + +The world was restored; which when Deucalion beheld to be empty, and how +the desolate Earth kept a profound silence, he thus addressed Pyrrha, +with tears bursting forth:--"O sister, O wife, O thou, the only woman +surviving, whom a common origin,[63] and a kindred descent, and +afterwards the marriage tie has united to me, and {whom} now dangers +themselves unite to me; we two are the whole people of the earth, +whatever {both} the East and the West behold; of all the rest, the sea +has taken possession. And even now there is no certain assurance of our +lives; even yet do the clouds terrify my mind. What would now have been +thy feelings, if without me thou hadst been rescued from destruction, +O thou deserving of compassion? In what manner couldst thou have been +able alone to support {this} terror? With whom for a consoler, {to +endure} these sorrows? For I, believe me, my wife, if the sea had only +carried thee off, should have followed thee, and the sea should have +carried me off as well. Oh that I could replace the people {that are +lost} by the arts of my father,[64] and infuse the soul into the moulded +earth! Now the mortal race exists in us two {alone}. Thus it has seemed +good to the Gods, and we remain as {mere} samples of mankind." + + [Footnote 54: _The Aonian._--Ver. 313. Aonia was a mountainous + region of Boeotia; and Actaea was an ancient name of Attica, from + +akte+, the sea-shore.] + + [Footnote 55: _By name Parnassus._--Ver. 317. Mount Parnassus has + two peaks, of which the one was called 'Tichoreum,' and was sacred + to Bacchus; and the other 'Hypampeum,' and was devoted to Apollo + and the Muses.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Corycian Nymphs._--Ver. 320. The Corycian + Nymphs were so called from inhabiting the Corycian cavern in Mount + Parnassus; they were fabled to be the daughters of Plistus, + a river near Delphi. There was another Corycian cave in Cilicia, + in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 57: _The prophetic Themis._--Ver. 321. Themis is said to + have preceded Apollo in giving oracular responses at Delphi. She + was the daughter of Coelus and Terra, and was the first to instruct + men to ask of the Gods that which was lawful and right, whence she + took the name of Themis, which signifies in Greek, 'that which is + just and right.'] + + [Footnote 58: _The native purple shells._--Ver. 332. 'Murex' was + the name of the shell-fish from which the Tyrian purple, so much + valued by the ancients, was procured. Some suppose that the + meaning here is, that Triton had his shoulders tinted with the + purple color of the murex. It is, however, more probable that the + Poet means to say that he had his neck and shoulders studded with + the shells of the murex, perhaps as a substitute for scales.] + + [Footnote 59: _He bids him blow._--Ver. 333. There were several + Tritons, or minor sea gods. The one mentioned here, the chief + Triton, was fabled to be the son of Neptune and Amphitrite, who + always preceded Neptune in his course, and whose arrival he was + wont to proclaim by the sound of his shell. He was usually + represented as swimming, with the upper part of his body + resembling that of a human being, while his lower parts terminated + with the tail of a fish.] + + [Footnote 60: _The hollow-wreathed trumpet._--Ver. 335. The + 'Buccina,' or, as we call it, 'the conch shell,' was a kind of + horn, or trumpet, made out of a shell, called 'buccinum.' It was + sometimes artificially curved, and sometimes straight, retaining + the original form of the shell. The twisted form of the shell was + one of the characteristic features of the trumpet, which, in later + times, was made of horn, wood, or metal, so as to imitate the + shell. It was chiefly used among the Romans, to proclaim the + watches of the day and of the night, which watches were thence + called 'buccina prima,' 'secunda,' etc. It was also blown at + funerals, and at festive entertainments, both before sitting down + to table and after. Macrobius tells us, that Tritons holding + 'buccinae' were fixed on the roof of the temple of Saturn.] + + [Footnote 61: _The bidden retreat._--Ver. 340. 'Canere receptus' + was 'to sound the retreat,' as the signal for the soldiers to + cease fighting, and to resume their march.] + + [Footnote 62: _Now the sea._--Ver. 343. This and the two following + lines are considered as entitled to much praise for their + terseness and brevity, as depicting by their short detached + sentences the instantaneous effect produced by the commands of + Neptune in reducing his dominions to a state of order.] + + [Footnote 63: _A common origin._--Ver. 352. Because Prometheus was + the father of Deucalion and Epimetheus of Pyrrha; Prometheus and + Epimetheus being the sons of Iapetus. It is in an extended sense + that he styles her 'sister,' she being really his cousin.] + + [Footnote 64: _The arts of my father._--Ver. 363. He alludes to + the story of his father, Prometheus, having formed men of clay, + and animated them with fire stolen from heaven.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto, were, perhaps, originally three brothers, + kings of three separate kingdoms. Having been deified each retaining + his sovereignty, they were depicted as having the world divided + between them; the empire of the sea falling to the share of Neptune. + Among his occupations, were those of raising and calming the seas; and + Ovid here represents him as being so employed. + + +FABLE X. [I.367-415] + + Deucalion and Pyrrha re-people the earth by casting stones behind + them, in the manner prescribed by the Goddess Themis, whose oracle + they had consulted. + +He {thus} spoke, and they wept. They resolved to pray to the Deities of +Heaven, and to seek relief through the sacred oracles. There is no +delay; together they repair to the waters of Cephisus,[65] though not +yet clear, yet now cutting their wonted channel. Then, when they have +sprinkled the waters poured on their clothes[66] and their heads, they +turn their steps to the temple of the sacred Goddess, the roof of which +was defiled with foul moss, and whose altars were standing without +fires. Soon as they reached the steps of the temple, each of them fell +prostrate on the ground, and, trembling, gave kisses to the cold +pavement. And thus they said: + +"If the Deities, prevailed upon by just prayers, are to be mollified, if +the wrath of the Gods is to be averted; tell us, O Themis, by what art +the loss of our race is to be repaired, and give thy assistance, O most +gentle {Goddess} to our ruined fortunes." The Goddess was moved, and +gave this response: "Depart from my temple, and cover your heads,[67] +and loosen the garments girt {around you}, and throw behind your backs +the bones of your great mother." For a long time they are amazed; and +Pyrrha is the first by her words to break the silence, and {then} +refuses to obey the commands of the Goddess; and begs her, with +trembling lips, to grant her pardon, and dreads to offend the shades of +her mother by casting her bones. In the meantime they reconsider the +words of the response given, {but} involved in dark obscurity, and they +ponder them among themselves. Upon that, the son of Prometheus soothes +the daughter of Epimetheus with {these} gentle words, and says, "Either +is my discernment fallacious, or the oracles are just, and advise no +sacrilege. The earth is the great mother; I suspect that the stones in +the body of the earth are the bones meant; these we are ordered to throw +behind our backs." Although she, descended from Titan,[68] is moved by +this interpretation of her husband, still her hope is involved in doubt; +so much do they both distrust the advice of heaven; but what harm will +it do to try? + +They go down, and they veil their heads, and ungird their garments, and +cast stones, as ordered, behind their footsteps. The stones (who could +have believed it, but that antiquity is a witness {of the thing?}) began +to lay aside their hardness and their stiffness, and by degrees to +become soft; and when softened, to assume a {new} form. Presently after, +when they were grown larger, a milder nature, too, was conferred on +them, so that some shape of man might be seen {in them}, yet though but +imperfect; and as if from the marble commenced {to be wrought}, not +sufficiently distinct, and very like to rough statues. Yet that part of +them which was humid with any moisture, and earthy, was turned into +{portions adapted for} the use of the body. That which is solid, and +cannot be bent, is changed into bones; that which was just now a vein, +still remains under the same name.[69] And in a little time, by the +interposition of the Gods above, the stones thrown by the hands of the +man, took the shape of a man, and the female {race} was renewed by the +throwing of the woman. Thence are we a hardy generation, and able to +endure fatigue, and we give proofs from what original we are sprung. + + [Footnote 65: _The waters of Cephisus._--Ver. 369. The river + Cephisus rises on Mount Parnassus, and flows near Delphi.] + + [Footnote 66: _Poured on their clothes._--Ver. 371. It was the + custom of the ancients, before entering a temple, either to + sprinkle themselves with water, or to wash the body all over.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cover your heads._--Ver. 382. It was a custom among + the ancients to cover their heads in sacrifice and other acts of + worship, either as a mark of humility, or, according to Plutarch, + that nothing of ill omen might meet their sight, and thereby + interrupt the performance of the rites.] + + [Footnote 68: _Descended from Titan._--Ver. 395. Pyrrha was of the + race of the Titans; for Iapetus, her grandfather, was the son of + Titan and Terra.] + + [Footnote 69: _Under the same name._--Ver. 410. With his usual + propensity for punning, he alludes to the use of the word 'vena,' + as signifying either 'a vein' of the body, or a 'streak' or 'vein' + in stone, according to the context.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + In the reign of Deucalion, king of Thessaly, the course of the river + Peneus was stopped, probably by an earthquake. In the same year so + great a quantity of rain fell, that all Thessaly was overflowed. + Deucalion and some of his subjects fled to Mount Parnassus; where they + remained until the waters abated. The children of those who were + preserved are the stones of which the Poet here speaks. The Fable, + probably, has for its foundation the double meaning of the word + 'Eben,' or 'Aben,' which signifies either 'a stone,' or 'a child.' The + Scholiast on Pindar tells us, too, that the word +laos+, which means + people, formerly also signified 'a stone.' + + The brutal and savage nature of the early races of men may also have + added strength to the tradition that they derived their original from + stones. After the inundation, Deucalion is said to have repaired to + Athens, where he built a temple to Jupiter, and instituted sacrifices + in his honor. Some suppose that Cranaus reigned at Athens when + Deucalion retired thither; though Eusebius informs us it was under the + reign of Cecrops. Deucalion was the son of Prometheus, and his wife + Pyrrha was the daughter of his uncle, Epimetheus. After his death, he + received the honor of a temple, and was worshipped as a Divinity. + + +FABLE XI. [I.416-451] + + The Earth, being warmed by the heat of the sun, produces many + monsters: among others, the serpent Python, which Apollo kills with + his arrows. To establish a memorial of this event, he institutes the + Pythian games, and adopts the surname of Pythius. + +The Earth of her own accord brought forth other animals of different +forms; after that the former moisture was thoroughly heated by the rays +of the sun, and the mud and the wet fens fermented with the heat; and +the fruitful seeds of things nourished by the enlivening soil, as in the +womb of a mother, grew, and, in lapse of time, assumed some {regular} +shape. Thus, when the seven-streamed Nile[70] has forsaken the oozy +fields, and has returned its waters to their ancient channel, and the +fresh mud has been heated with the aethereal sun, the laborers, on +turning up the clods, meet with very many animals, and among them, some +just begun at the very moment of their formation, and some they see +{still} imperfect, and {as yet} destitute of {some} of their limbs; and +often, in the same body, is one part animated, the other part is coarse +earth. For when moisture and heat have been subjected to a due mixture, +they conceive; and all things arise from these two. + +And although fire is the antagonist of heat, {yet} a moist vapor creates +all things, and this discordant concord is suited for generation; when, +therefore, the Earth, covered with mud by the late deluge, was +thoroughly heated by the aethereal sunshine and a penetrating warmth, it +produced species {of creatures} innumerable; and partly restored the +former shapes, and partly gave birth to new monsters. She, indeed, might +have been unwilling, but then she produced thee as well, thou enormous +Python; and thou, unheard-of serpent, wast a {source of} terror to this +new race of men, so vast a part of a mountain didst thou occupy. + +The God that bears the bow, and that had never before used such arms, +but against the deer and the timorous goats, destroyed him, overwhelmed +with a thousand arrows, his quiver being well-nigh exhausted, {as} the +venom oozed forth through the black wounds; and that length of time +might not efface the fame of the deed, he instituted sacred games,[71] +with contests famed {in story}, called "Pythia," from the name of the +serpent {so} conquered. In these, whosoever of the young men conquered +in boxing, in running, or in chariot-racing, received the honor of a +crown of beechen leaves.[72] As yet the laurel existed not, and Phoebus +used to bind his temples, graceful with long hair, with {garlands from} +any tree. + + [Footnote 70: _The seven-streamed Nile._--Ver. 423. The river Nile + discharges itself into the sea by seven mouths. It is remarkable + for its inundations, which happen regularly every year, and + overflow the whole country of Egypt. To this is chiefly owing the + extraordinary fertility of the soil of that country; for when the + waters subside, they leave behind them great quantities of mud, + which, settling upon the land, enrich it, and continually + reinvigorate it.] + + [Footnote 71: _Instituted sacred games._--Ver. 446. Yet Pausanias, + in his Corinthiaca, tells us that they were instituted by + Diomedes; others, again, say by Eurylochus the Thessalian; and + others, by Amphictyon, or Adrastus. The Pythian games were + celebrated near Delphi, on the Crissaean plain, which contained a + race-course, a stadium of 1000 feet in length, and a theatre, in + which the musical contests took place. They were once held at + Athens, by the advice of Demetrius Poliorcetes, because the + AEtolians were in possession of the passes round Delphi. They + were most probably originally a religious ceremonial, and were + perhaps only a musical contest, which consisted in singing a hymn + in honor of the Pythian God, accompanied by the music of the + cithara. In later times, gymnastic and equestrian games and + exercises were introduced there. Previously to the 48th Olympiad, + the Pythian games had been celebrated at the end of every eighth + year; after that period they were held at the end of every fourth + year. When they ceased to be solemnized is unknown; but in the + time of the Emperor Julian they still continued to be held.] + + [Footnote 72: _Crown of beechen leaves._--Ver. 449. This was the + prize which was originally given to the conquerors in the Pythian + games. In later times, as Ovid tells us, the prize of the victor + was a laurel chaplet, together with the palm branch, symbolical of + his victory.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the serpent Python, being explained on philosophical + principles, seems to mean, that the heat of the sun, having dissipated + the noxious exhalations emitted by the receding waters, the reptiles, + which had been produced from the slime left by the flood, immediately + disappeared. + + If, however, we treat this narrative as based on historical facts, it + is probable that the serpent represented some robber who infested the + neighborhood of Parnassus, and molested those who passed that way for + the purpose of offering sacrifice. A prince, either bearing the name + of Apollo, or being a priest of that God, by his destruction liberated + that region from this annoyance. This event gave rise to the + institution of the Pythian games, which were celebrated near Delphi. + Besides the several contests mentioned by Ovid, singing, dancing, and + instrumental music, formed part of the exercises of these games. The + event which Ovid here places soon after the deluge, must have happened + much later, since in the time of Deucalion, the worship of Apollo was + not known at Delphi. The Goddess Themis then delivered oracles there, + which, previously to her time, had been delivered by the Earth. + + +FABLE XII. [I.452-567] + + Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, the daughter of the river Peneus, + she flies from him. He pursues her; on which, the Nymph, imploring the + aid of her father, is changed into a laurel. + +Daphne, the daughter of Peneus, was the first love of Phoebus; whom, not +blind chance, but the vengeful anger of Cupid assigned to him. + +The Delian {God},[73] proud of having lately subdued the serpent, had +seen him bending the bow and drawing the string, and had said, "What +hast thou to do, wanton boy, with gallant arms? Such a burden as that +{better} befits my shoulders; I, who am able to give unerring wounds to +the wild beasts, {wounds} to the enemy, who lately slew with arrows +innumerable the swelling Python, that covered so many acres {of land} +with his pestilential belly. Do thou be contented to excite I know not +what flames with thy torch; and do not lay claim to praises {properly} +my own." + +To him the son of Venus replies, "Let thy bow shoot all things, Phoebus; +my bow {shall shoot} thee; and as much as all animals fall short of +thee, so much is thy glory less than mine." He {thus} said; and cleaving +the air with his beating wings, with activity he stood upon the shady +heights of Parnassus, and drew two weapons out of his arrow-bearing +quiver, of different workmanship; the one repels, the other excites +desire. That which causes {love} is of gold, and is brilliant, with a +sharp point; that which repels it is blunt, and contains lead beneath +the reed. This one the God fixed in the Nymph, the daughter of Peneus, +but with the other he wounded the {very} marrow of Apollo, through his +bones pierced {by the arrow}. Immediately the one is in love; the other +flies from the {very} name of a lover, rejoicing in the recesses of the +woods, and in the spoils of wild beasts taken {in hunting}, and becomes +a rival of the virgin Phoebe. A fillet tied together[74] her hair, put +up without any order. Many a one courted her; she hated all wooers; not +able to endure, and quite unacquainted with man, she traverses the +solitary parts of the woods, and she cares not what Hymen,[75] what +love, {or} what marriage means. Many a time did her father say, "My +daughter, thou owest me a son-in-law;" many a time did her father say, +"My daughter, thou owest me grandchildren." She, utterly abhorring the +nuptial torch,[76] as though a crime, has her beauteous face covered +with the blush of modesty; and clinging to her father's neck, with +caressing arms, she says, "Allow me, my dearest father, to enjoy +perpetual virginity; her father, in times, bygone, granted this to +Diana." + +He indeed complied. But that very beauty forbids thee to be what thou +wishest, and the charms of thy person are an impediment to thy desires. +Phoebus falls in love, and he covets an alliance with Daphne, {now} seen +by him, and what he covets he hopes for, and his own oracles deceive +him; and as the light stubble is burned, when the ears of corn are taken +off, and as hedges are set on fire by the torches, which perchance a +traveller has either held too near them, or has left {there}, now about +the break of day, thus did the God burst into a flame; thus did he burn +throughout his breast, and cherish a fruitless passion with his hopes. +He beholds her hair hanging unadorned upon her neck, and he says, "And +what would {it be} if it were arranged?" He sees her eyes, like stars, +sparkling with fire; he sees her lips, which it is not enough to have +{merely} seen; he praises both her fingers and her hands, and her arms +and her shoulders naked, from beyond the middle; whatever is hidden from +view, he thinks to be still more beauteous. Swifter than the light wind +she flies, and she stops not at these words of his, as he calls her +back: + +"O Nymph, daughter of Peneus, stay, I entreat thee! I am not an enemy +following thee. In this way the lamb {flies} from the wolf; thus the +deer {flies} from the lion; thus the dove flies from the eagle with +trembling wing; {in this way} each {creature flies from} its enemy: love +is the cause of my following thee. Ah! wretched me! shouldst thou fall +on thy face, or should the brambles tear thy legs, that deserve not to +be injured, and should I prove the cause of pain to thee. The places are +rugged, through which thou art {thus} hastening; run more leisurely, +I entreat thee, and restrain thy flight; I myself will follow more +leisurely. And yet, inquire whom thou dost please; I am not an +inhabitant of the mountains, I am not a shepherd; I am not here, in rude +guise,[77] watching the herds or the flocks. Thou knowest not, rash +girl, thou knowest not from whom thou art flying, and therefore it is +that thou dost fly. The Delphian land, Claros and Tenedos,[78] and the +Pataraean palace pays service to me. Jupiter is my sire; by me, what +shall be, what has been, and what is, is disclosed; through me, songs +harmonize with the strings. My own {arrow}, indeed, is unerring; yet one +there is still more unerring than my own, which has made this wound in +my heart, {before} unscathed. The healing art is my discovery, and +throughout the world I am honored as the bearer of help, and the +properties of simples are[79] subjected to me. Ah, wretched me![80] that +love is not to be cured by any herbs; and that those arts which afford +relief to all, are of no avail for their master." + +The daughter of Peneus flies from him, about to say still more, with +timid step, and together with him she leaves his unfinished address. +Then, too, she appeared lovely; the winds exposed her form to view, and +the gusts meeting her fluttered about her garments, as they came in +contact, and the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks; +and {thus}, by her flight, was her beauty increased. But the youthful +God[81] has not patience any longer to waste his blandishments; and as +love urges him on, he follows her steps with hastening pace. As when the +greyhound[82] has seen the hare in the open field, and the one by {the +speed of} his legs pursues his prey, the other {seeks} her safety; the +one is like as if just about to fasten {on the other}, and now, even +now, hopes to catch her, and with nose outstretched plies upon the +footsteps {of the hare}. The other is in doubt whether she is caught +{already}, and is delivered from his very bite, and leaves behind the +mouth {just} touching her. {And} so is the God, and {so} is the +virgin;[83] he swift with hopes, she with fear. + +Yet he that follows, aided by the wings of love, is the swifter, and +denies her {any} rest; and is {now} just at her back as she flies, and +is breathing upon her hair scattered upon her neck. Her strength being +{now} spent, she grows pale, and being quite faint, with the fatigue of +so swift a flight, looking upon the waters of Peneus, she says, "Give +me, my father, thy aid, if you rivers have divine power. Oh Earth, +either yawn {to swallow me}, or by changing it, destroy that form, by +which I have pleased too much, and which causes me to be injured." + +Hardly had she ended her prayer, {when} a heavy torpor seizes her limbs; +{and} her soft breasts are covered with a thin bark. Her hair grows into +green leaves, her arms into branches; her feet, the moment before so +swift, adhere by sluggish roots; a {leafy} canopy overspreads her +features; her elegance alone[84] remains in her. This, too, Phoebus +admires, and placing his right hand upon the stock, he perceives that +the breast still throbs beneath the new bark; and {then}, embracing the +branches as though limbs in his arms, he gives kisses to the wood, {and} +yet the wood shrinks from his kisses. To her the God said: "But since +thou canst not be my wife, at least thou shalt be my tree; my hair, my +lyre,[85] my quiver shall always have thee, oh laurel! Thou shalt be +presented to the Latian chieftains, when the joyous voice of the +soldiers shall sing the song of triumph,[86] and the long procession +shall resort to the Capitol. Thou, the same, shalt stand as a most +faithful guardian at the gate-posts of Augustus before his doors,[87] +and shalt protect the oak placed in the centre; and as my head is {ever} +youthful with unshorn locks, do thou, too, always wear the lasting +honors of thy foliage." + +Paean had ended {his speech}; the laurel nodded assent with its new-made +boughs, and seemed to shake its top just like a head. + + [Footnote 73: _The Delian God._--Ver. 454. Apollo is so called, + from having been born in the Isle of Delos, in the AEgean Sea. The + Peneus was a river of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 74: _A fillet tied together._--Ver. 477. The 'vitta' was + a band encircling the head, and served to confine the tresses of + the hair. It was worn by maidens and by married women also; but + the 'vitta' assumed on the day of marriage was of a different form + from that used by virgins. It was not worn by women of light + character, or even by the 'libertinae,' or female slaves who had + been liberated; so that it was not only deemed an emblem of + chastity, but of freedom also. It was of various colors: white and + purple are mentioned. In the later ages the 'vitta' was sometimes + set with pearls.] + + [Footnote 75: _Hymen._--Ver. 480. Hymen, or Hymenaeus, was one of + the Gods of Marriage; hence the name 'Hymen' was given to the + union of two persons in marriage.] + + [Footnote 76: _The nuptial torch._--Ver. 483. Plutarch tells us, + that it was the custom in the bridal procession to carry five + torches before the bride, on her way to the house of her husband. + Among the Romans, the nuptial torch was lighted at the parental + hearth of the bride, and was borne before her by a boy, whose + parents were alive. The torch was also used at funerals, for the + purpose of lighting the pile, and because funerals were often + nocturnal ceremonies. Hence the expression of Propertius,-- + 'Vivimus inter utramque facem,' 'We are living between the two + torches.' Originally, the 'taedae' seem to have been slips or + lengths of resinous pine wood: while the 'fax' was formed of a + bundle of wooden staves, either bound by a rope drawn round them + in a spiral form, or surrounded by circular bands at equal + distances. They were used by travellers and others, who were + forced to be abroad after sunset; whence the reference in line 493 + to the hedge ignited through the carelessness of the traveller, + who has thrown his torch there on the approach of morning.] + + [Footnote 77: _Here in rude guise._--Ver. 514. 'Non hic armenta + gregesve Horridus observo' is quaintly translated by Clarke, 'I do + not here in a rude pickle watch herds or flocks.'] + + [Footnote 78: _Claros and Tenedos._--Ver. 516. Claros was a city + of Ionia, famed for a temple and oracle of Apollo, and near which + there was a mountain and a grove sacred to him. There was an + island in the Myrtoan Sea of that name, to which some suppose that + reference is here made. Tenedos was an island of the AEgean Sea, in + the neighborhood of Troy. Patara was a city of Lycia, where Apollo + gave oracular responses during six months of the year. It was from + Patara that St. Paul took ship for Phoenicia, Acts, xxi. 1, 2.] + + [Footnote 79: _The properties of simples._--Ver. 522. The first + cultivators of the medical art pretended to nothing beyond an + acquaintance with the medicinal qualities of herbs and simples; it + is not improbable that inasmuch as the vegetable world is + nourished and raised to the surface of the earth in a great degree + by the heat of the sun, a ground was thereby afforded for + allegorically saying that Apollo, or the Sun, was the discoverer + of the healing art.] + + [Footnote 80: _Ah! wretched me!_--Ver. 523. A similar expression + occurs in the Heroides, v. 149, 'Me miseram, quod amor non est + medicabilis herbis.'] + + [Footnote 81: _The youthful God._--Ver. 531. Apollo was always + represented as a youth, and was supposed never to grow old. The + Scholiast on the Thebais of Statius, b. i., v. 694, says, 'The + reason is, because Apollo is the Sun; and because the Sun is fire, + which never grows old.' Perhaps the youthfulness of the Deity is + here mentioned, to account for his ardent pursuit of the flying + damsel.] + + [Footnote 82: _As when the greyhound._--Ver. 533. The comparison + here of the flight of Apollo after Daphne, to that of the + greyhound after the hare, is considered to be very beautifully + drawn, and to give an admirable illustration of the eagerness with + which the God pursues on the one hand, and the anxiety with which + the Nymph endeavors to escape on the other. Pope, in his Windsor + Forest, has evidently imitated this passage, where he describes + the Nymph Lodona pursued by Pan, and transformed into a river. His + words are-- + + 'Not half so swift the trembling doves can fly, + When the fierce eagle cleaves the liquid sky; + Not half so swiftly the fierce eagle moves, + When through the clouds he drives the trembling doves; + As from the God she flew with furious pace, + Or as the God more furious urged the chase. + Now fainting, sinking, pale, the nymph appears; + Now close behind, his sounding steps she hears; + And now his shadow reach'd her as she run, + His shadow lengthened by the setting sun; + And now his shorter breath, with sultry air, + Pants on her neck, and fans her parting hair.' + + The greyhound was probably called 'canis Gallicus,' from having + been originally introduced into Italy from Gaul. 'Vertagus' was + their Gallic name, which we find used by Martial, and Gratian in + his Cynegeticon, ver. 203.] + + [Footnote 83: _And so is the virgin._--Ver. 539. 'Sic Deus et + virgo est' is translated by Clarke, 'So is the God and the young + lady;' indeed, he mostly translates 'virgo,' 'young lady.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Her elegance alone._--Ver. 552. Clarke translates + 'Remanet nitor unus in illa,' 'her neatness alone continues in + her.'] + + [Footnote 85: _My lyre._--Ver. 559. The players of the cithara, + the instrument of Apollo, were crowned with laurel, in the scenic + representations of the stage.] + + [Footnote 86: _The song of triumph._--Ver. 560. The Poet here pays + a compliment to Augustus and the Roman people. The laurel was the + emblem of victory among the Romans. On such occasions the 'fasces' + of the general and the spears and javelins of the soldiers were + wreathed with laurel; and after the time of Julius Caesar, the + Roman general, when triumphing, wore a laurel wreath on his head, + and held a branch of laurel in his hand.] + + [Footnote 87: _Before his doors._--Ver. 562. He here alludes to + the civic crown of oak leaves which, by order of the Senate, was + placed before the gate of the Palatium, where Augustus Caesar + resided, with branches of laurel on either side of it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To explain this Fable, it must be laid down as a principle that there + were originally many Jupiters, and Apollos, and Mercuries, whose + intrigues being, in lapse of time, attributed to but one individual, + that fact accounts for the great number of children which claimed + those respective Gods for their fathers. + + Some prince probably, for whom his love of learning had acquired the + name of Apollo, falling in love with Daphne, pursued her to the brink + of the river Peneus, into which, being accidentally precipitated, she + perished in her lover's sight. Some laurels growing near the spot, + perhaps gave rise to the story of her transformation; or possibly the + etymology of the word 'Daphne,' which in Greek signifies a laurel, was + the foundation of the Fable. Pausanias, however, in his Arcadia, gives + another version of this story. He says that Leucippus, son of Oenomaus, + king of Pisa, falling in love with Daphne, disguised himself in female + apparel, and devoted himself to her service. He soon procured her + friendship and confidence; but Apollo, who was his rival, having + discovered his fraud, one day redoubled the heat of the sun. Daphne + and her companions going to bathe, obliged Leucippus to follow their + example, on which, having discovered his stratagem, they killed him + with the arrows which they carried for the purposes of hunting. + + Diodorus Siculus tells us that Daphne was the same with Manto, the + daughter of Tiresias, who was banished to Delphi, where she delivered + oracles, of the language of which Homer availed himself in the + composition of his poems. The inhabitants of Antioch asserted that the + adventure here narrated happened in the suburbs of their city, which + thence derived its name of Daphne. + + +FABLE XIII. [I.568-600] + + Jupiter, pursuing Io, the daughter of Inachus, covers the earth with + darkness, and ravishes the Nymph. + +There is a grove of Haemonia,[88] which a wood, placed on a craggy rock, +encloses on every side. They call it Tempe;[89] through this the river +Peneus, flowing from the bottom of {mount} Pindus,[90] rolls along with +its foaming waves, and in its mighty fall, gathers clouds that scatter +{a vapor like} thin smoke,[91] and with its spray besprinkles the tops +of the woods, and wearies places, far from near to it, with its noise. +This is the home, this the abode, these are the retreats of the great +river; residing here in a cavern formed by rocks, he gives law to the +waters, and to the Nymphs that inhabit those waters. The rivers of that +country first repair thither, not knowing whether they should +congratulate, or whether console the parent; the poplar-bearing +Spercheus,[92] and the restless Enipeus,[93] the aged Apidanus,[94] the +gentle Amphrysus,[95] and AEas,[96] and, soon after, the other rivers, +which, as their current leads them, carry down into the sea their waves, +wearied by wanderings. Inachus[97] alone is absent, and, hidden in his +deepest cavern, increases his waters with his tears, and in extreme +wretchedness bewails his daughter Io as lost; he knows not whether she +{now} enjoys life, or whether she is among the shades below; but her, +whom he does not find anywhere, he believes to be nowhere, and in his +mind he dreads the worst. + +Jupiter had seen Io as she was returning from her father's stream, and +had said, "O maid, worthy of Jove, and destined to make I know not whom +happy in thy marriage, repair to the shades of this lofty grove (and he +pointed at the shade of the grove) while it is warm, and {while} the Sun +is at his height, in the midst of his course. But if thou art afraid to +enter the lonely abodes of the wild beasts alone, thou shalt enter the +recesses of the groves, safe under the protection of a God, and {that} a +God of no common sort; but {with me}, who hold the sceptre of heaven in +my powerful hand; {me}, who hurl the wandering lightnings--Do not fly +from me;" for {now} she was flying. And now she had left behind the +pastures of Lerna,[98] and the Lircaean plains planted with trees, when +the God covered the earth far and wide with darkness overspreading, and +arrested her flight, and forced her modesty. + + [Footnote 88: _A grove of Haemonia._--Ver. 568. Haemonia was an + ancient name of Thessaly, so called from its king, Haemon, a son of + Pelasgus, and father of Thessalus, from which it received its + later name.] + + [Footnote 89: _Call it Tempe._--Ver. 569. Tempe was a valley of + Thessaly, proverbial for its pleasantness and the beauty of its + scenery. The river Peneus ran through it, but not with the + violence which Ovid here depicts; for AElian tells us that it runs + with a gentle sluggish stream, more like oil than water.] + + [Footnote 90: _Mount Pindus._--Ver. 570. Pindus was a mountain + situate on the confines of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 91: _Like thin smoke._--Ver. 571. He speaks of the + spray, which in the fineness of its particles resembles smoke.] + + [Footnote 92: _Spercheus._--Ver. 579. The Spercheus was a rapid + stream, flowing at the foot of Mount AEta into the Malian Gulf, + and on whose banks many poplars grew.] + + [Footnote 93: _Enipeus._--Ver. 579. The Enipeus rises in Mount + Othrys, and runs through Thessaly. Virgil (Georgics, iv. 468) + calls it 'Altus Enipeus,' the deep Enipeus.] + + [Footnote 94: _Apidanus._--Ver. 580. The Apidanus, receiving the + stream of the Enipeus at Pharsalia, flows into the Peneus. It is + supposed by some commentators to be here called 'senex,' aged, + from the slowness of its tide. But where it unites the Enipeus it + flows with violence, so that it is probably called 'senex,' as + having been known and celebrated by the poets from of old.] + + [Footnote 95: _Amphrysus._--Ver. 580. This river ran through that + part of Thessaly known by the name of Phthiotis.] + + [Footnote 96: _AEas._--Ver. 580. Pliny the Elder (Book iii, ch. 23) + calls this river Aous. It was a small limpid stream, running + through Epirus and Thessaly, and discharging itself into the + Ionian sea.] + + [Footnote 97: _Inachus._--Ver. 583. This was a river of Argolis, + now known as the Naio. It took its rise either in Lycaeus or + Artemisium, mountains of Arcadia. Stephens, however, thinks that + Lycaeus was a mountain of Argolis.] + + [Footnote 98: _Lerna._--Ver. 597. This was a swampy spot on the + Argive territory, where the poets say that the dragon with seven + heads, called Hydra, which was slain by Hercules, had made his + haunt. It is not improbable that the pestilential vapors of this + spot were got rid of by means of its being drained under the + superintendence of Hercules, on which fact the story was founded. + Some commentators, however, suppose the Lerna to have been a + flowing stream.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Greeks frequently embellished their mythology with narratives of + Phoenician or Egyptian origin. The story of Io probably came from + Egypt. Isis was one of the chief divinities of that country, and her + worship naturally passed, with their colonies, into foreign countries. + Greece received it when Inachus went to settle there, and in lapse of + time Isis, under the name of Io, was supposed to have been his + daughter, and the fable was invented which is here narrated by Ovid. + + The Greek authors, Apollodorus, Strabo, Diodorus Siculus, and + Pausanias, say that Io was the daughter of Inachus, the first king of + Argos; that Jupiter carried her away to Crete; and that by her he had + a son named Epaphus, who went to reign in Egypt, whither his mother + accompanied him. They also tell us that she married Apis, or Osiris, + who, after his death, was numbered among the Deities of Egypt by the + name of Serapis. From them we also learn that Juno, being actuated by + jealousy, on the discovery of the intrigue, put Io under the care of + her uncle Argus, a man of great vigilance, but that Jupiter having + slain him, placed his mistress on board of a vessel which had the + figure of a cow at its head; from which circumstance arose the story + of the transformation of Io. The Greek writers also state, that the + Bosphorus, a part of the AEgean sea, derived its name from the passage + of Io in the shape of a cow. + + +FABLE XIV. [I.601-688] + + Jupiter, having changed Io into a cow, to conceal her from the + jealousy of Juno, is obliged to give her to that Goddess, who commits + her to the charge of the watchful Argus. Jupiter sends Mercury with an + injunction to cast Argus into a deep sleep, and to take away his life. + +In the meantime Juno looked down upon the midst of the fields, and +wondering that the fleeting clouds had made the appearance of night +under bright day, she perceived that they were not {the vapors} from a +river, nor were they raised from the moist earth, and {then} she looked +around {to see} where her husband was, as being one who by this time was +full well acquainted with the intrigues of a husband {who had been} so +often detected.[99] After she had found him not in heaven, she said, +"I am either deceived, or I am injured;" and having descended from the +height of heaven, she alighted upon the earth, and commanded the mists +to retire. He had foreseen the approach of his wife, and had changed the +features of the daughter of Inachus into a sleek heifer.[100] As a cow, +too, {she} is beautiful. The daughter of Saturn, though unwillingly, +extols the appearance of the cow; and likewise inquires, whose it is, +and whence, or of what herd it is, as though ignorant of the truth. +Jupiter falsely asserts that it was produced out of the earth, that the +owner may cease to be inquired after. The daughter of Saturn begs her of +him as a gift. What can {he} do? It is a cruel thing to deliver up his +{own} mistress, {and} not to give her up is a cause of suspicion. It is +shame which persuades him on the one hand, love dissuades him on the +other. His shame would have been subdued by his love; but if so trifling +a gift as a cow should be refused to the sharer of his descent and his +couch, she might {well} seem not to be a cow. + +The rival now being given up {to her}, the Goddess did not immediately +lay aside all apprehension; and she was {still} afraid of Jupiter, and +was fearful of her being stolen, until she gave her to Argus, the son of +Aristor, to be kept {by him}. Argus had his head encircled with a +hundred eyes. Two of them used to take rest in their turns, the rest +watched, and used to keep on duty.[101] In whatever manner he stood, he +looked towards Io; although turned away, he {still} used to have Io +before his eyes. In the daytime he suffers her to feed; but when the sun +is below the deep earth, he shuts her up, and ties a cord round her neck +undeserving {of such treatment}. She feeds upon the leaves of the arbute +tree, and bitter herbs, and instead of a bed the unfortunate {animal} +lies upon the earth, that does not always have grass {on it}, and drinks +of muddy streams. And when, too, she was desirous, as a suppliant, to +stretch out her arms to Argus, she had no arms to stretch out to Argus; +and she uttered lowings from her mouth, {when} endeavoring to complain. +And at {this} sound she was terrified, and was affrighted at her own +voice. + +She came, too, to the banks, where she was often wont to sport, the +banks of {her father}, Inachus; and soon as she beheld her new horns in +the water, she was terrified, and, astonished, she recoiled from +herself. The Naiads knew her not, and Inachus himself knew her not, who +she was; but she follows her father, and follows her sisters, and +suffers herself to be touched, and presents herself to them, as they +admire {her}. The aged Inachus held her some grass he had plucked; she +licks his hand, and gives kisses to the palms of her father. Nor does +she restrain her tears; and if only words would follow, she would +implore his aid, and would declare her name and misfortunes. Instead of +words, letters, which her foot traced in the dust, completed the sad +discovery of the transformation of her body. "Ah, wretched me!" exclaims +her father Inachus; and clinging to the horns and the neck of the +snow-white cow, as she wept, he repeats, "Ah, wretched me! and art thou +my daughter, that hast been sought for by me throughout all lands? While +undiscovered, thou wast a lighter grief {to me}, than {now, when} thou +art found. Thou art silent, and no words dost thou return in answer to +mine; thou only heavest sighs from the depth of thy breast, and what +alone thou art able to do, thou answerest in lowings to my words. But I, +in ignorance {of this}, was preparing the bridal chamber, and the +{nuptial} torches for thee; and my chief hope was that of a son-in-law, +my next was that of grandchildren. But now must thou have a mate from +the herd, now, {too}, an offspring of the herd. Nor is it possible for +me to end grief so great by death; but it is a detriment to be a God; +and the gate of death being shut against me, extends my grief to eternal +ages." + +While thus he lamented, the starry Argus removed her away, and carried +the daughter, {thus} taken from her father, to distant pastures. He +himself, at a distance, occupies the lofty top of a mountain, whence, as +he sits, he may look about on all sides. + +Nor can the ruler of the Gods above, any longer endure so great miseries +of the granddaughter of Phoroneus;[102] and he calls his son {Mercury}, +whom the bright Pleiad, {Maia},[103] brought forth, and orders him to +put Argus to death. There is {but} little delay to take wings upon his +feet, and his soporiferous wand[104] in his hand, and a cap for his +hair.[105] After he had put these things in order, the son of Jupiter +leaps down from his father's high abode upon the earth, and there he +takes off his cap, and lays aside his wings; his wand alone was +retained. With this, as a shepherd, he drives some she-goats through the +pathless country, taken up as he passed along, and plays upon oaten +straws joined together. + +The keeper appointed by Juno, charmed by the sound of this new +contrivance, says, "Whoever thou art, thou mayst be seated with me upon +this stone; for, indeed, in no {other} place is the herbage more +abundant for thy flock; and thou seest, too, that the shade is +convenient for the shepherds." The son of Atlas sat down, and with much +talking he occupied the passing day with his discourse, and by playing +upon his joined reeds he tried to overpower his watchful eyes. Yet {the +other} strives hard to overcome soft sleep; and although sleep was +received by a part of his eyes, yet with a part he still keeps watch. He +inquires also (for the pipe had been {but} lately invented) by what +method it had been found out. + + [Footnote 99: _So often detected._--Ver. 606. Clarke translates + 'deprensi toties mariti' by the expression, 'who had been so often + catched in his roguery.'] + + [Footnote 100: _Into a sleek heifer._--Ver. 611. Clarke renders + the words, 'nitentem juvencam,' a neat heifer.] + + [Footnote 101: _To keep on duty._--Ver. 627. 'In statione + manebant.' This is a metaphorical expression, taken from military + affairs, as soldiers in turns relieve each other, and take their + station, when they keep watch and ward.] + + [Footnote 102: _Phoroneus._--Ver. 668. He was the father of Jasius + and of Inachus, the parent of Io. Some accounts, however, say that + Inachus was the father of Phoroneus, and the son of Oceanus.] + + [Footnote 103: _Pleiad Maia._--Ver. 670. Maia was one of the seven + daughters of Atlas, who were styled Pleiaedes after they were + received among the constellations.] + + [Footnote 104: _Soporiferous wand._--Ver. 671. This was the + 'caduceus,' or staff, with which Mercury summoned the souls of the + departed from the shades, induced slumber, and did other offices + pertaining to his capacity as the herald and messenger of Jupiter. + It was represented as an olive branch, wreathed with two snakes. + In time of war, heralds and ambassadors, among the Greeks, carried + a 'caduceus.' It was not used by the Romans.] + + [Footnote 105: _A cap for his hair._--Ver. 672. This was a cap + called 'Petasus.' It had broad brims, and was not unlike the + 'causia,' or Macedonian hat, except that the brims of the latter + were turned up at the sides.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the Metamorphosis of Io has been already enlarged upon in + the Explanation of the preceding Fable. It may, however, not be + irrelevant to observe, that myths, or mythological stories or fables, + are frequently based upon some true history, corrupted by tradition in + lapse of time. The poets, too, giving loose to their fancy in their + love of the marvellous, have still further disfigured the original + story; so that it is in most instances extremely difficult to trace + back the facts to their primitive simplicity, by a satisfactory + explanation of each circumstance attending them, either upon a + philosophical, or an historical principle of solution. + + +FABLE XV. [I.689-712] + + Pan, falling in love with the Nymph Syrinx, she flies from him; on + which he pursues her. Syrinx, arrested in her flight by the waves of + the river Ladon, invokes the aid of her sisters, the Naiads, who + change her into reeds. Pan unites them into an instrument with seven + pipes, which bears the name of the Nymph. + +Then the God says, "In the cold mountains of Arcadia, among the +Hamadryads of Nonacris,[106] there was one Naiad very famous; the Nymphs +called her Syrinx. And not once {alone} had she escaped the Satyrs as +they pursued, and whatever Gods either the shady grove or the fruitful +fields have {in them}. In her pursuits and her virginity itself she used +to devote herself to the Ortygian Goddess;[107] and being clothed after +the fashion of Diana, she might have deceived one, and might have been +supposed to be the daughter of Latona, if she had not had a bow of +cornel wood, the other, {a bow} of gold; and even then did she +{sometimes} deceive {people}. Pan spies her as she is returning from the +hill of Lycaeus, and having his head crowned with sharp pine leaves, he +utters such words as these;" it remained {for Mercury} to repeat the +words, and how that the Nymph, slighting his suit, fled through pathless +spots, until she came to the gentle stream of sandy Ladon;[108] and that +here, the waters stopping her course, she prayed to her watery sisters, +that they would change her; and {how} that Pan, when he was thinking +that Syrinx was now caught by him, had seized hold of some reeds of the +marsh, instead of the body of the Nymph; and {how}, while he was sighing +there, the winds moving amid the reeds had made a murmuring noise, and +like one complaining; and {how} that, charmed by this new discovery and +the sweetness of the sound, he had said, "This mode of converse with +thee shall ever remain with me;" and that accordingly, unequal reeds +being stuck together among themselves by a cement of wax, had {since} +retained the name of the damsel. + + [Footnote 106: _Nonacris._--Ver. 690. Nonacris was the name of + both a mountain and a city of Arcadia, in the Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 107: _The Ortygian Goddess._--Ver. 694. Diana is called + "Ortygian," from the isle of Delos, where she was born, one of + whose names was Ortygia, from the quantity of quails, +ortuges+, + there found.] + + [Footnote 108: _Ladon._--Ver. 702. This was a beautiful river of + Arcadia, flowing into the Alpheus: its banks were covered with + vast quantities of reeds. Ovid here calls its stream 'placidum;' + whereas in the fifth book of the Fasti, l. 89, he calls it + 'rapax,' 'violent;' and in the second book of the Fasti, l. 274, + its waters are said to be 'citae aquae,' swift waters. Some + commentators have endeavored to reconcile these discrepancies; but + the probability is, that Ovid, like many other poets, used his + epithets at random, or rather according to the requirements of the + measure for the occasion.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This appears to have been an Egyptian fable, imported into the works + of the Grecian poets. Pan was probably a Divinity of the Egyptians, + who worshipped nature under that name, as we are told by Herodotus and + Diodorus Siculus. As, however, according to Nonnus, there were not + less than twelve Pans, it is possible that the adventure here related + may have been supposed to have happened to one of them who was a + native of Greece. He was most probably the inventor of the Syrinx, or + Pandaean pipe, and, perhaps, formed his first instrument from the + produce of the banks of the River Ladon, from which circumstance + Syrinx may have been styled the daughter of that river. + + +FABLE XVI. [I.713-723] + + Mercury, having lulled Argus to sleep, cuts off his head, and Juno + places his eyes in the peacock's tail. + +The Cyllenian God[109] being about to say such things, perceived that +all his eyes were sunk in sleep, and that his sight was wrapped[110] in +slumber. At once he puts an end to his song, and strengthens his +slumbers, stroking his languid eyes with his magic wand. There is no +delay; he wounds him, as he nods, with his crooked sword, where the head +is joined to the neck; and casts him, all blood-stained, from the rock, +and stains the craggy cliff with his gore. + +Argus, thou liest low, and the light which thou hadst in so many eyes is +{now} extinguished; and one night takes possession of a {whole} hundred +eyes. The daughter of Saturn takes them, and places them on the feathers +of her own bird, and she fills its tail with starry gems. + + [Footnote 109: _The Cyllenian God._--Ver. 713. Mercury is so + called from Cyllene, in Arcadia, where he was born.] + + [Footnote 110: _That his sight was wrapped._--Ver. 714. Clarke + translates 'Adopertaque lumina somno,' 'and his peepers covered + with sleep.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancient writers, Asclepiades and Pherecydes, tell us, that Argus + was the son of Arestor. He is supposed by some to have been the fourth + king of Argos after Inachus, and to have been a person of great wisdom + and penetration, on account of which he was said to have a hundred + eyes. Io most probably was committed to his charge, and he watched + over her with the greatest care. + + It is impossible to divine the reason why his eyes were said to have + been set by Juno in the tail of the peacock; though, perhaps, the + circumstance has no other foundation than the resemblance of the human + eye to the spots in the tail of that bird, which was consecrated to + Juno. Besides, if Juno is to be considered the symbol of Air, or + AEther, through which light is transmitted to us, it is not surprising + that the ancients bestowed so many eyes upon the bird which was + consecrated to her. + + +FABLE XVII. [I.724-779] + + Io, terrified and maddened with dreadful visions, runs over many + regions, and stops in Egypt, when Juno, at length, being pacified, + restores her to her former shape, and permits her to be worshipped + there, under the name of Isis. + +Immediately, she was inflamed with rage, and deferred not the time of +{expressing} her wrath; and she presented a dreadful Fury before the +eyes and thoughts of the Argive mistress,[111] and buried in her bosom +invisible stings, and drove her, in her fright, a wanderer through the +whole earth. Thou, O Nile, didst remain, as the utmost boundary of her +long wanderings. Soon as she arrived there, she fell upon her knees, +placed on the edge of the bank, and raising herself up, with her neck +thrown back, and casting to Heaven those looks which then alone she +could, by her groans, and her tears, and her mournful lowing, she seemed +to be complaining of Jupiter, and to be begging an end of her sorrows. + +He, embracing the neck of his wife with his arms, entreats her, at +length, to put an end to her punishment; and he says, "Lay aside thy +fears for the future; she shall never {more} be the occasion of any +trouble to thee;" and {then} he bids the Stygian waters to hear this +{oath}. As soon as the Goddess is pacified, {Io} receives her former +shape, and she becomes what she was before; the hairs flee from off of +her body, her horns decrease, and the orb of her eye becomes less; the +opening of her jaw is contracted; her shoulders and her hands return, +and her hoof, vanishing, is disposed of into five nails; nothing of the +cow remains to her, but the whiteness of her appearance; and the Nymph, +contented with the service of two feet, is raised erect {on them}; and +{yet} she is afraid to speak, lest she should low like a cow, and +timorously tries again the words {so long} interrupted. Now, as a +Goddess, she is worshipped by the linen-wearing throng[112] {of Egypt}. + +To her, at length, Epaphus[113] is believed to have been born from the +seed of great Jove, and throughout the cities he possesses temples +joined to {those of} his parent. Phaeton, sprung from the Sun, was equal +to him in spirit and in years; whom formerly, as he uttered great +boasts, and yielded not {at all} to him, and proud of his father, +Phoebus, the grandson of Inachus could not endure; and said, "Thou, +{like} a madman, believest thy mother in all things, and art puffed up +with the conceit of an imaginary father." + +Phaeton blushed, and in shame repressed his resentment; and he reported +to his mother, Clymene,[114] the reproaches of Epaphus; and said, +"Mother, to grieve thee still more, I, the free, the bold {youth}, was +silent; I am ashamed both that these reproaches can be uttered against +us, and that they cannot be refuted; but do thou, if only I am born of a +divine race, give me some proof of so great a descent, and claim me for +heaven." {Thus} he spoke, and threw his arms around the neck of his +mother; and besought her, by his own head and by that of Merops,[115] +and by the nuptial torches of his sisters, that she would give him some +token of his real father. + +It is a matter of doubt whether Clymene was more moved by the entreaties +of Phaeton, or by resentment at the charge made against her; and she +raised both her arms to heaven, and, looking up to the light of the Sun, +she said, "Son, I swear to thee, by this beam, bright with shining rays, +which both hears and sees us, that thou, that thou, {I say}, wast +begotten by this Sun, which thou beholdest; by this {Sun}, which governs +the world. If I utter an untruth, let him deny himself to be seen by me, +and let this light prove the last for my eyes. Nor will it be any +prolonged trouble for thee to visit thy father's dwelling; the abode +where he arises is contiguous to our regions.[116] If only thy +inclination disposes thee, go forth, and thou shalt inquire of himself." + +Phaeton immediately springs forth, overjoyed, upon these words of his +mother, and reaches the skies in imagination; and he passes by his own +AEthiopians, and the Indians situate beneath the rays of the Sun,[117] +and briskly wends his way to the rising of his sire. + + [Footnote 111: _The Argive mistress._--Ver. 726. Clarke renders + 'Pellicis Argolicae,' 'of the Grecian miss.'] + + [Footnote 112: _The linen-wearing throng._--Ver. 747. The priests, + and worshippers of Isis, with whom Io is here said to be + identical, paid their adoration to her clothed in linen vestments. + Probably, Isis was the first to teach the Egyptians the + cultivation of flax.] + + [Footnote 113: _Epaphus._--Ver. 748. Herodotus, in his second + book, tells us, that this son of Jupiter, by Io, was the same as + the Egyptian God, Apis. Eusebius, quoting from Apollodorus, says + that Epaphus was the son of Io, by Telegonus, who married her.] + + [Footnote 114: _Clymene._--Ver. 756. She was a Nymph of the sea, + the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 115: _Merops._--Ver. 763. He was king of Ethiopia, and + marrying the Nymph Clymene, was either the stepfather of Phaeton, + or, as some writers say, his putative father.] + + [Footnote 116: _To our regions._--Ver. 773. Ethiopia, which, in + the time of Ovid, was generally looked upon as one of the regions + of the East.] + + [Footnote 117: _The rays of the Sun._--Ver. 778. 'Ignibus + sidereis,' means here the 'heat,' or 'fire of the sun,' the sun + being considered as a 'sidus,' or 'luminous heavenly body.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To the elucidation of this narrative, already given, we will only add, + that some of the mythologists inform us, that when Mercury had lulled + Argus to sleep, a youth named Hierax awoke him; on which Mercury + killed Argus with a stone, and turned Hierax into a spar-hawk. + + + + +BOOK THE SECOND. + + +FABLE I. [II.1-303] + + Phaeton, insulted by Epaphus, goes to the Palace of Apollo, to beseech + him to give some token that he is his son. Apollo, having sworn, by + the river Styx, to refuse him nothing that he should desire, he + immediately asks to guide his chariot for one day. He is unsuccessful + in the attempt, and, the horses running away, the world is in danger + of being consumed. + +The palace of the Sun was raised high, on stately columns, bright with +radiant gold, and carbuncle that rivals the flames; polished ivory +covered its highest top, {and} double folding doors shone with the +brightness of silver. The workmanship {even} exceeded the material; for +there Mulciber had carved the sea circling round the encompassed Earth; +and the orb of the Earth, and the Heavens which hang over that orb. +{There} the waves have {in them} the azure Deities, both Triton, +sounding {with his shell}, and the changing Proteus, and AEgeon,[1] +pressing the huge backs of whales with his arms; Doris,[2] too, and her +daughters, part of whom appear to be swimming, part, sitting on the +bank, to be drying their green hair; some {are seen} borne upon fishes. +The features in all are not the same, nor, however, {remarkably} +different: {they are} such as those of sisters ought to be. The Earth +has {upon it} men and cities, and woods, and wild beasts, and rivers, +and Nymphs, and other Deities of the country. Over these is placed the +figure of the shining Heaven, and there are six Signs {of the Zodiac} on +the right door, and as many on the left. + +Soon as the son of Clymene had arrived thither by an ascending path, +and entered the house of his parent, {thus} doubted of; he immediately +turned his steps to the presence of his father, and stood at a distance, +for he could not bear the refulgence nearer. Arrayed in a purple +garment, Phoebus was seated on a throne sparkling with brilliant +emeralds. On his right hand, and on his left, the Days, the Months, +the Years, the Ages, and the Hours were arranged, at corresponding +distances, and the fresh Spring was standing, crowned with a chaplet of +blossoms; Summer was standing naked, and wearing garlands made of ears +of corn; Autumn, too, was standing besmeared with the trodden-out +grapes; and icy Winter, rough with his hoary hair. + +Then the Sun, from the midst of this place, with those eyes with which +he beholds all things, sees the young man struck with fear at the +novelty of {these} things, and says, "What is the occasion of thy +journey {hither}? What dost thou seek, Phaeton, in this {my} palace, +a son not to be denied by his parent?" + +He answers, "O thou universal Light of the unbounded World, Phoebus, my +father, if thou grantest me the use of that name; and if Clymene is not +concealing an error under a {false} pretext, give me, my parent, some +token, by which I may be believed to be really thy progeny; and remove +this uncertainty from my mind." Thus he spoke; but his parent took off +the rays shining all around his head, and commanded him to come nearer; +and, having embraced him, he says, "{And} neither art thou deserving to +be denied to be mine, and Clymene has told thee thy true origin; and +that thou mayst have the less doubt, ask any gift thou mayst please, +that thou mayst receive it from me bestowing it. Let the lake, by which +the Gods are wont to swear, and which is unseen, {even} by my eyes, be +as a witness of my promise." + +Hardly had he well finished, when he asks for his father's chariot, and +for the command and guidance of the wing-footed horses for one day. His +father repented that he had {so} sworn, and shaking his splendid head +three or four times, he said, "By thine have my words been made rash. +I wish I were allowed not to grant what I have promised! I confess, my +son, that this alone I would deny thee. {Still}, I may dissuade thee: +thy desire is not attended with safety. Thou desirest, Phaeton, a gift +{too} great, and {one} which is suited neither to thy strength, nor to +such youthful years. Thy lot is that of a mortal; that which thou +desirest, belongs not to mortals. {Nay}, thou aimest, in thy ignorance, +at even more than it is allowed the Gods above to obtain. Let every one +be self-satisfied, {if he likes}; still, with the exception of myself, +no one is able to take his stand upon the fire-bearing axle-tree. Even +the Ruler of vast Olympus, who hurls the ruthless bolts with his +terrific right hand, cannot guide this chariot; and {yet}, what have we +greater than Jupiter? The first {part of the} road is steep, and such as +the horses, {though} fresh in the morning, can hardly climb. In the +middle of the heavens it is high aloft, from whence it is often a +{source of} fear, {even} to myself, to look {down} upon the sea and the +earth, and my breast trembles with fearful apprehensions. The last stage +is a steep descent, and requires a sure command {of the horses}. Then, +too, Tethys[3] herself, who receives me in her waves, extended below, is +often wont to fear, lest I should be borne headlong {from above}. +Besides, the heavens are carried round[4] with a constant rotation, and +carry {with them} the lofty stars, and whirl them with rapid revolution. +Against this I have to contend; and that force which overcomes {all} +other things, {does} not {overcome} me; and I am carried in a contrary +direction to the rapid world. Suppose the chariot given {to thee}; what +couldst thou do? Couldst thou proceed, opposed to the whirling poles, so +that the rapid heavens should not carry thee away? Perhaps, too, thou +dost fancy in thy mind that there are groves, and cities of the Gods, +and temples enriched with gifts; {whereas}, the way is through dangers, +and the forms of wild beasts;[5] and though thou shouldst keep on thy +road, and be drawn aside by no wanderings, still thou must pass amid the +horns of the threatening Bull, and the Haemonian[6] bow, and {before} the +visage of the raging Lion, and the Scorpion, bending his cruel claws +with a wide compass, and the Crab, that bends his claws in a different +manner; nor is it easy for thee to govern the steeds spirited by those +fires which they have in their breasts, and which they breathe forth +from their mouths and their nostrils. Hardly are they restrained by me, +when their high-mettled spirit is {once} heated, and their necks +struggle against the reins. But do thou have a care, my son, that I be +not the occasion of a gift fatal to thee, and while the matter {still} +permits, alter thy intentions. Thou askest, forsooth, a sure proof that +thou mayst believe thyself sprung from my blood? I give thee a sure +proof in {thus} being alarmed {for thee}; and by my paternal +apprehensions, I am shown to be thy father. Lo, behold my countenance! +I wish, too, that thou couldst direct thy eyes into my breast, and +discover my fatherly concern within! Finally, look around thee, upon +whatever the rich world contains, and ask for anything out of the +blessings, so many and so great, of heaven, of earth, and of sea; {and} +thou shalt suffer no denial. In this one thing alone I beg to be +excused, which, {called} by its right name, is a penalty, and not an +honor; thou art asking, Phaeton, a punishment instead of a gift. Why, in +thy ignorance, art thou embracing my neck with caressing arms? Doubt +not; whatever thou shalt desire shall be granted thee (by the Stygian +waves I have sworn it); but do thou make thy desire more considerately." + +He had finished his admonitions; and yet {Phaeton} resists his advice, +and presses his point, and burns with eagerness for the chariot. +Wherefore, his parent having delayed as long as he could, leads the +young man to the lofty chariot, the gift of Vulcan. The axle-tree was of +gold, the poles were of gold; the circumference of the exterior of the +wheel was of gold; the range of the spokes was of silver. Chrysolites +and gems placed along the yoke in order, gave a bright light from the +reflected sun. And while the aspiring Phaeton is admiring these things, +and is examining the workmanship, behold! the watchful Aurora opened her +purple doors in the ruddy east, and her halls filled with roses. The +stars disappear, the troops whereof Lucifer gathers, and moves the last +from his station in the heavens. But the father Titan, when he beheld +the earth and the universe growing red, and the horns of the far-distant +Moon, as if about to vanish, orders the swift Hours to yoke the horses. +The Goddesses speedily perform his commands, and lead forth the steeds +from the lofty stalls, snorting forth flames, and filled with the juice +of Ambrosia; and {then} they put on the sounding bits. + +Then the father touched the face of his son with a hallowed drug, and +made it able to endure the burning flames, and placed the rays upon his +locks, and fetching from his troubled heart sighs presaging his sorrow, +he said: "If thou canst here at least, my boy, obey the advice of thy +father, be sparing of the whip, and use the bridle with nerve. Of their +own accord they are wont to hasten on; the difficulty is to check them +in their full career. And let not the way attract thee through the five +direct circles.[7] There is a track cut obliquely, with a broad +curvature, and bounded by the extremities of three zones, and {so} it +shuns the South pole, and the Bear united to the North. Let thy way be +here; thou wilt perceive distinct traces of the wheels. And that heaven +and earth may endure equal heat, neither drive too low, nor urge the +chariot along the summit of the sky. Going forth too high, thou wilt set +on fire the signs of the heavens; too low, the earth; in the middle +course thou will go most safely. Neither let the right wheel bear thee +off towards the twisted Serpent, nor let the left lead thee to the low +Altar; hold thy course between them. The rest I leave to Fortune, who, +I pray, may aid thee, and take more care of thee, than thou dost of +thyself. Whilst I am speaking, the moist Night has touched the goals +placed on the Western shores; delay is not allowed me. I am required; +the Morning is shining forth, the darkness being dispersed. Seize the +reins with thy hands; or if thou hast a mind capable of change, make use +of my advice, {and} not my chariot, while thou art {still} able, and art +even yet standing upon solid ground; and while thou art not yet in thy +ignorance filling the chariot that thou didst so unfortunately covet." + +The other leaps into the light chariot with his youthful body, and +stands aloft, and rejoices to take in his hand the reins presented {to +him}, and then gives thanks to his reluctant parent. In the meantime the +swift Pyroeis, and Eoues and AEthon, the horses of the sun, and Phlegon, +{making} the fourth, fill the air with neighings, sending forth flames, +and beat the barriers with their feet. After Tethys, ignorant of the +destiny of her grandson, had removed these, and the scope of the +boundless universe was given them, they take the road, and moving their +feet through the air, they cleave the resisting clouds, and raised aloft +by their wings, they pass by the East winds that had arisen from the +same parts. But the weight was light; and such as the horses of the sun +could not feel; and the yoke was deficient of its wonted weight. And as +the curving ships, without proper ballast, are tossed about, and +unsteady, through their too great lightness, are borne through the sea, +so does the chariot give bounds[8] in the air, unimpeded by its usual +burden, and is tossed on high, and is just like an empty one. + +Soon as the steeds have perceived this, they rush on, and leave the +beaten track, and run not in the order in which {they did} before. He +himself becomes alarmed; and knows not which way to turn the reins +entrusted {to him}, nor does he know where the way is, nor, if he did +know, could he control them. Then, for the first time, did the cold +Triones grow warm with sunbeams, and attempt, in vain, to be dipped in +the sea that was forbidden {to them}. And the Serpent which is situate +next to the icy pole, being before torpid with cold, and formidable to +no one, grew warm, and regained new rage from the heat. They say, +too,[9] that thou, Booetes, being disturbed, took to flight; although +thou wast {but} slow, and thy wain impeded thee. But when, from the +height of the skies, the unhappy Phaeton looked down upon the earth, +lying far, very far beneath, he grew pale, and his knees shook with a +sudden terror; and in a light so great, darkness overspread his eyes. +And now he could wish that he had never touched the horses of his +father; and now he is sorry that he knew his descent, and that he +prevailed in his request; now desiring to be called the son of Merops. +He is borne along, just as a ship driven by the furious Boreas, to which +its pilot has given up the overpowered helm, {and} which he has resigned +to the Gods and {the effect of} his supplications. What can he do? much +of heaven is left behind his back; still more is before his eyes. Either +{space} he measures in his mind; and at one moment he is looking forward +to the West, which it is not allowed him by fate to reach; {and} +sometimes he looks back upon the East. Ignorant what to do, he is +stupefied; and he neither lets go the reins, nor is he able to retain +them; nor does he know the names of the horses. In his fright, too, he +sees strange objects scattered everywhere in various parts of the +heavens, and the forms of huge wild beasts. There is a spot where the +Scorpion bends his arms into two curves, and with his tail and claws +bending on either side, he extends his limbs through the space of two +signs {of the Zodiac}. As soon as the youth beheld him wet with the +sweat of black venom, and threatening wounds with the barbed point {of +his tail}, bereft of sense, he let go the reins, in a chill of horror. +Soon as they, falling down, have touched the top of their backs, the +horses range at large: and no one restraining them, they go through the +air of an unknown region; and where their fury drives them thither, +without check, do they hurry along, and they rush on to the stars fixed +in the sky, and drag the chariot through pathless places. One while they +are mounting aloft, and now they are borne through steep places, and +{along} headlong paths in a tract nearer to the earth. + +The Moon, too, wonders that her brother's horses run lower than her own, +and the scorched clouds send forth smoke. As each region is most +elevated, it is caught by the flames, and cleft, it makes {vast} chasms, +and becomes dry, its moisture being carried away. The grass grows pale; +the trees, with their foliage, are burnt up; and the dry standing corn +affords fuel for its own destruction. {But} I am complaining of trifling +{ills}. Great cities perish, together with their fortifications, and the +flames turn whole nations, with their populations, into ashes; woods, +together with mountains, are on fire. Athos[10] burns, and the Cilician +Taurus,[11] and Tmolus,[12] and Oeta,[13] and Ida,[14] now dry, {but} +once most famed for its springs; and Helicon,[15] the resort of the +Virgin {Muses}, and Haemus,[16] not yet {called} Oeagrian. AEtna[17] burns +intensely with redoubled flames, and Parnassus, with its two summits, +and Eryx,[18] and Cynthus,[19] and Othrys, and Rhodope,[20] at length to +be despoiled of its snows, and Mimas,[21] and Dindyma,[22] and +Mycale,[23] and Cithaeron,[24] created for {the performance of} sacred +rites. Nor does its cold avail {even} Scythia; Caucasus[25] is on fire, +and Ossa with Pindus, and Olympus, greater than them both, and the lofty +Alps,[26] and the cloud-bearing Apennines.[27] + +Then, indeed, Phaeton beholds the world set on fire on all sides, and he +cannot endure heat so great, and he inhales with his mouth scorching +air, as though from a deep furnace, and perceives his own chariot to be +on fire. And neither is he able now to bear the ashes and the emitted +embers; and, on every side, he is involved in heated smoke. Covered with +a pitchy darkness, he knows not whither he is going, nor where he is, +and is hurried away at the pleasure of the winged steeds. They believe +that it was then that the nations of the AEthiopians contracted their +black hue,[28] the blood being attracted into the surface of the body. +Then was Libya[29] made dry by the heat, the moisture being carried off; +then, with dishevelled hair, the Nymphs lamented the springs and the +lakes. Boeotia bewails Dirce,[30] Argos Amymone,[31] and Ephyre[32] the +waters of Pirene. Nor do rivers that have got banks distant in +situation, remain {secure}; Tanais[33] smokes in the midst of its +waters, and the aged Peneus, and Teuthrantian Caicus,[34] and rapid +Ismenus,[35] with Phocean Erymanthus,[36] and Xanthus[37] again to burn, +and yellow Lycormas,[38] and Maeander,[39] which sports with winding +streams, and the Mygdonian Melas,[40] and the Taenarian Eurotas.[41] The +Babylonian Euphrates, too, was on fire, Orontes[42] was in flames, and +the swift Thermodon[43] and Ganges,[44] and Phasis,[45] and Ister.[46] +Alpheus[47] boils; the banks of Spercheus burn; and the gold which +Tagus[48] carries with its stream, melts in the flames. The river birds +too, which made famous the Maeonian[49] banks {of the river} with their +song, grew hot in the middle of Cayster. The Nile, affrighted, fled to +the remotest parts of the earth, and concealed his head, which still +lies hid; his seven last mouths are empty, {become} seven {mere} +channels, without any stream. The same fate dries up the Ismarian +{rivers}, Hebrus together with Strymon,[50] and the Hesperian[51] +streams, the Rhine, and the Rhone, and the Po, and the Tiber, to which +was promised the sovereignty of the world. + +All the ground bursts asunder; and through the chinks, the light +penetrates into Tartarus, and startles the Infernal King with his +spouse. The Ocean too, is contracted, and that which lately was sea, is +a surface of parched sand; and the mountains which the deep sea had +covered, start up and increase {the number of} the scattered +Cyclades.[52] The fishes sink to the bottom, and the crooked Dolphins do +not care to raise themselves on the surface into the air, as usual. The +bodies of sea calves float lifeless on their backs, on the top of the +water. The story, too, is, that {even} Nereus himself, and Doris and +their daughters, lay hid in the heated caverns. Three times had Neptune +ventured, with a stern countenance, to thrust his arms out of the water; +three times he was unable to endure the scorching heat of the air. +However, the genial Earth, as she was surrounded with sea, amid the +waters of the main, and the springs, dried up on every side, which had +hidden themselves in the bowels of their cavernous parent, burnt-up, +lifted up her all-productive face[53] as far as her neck, and placed her +hands to her forehead, and shaking all things with a vast trembling, she +sank down a little, and retired below the spot where she is wont to be, +and thus she spoke, with a parched voice: "O sovereign of the Gods, if +thou approvest of this, if I have deserved it, why do thy lightnings +linger? Let me, {if} doomed to perish by the force of fire, perish by +thy flames; and alleviate my misfortune, by being the author {of it}. +With difficulty, indeed, do I open my mouth for these very words;" (the +vapor had oppressed her utterance.) "Behold my scorched hair, and such a +quantity of ashes over my eyes, so much {too}, over my features. And +dost thou give this as my recompense? this, as the reward of my +fertility and of my duty, in that I endure wounds from the crooked +plough and harrows, and am harassed all the year through? In that I +supply green leaves for the cattle, and corn, a wholesome food for +mankind, and frankincense for yourselves? But still, suppose that I am +deserving of destruction, why have the waves {deserved this}? Why has +thy brother deserved it? Why do the seas, delivered to him by lot, +decrease, and why do they recede still further from the sky? But if +regard for neither thy brother nor for myself influences thee, still +have consideration for thy own skies; look around, on either side, {how} +each pole is smoking; if the fire shall injure them, thy palace will +fall in ruins. See! Atlas[54] himself is struggling, and hardly can he +bear the glowing heavens on his shoulders. If the sea, if the earth +perishes, if the palace of heaven, we are thrown[55] into the confused +state of ancient chaos. Save it from the flames, if aught still +survives, and provide for the preservation of the universe." + +Thus spoke the Earth; nor, indeed, could she any longer endure the +vapor, nor say more; and she withdrew her face within herself, and the +caverns neighboring to the shades below. + + [Footnote 1: _AEgeon._--Ver. 10. Homer makes him to be the same + with Briareus. According to another account, which Ovid here + follows, he was a sea God, the son of Oceanus and Terra.] + + [Footnote 2: _Doris._--Ver. 11. She was the daughter of Oceanus, + the wife of Nereus, and the mother of the fifty Nereids.] + + [Footnote 3: _Tethys._--Ver. 69. She was the daughter of Coelus and + Terra, and the wife of Oceanus. Her name is here used to signify + the ocean itself.] + + [Footnote 4: _Are carried round._--Ver. 70. Clarke thus renders + this line,--"Add, too, that the heaven was whisked round with a + continual rolling."] + + [Footnote 5: _Wild beasts._--Ver. 78. The signs of the Zodiac.] + + [Footnote 6: _Haemonian._--Ver. 81. Or Thessalian. He here alludes + to the Thessalian Chiron, the Centaur, who, according to Ovid and + other writers, was placed in the Zodiac as the Constellation + Sagittarius: while others say that Crotus, or Croto, the son of + Eupheme, the nurse of the Muses, was thus honored.] + + [Footnote 7: _Through the five direct circles._--Ver. 129. There + is some obscurity in this passage, arising from the mode of + expression. Phoebus here counsels Phaeton what track to follow, and + tells him to pursue his way by an oblique path, and not directly + in the plane of the equator. This last is what he calls 'directos + via quinque per arcus.' These five arcs, or circles, are the five + parallel circles by which astronomers distinguish the heavens, + namely, the two polar circles, the two tropics, and the + equinoctial. The latter runs exactly in the middle, between the + other two circles, so that the expression must be understood to + mean, 'pursue not your way directly through that circle which is + the middlemost of the five, but observe the track that cuts it + obliquely.'] + + [Footnote 8: _The chariot give bounds._--Ver. 165-6. Clarke thus + renders these lines.--'Thus does the chariot give jumps into the + air without its usual weight, and is kicked up on high, and is + like one empty.'] + + [Footnote 9: _They say, too._--Ver. 176-7. The following is + Clarke's translation of these two lines,--'They say, too, that + you, Booetes, scowered off in a mighty bustle, although you were + but slow, and thy cart hindered thee.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Athos._--Ver. 217. Athos (now Monte Santo) was a + mountain of Macedonia, so lofty that its shadow was said to extend + even to the Isle of Lemnos, which was eighty-seven miles distant.] + + [Footnote 11: _Taurus._--Ver. 217. This was an immense mountain + range which ran through the middle of Cilicia, in Asia Minor.] + + [Footnote 12: _Tmolus._--Ver. 217. Tmolus (now Bozdaz) was a + mountain of Lydia, famed for its wines and saffron. Pactolus, + a stream with sands reputed to be golden, took its rise there.] + + [Footnote 13: _Oeta._--Ver. 217. This was a mountain chain, which + divided Thessaly from Doris and Phocis; famed for the death of + Hercules on one of its ridges.] + + [Footnote 14: _Ida._--Ver. 218. There were two mountains of the + name of Ide, or Ida; one in Crete, the other near Troy. The latter + is here referred to, as being famed for its springs.] + + [Footnote 15: _Helicon._--Ver. 219. This was a mountain of Boeotia, + sacred to the Virgin Muses.] + + [Footnote 16: _Haemus._--Ver. 219. This, which is now called the + Balkan range, was a lofty chain of mountains running through + Thrace. Orpheus, the son of Oeagrus and Calliope, was there torn in + pieces by the Maenades, or Bacchanalian women, whence the mountain + obtained the epithet of 'Oeagrian.'] + + [Footnote 17: _AEtna._--Ver. 220. This is the volcanic mountain of + Sicily; the flames caused by the fall of Phaeton, added to its + own, caused them to be redoubled.] + + [Footnote 18: _Eryx._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Sicily, + now called San Juliano. On it, a magnificent temple was erected, + in honor of Venus.] + + [Footnote 19: _Cynthus._--Ver. 221. This was a mountain of Delos, + on which Apollo and Diana were said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 20: _Rhodope._--Ver. 222. It was a high mountain, capped + with perpetual snows, in the northern part of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 21: _Mimas._--Ver. 222. A mountain of Ionia, near the + Ionian Sea. It was of very great height; whence Homer calls it + +hupsikremnos+.] + + [Footnote 22: _Dindyma._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + Phrygia, near Troy, sacred to Cybele, the mother of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 23: _Mycale._--Ver. 223. A mountain of Caria, opposite + to the Isle of Samos.] + + [Footnote 24: _Cithaeron._--Ver. 223. This was a mountain of + Boeotia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus, there celebrated. In its + neighborhood, Pentheus was torn to pieces by the Maenades, for + slighting the worship of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Caucasus._--Ver. 224. This was a mountain chain in + Asia, between the Euxine and Caspian Seas.] + + [Footnote 26: _Alps._--Ver. 226. This mountain range divides + France from Italy.] + + [Footnote 27: _Apennines._--Ver. 226. This range of mountains runs + down the centre of Italy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Their black hue._--Ver. 235. The notion that the + blackness of the African tribes was produced by the heat of the + sun, is borrowed by the Poet from Hesiod. Hyginus, too, says, 'the + Indians, because, by the proximity of the fire, their blood was + turned black by the heat thereof, became of black appearance + themselves.' Notwithstanding the learned and minute investigations + of physiologists on the subject, this question is still involved + in considerable obscurity.] + + [Footnote 29: _Libya._--Ver. 237. This was a region between + Mauritania and Cyrene. The Greek writers, however, often use the + word to signify the whole of Africa. Servius gives a trifling + derivation for the name, in saying that Libya was so called, + because +leipei ho huetos+, 'it is without rain.'] + + [Footnote 30: _Dirce._--Ver. 239. Dirce was a celebrated fountain + of Boeotia, into which it was said that Dirce, the wife of Lycus, + king of Thebes, was transformed.] + + [Footnote 31: _Amymone._--Ver. 240. It was a fountain of Argos, + near Lerna, into which the Nymph, Amymone, the daughter of Lycus, + king of the Argives, was said to have been transformed.] + + [Footnote 32: _Ephyre._--Ver. 240. It was the most ancient name of + Corinth, in the citadel of which, or the Acrocorinthus, was the + spring Pyrene, of extreme brightness and purity and sacred to the + Muses.] + + [Footnote 33: _Tanais._--Ver. 242. This river, now the Don, after + a long winding course, discharges itself into the 'Palus Maeotis,' + now the sea of 'Azof.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Caicus._--Ver. 243. This is a river of Mysia, here + called 'Teuthrantian,' from Mount Teuthras, in its vicinity.] + + [Footnote 35: _Ismenus._--Ver. 244. Ismenus was a river of Boeotia, + that flowed past Thebes into the Euripus.] + + [Footnote 36: _Erymanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of + Arcadia, which, rising in a mountain of that name, fell into the + Alpheus.] + + [Footnote 37: _Xanthus._--Ver. 245. This was a river of Troy; here + spoken of as destined to behold flames a second time, in the + conflagration of that city.] + + [Footnote 38: _Lycormas._--Ver. 245. This was a rapid river of + AEtolia, which was afterwards known by the name of Evenus.] + + [Footnote 39: _Maeander._--Ver. 246. This was a river of Phrygia, + flowing between Lydia and Caria; it was said to have 600 windings + in its course.] + + [Footnote 40: _Melas._--Ver. 247. This name was given to many + rivers of Thrace, Thessaly, and Asia, on account of the darkness + of the color of their waters; the name was derived from the Greek + word +melas+, 'black.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Taenarian Eurotas._--Ver. 247. The Eurotas was a + river of Laconia, which flowed under the walls of the city of + Sparta, and discharged itself into the sea near the promontory of + Taenarus, now called Cape Matapan. The Eurotas is now called + 'Basilipotamo,' or 'king of streams.'] + + [Footnote 42: _Orontes._--Ver. 248. The Orontes was a river of + Asia Minor, which flowed near Antioch.] + + [Footnote 43: _Thermodon._--Ver. 249. This was a river of + Cappadocia, near which the Amazons were said to dwell.] + + [Footnote 44: _Ganges._--Ver. 249. This is one of the largest + rivers in Asia, and discharges itself into the Persian Gulf; and + not, as Gierig says, in his note on this passage, in the Red Sea.] + + [Footnote 45: _Phasis._--Ver. 249. This was a river of Colchis, + falling into the Euxine Sea.] + + [Footnote 46: _Ister._--Ver. 249. The Danube had that name from + its source to the confines of Germany; and thence, in its course + through Scythia to the sea, it was called by the name of 'Ister.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Alpheus._--Ver. 250. It was a river of Arcadia, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 48: _Tagus._--Ver. 251. This was a river of Spain, which + was said to bring down from the mountains great quantities of + golden sand. The Poet here feigns this to be melted by the heat of + the sun, and in that manner to be carried along by the current of + the river.] + + [Footnote 49: _Maeonian._--Ver. 252. Maeonia was so called from the + river Maeon, and was another name of Lydia. The Cayster, famous for + its swans, flowed through Lydia.] + + [Footnote 50: _Strymon._--Ver. 257. The Hebrus and the Strymon + were rivers of Thrace. Ismarus was a mountain of that country, + famous for its vines.] + + [Footnote 51: _Hesperian._--Ver. 258. Hesperia, or 'the western + country,' was a general name of not only Spain and Gaul, but even + Italy. The Rhine is a river of France and Germany, the Rhone of + France. The Padus, or Po, and the Tiber, are rivers of Italy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Cyclades._--Ver. 264. The Cyclades were a cluster + of islands in the AEgean Sea, surrounding Delos as though with a + circle, whence their name.] + + [Footnote 53: _Her all-productive face._--Ver. 275. The earth was + similarly called by the Greeks +pammetor+, 'the mother of all + things.' So Virgil calls it 'omniparens.'] + + [Footnote 54: _Atlas._--Ver. 296. This was a mountain of + Mauritania, which, by reason of its height, was said to support + the heavens.] + + [Footnote 55: _We are thrown._--Ver. 299. Clarke translates, 'In + chaos antiquum confundimur,' 'We are then jumbled into the old + chaos again.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If we were to regard this fable solely as an allegory intended to + convey a moral, we should at once perceive that the adventure of + Phaeton represents the wilful folly of a rash young man, who consults + his own inclination, rather than the dictates of wisdom and prudence. + Some ancient writers tell us that Phaeton was the son of Phoebus and + Clymene, while others make the nymph Rhoda to have been his mother. + Apollodorus, following Hesiod, says that Herse, the daughter of + Cecrops, king of Athens, was the mother of Cephalus, who was carried + away by Aurora; which probably means that he left Greece for the + purpose of settling in the East. Cephalus had a son named Tithonus, + the father of Phaeton. Thus Phaeton was the fourth in lineal descent + from Cecrops, who reigned at Athens about 1580, B.C. The story is most + probably based upon the fact of some excessive heat that happened in + his time. Aristotle supposes that at that period flames fell from + heaven, which ravaged several countries. Possibly the burning of the + cities of the plain, or the stay of the sun in his course at the + command of Joshua, may have been the foundation of the story. St. + Chrysostom suggests that it is based upon an imperfect version of the + ascent of Elijah in a chariot of fire; that name, or rather 'Elias,' + the Greek form of it, bearing a strong resemblance to +Helios+, the + Greek name of the sun. Vossius suggests that this is an Egyptian + history, and considers the story of the grief of Phoebus for the loss + of his son to be another version of the sorrows of the Egyptians for + the death of Osiris. The tears of the Heliades, or sisters of Phaeton, + he conceives to be identical with the lamentations of the women who + wept for the death of Thammuz. The Poet, when he tells us that Phaeton + abandoned his chariot on seeing The Scorpion, probably intends to show + that the event of which he treats happened in the month in which the + sun enters that sign. + + Plutarch and Tzetzes tell us that Phaeton was a king of the + Molossians, who drowned himself in the Po; that he was a student of + astronomy, and foretold an excessive heat which happened in his reign, + and laid waste his kingdom. Lucian, also, in his Discourse on + Astronomy, gives a similar explanation of the story, and says that + this prince dying very young, left his observations imperfect, which + gave rise to the fable that he did not know how to drive the chariot + of the sun to the end of its course. + + +FABLE II. [II.305-324] + + Jupiter, to save the universe from being consumed, hurls his thunder + at Phaeton, on which he falls headlong into the river Eridanus. + +But the omnipotent father, having called the Gods above to witness, and +him, too, who had given the chariot {to Phaeton}, that unless he gives +assistance, all things will perish in direful ruin, mounts aloft to the +highest eminence, from which he is wont to spread the clouds over the +spacious earth; from which he moves his thunders, and hurls the +brandished lightnings. But then, he had neither clouds that he could +draw over the earth, nor showers that he could pour down from the sky. +He thundered aloud, and darted the poised lightning from his right ear +against the charioteer, and at the same moment deprived him both of his +life and his seat, and by his ruthless fires restrained the flames. The +horses are affrighted, and, making a bound in an opposite direction, +they shake the yoke from off their necks, and disengage themselves from +the torn harness. In one place lie the reins; in another, the axle-tree +wrenched away from the pole; in another part {are} the spokes of the +broken wheels; and the fragments of the chariot torn in pieces are +scattered far and wide. But Phaeton, the flames consuming his yellow +hair, is hurled headlong, and is borne in a long tract through the air; +as sometimes a star from the serene sky may appear to fall, although it +{really} has not fallen. Him the great Eridanus receives, in a part of +the world far distant from his country, and bathes his foaming face. + + +FABLE III. [II.325-366] + + The sisters of Phaeton are changed into poplars, and their tears + become amber distilling from those trees. + +The Hesperian Naiads[56] commit his body, smoking from the three-forked +flames, to the tomb, and inscribe these verses on the stone:--"Here is +Phaeton buried, the driver of his father's chariot, which if he did not +manage, still he miscarried in a great attempt." But his wretched father +had hidden his face, overcast with bitter sorrow, and, if only we can +believe it, they say that one day passed without the sun.[57] The flames +afforded light; and {so far}, there was some advantage in that disaster. +But Clymene, after she had said whatever things were to be said amid +misfortunes so great, traversed the whole earth, full of woe, and +distracted, and tearing her bosom. And first seeking his lifeless limbs, +{and} then his bones, she found his bones, however, buried on a foreign +bank. She laid herself down on the spot; and bathed with tears the name +she read on the marble, and warmed it with her open breast. The +daughters of the Sun mourn no less, and give tears, an unavailing gift, +to his death; and beating their breasts with their hands, they call +Phaeton both night and day, who is doomed not to hear their sad +complaints; and they lie scattered about the tomb. + +The Moon had four times filled her disk, by joining her horns; they, +according to their custom (for use had made custom), uttered +lamentations; among whom Phaethusa, the eldest of the sisters, when she +was desirous to lie on the ground, complained that her feet had grown +stiff; to whom the fair Lampetie attempting to come, was detained by a +root suddenly formed. A third, when she is endeavoring to tear her hair +with her hands, tears off leaves; one complains that her legs are held +fast by the trunk of a tree, another that her arms are become long +branches. And while they are wondering at these things, bark closes upon +their loins; and by degrees, it encompasses their stomachs, their +breasts, their shoulders, and their hands; and only their mouths are +left uncovered, calling upon their mother. What is their mother to do? +but run here and there, whither frenzy leads her, and join her lips +{with theirs}, while {yet} she may? That is not enough; she tries to +pull their bodies out of the trunks {of the trees}, and with her hands +to tear away the tender branches; but from thence drops of blood flow as +from a wound. Whichever {of them} is wounded, cries out, "Spare me, +mother, O spare me, I pray; in the tree my body is being torn. And now +farewell." The bark came over the last words. + +Thence tears flow forth; and amber distilling from the new-formed +branches, hardens in the sun; which the clear river receives and sends +to be worn by the Latian matrons. + + [Footnote 56: _The Hesperian Naiads._--Ver. 325. These were the + Naiads of Italy. They were by name Phaethusa, Lampetie, and + Phoebe.] + + [Footnote 57: _Passed without the sun._--Ver. 331. There is, + perhaps, in this line some faint reference to a tradition of the + sun having, in the language of Scripture, 'stood still upon + Gibeon, in his course, by the command of Joshua, when dispensing + the divine vengeance upon the Amorites,' Joshua, x. 13. Or of the + time when 'the shadow returned ten degrees backward', by the + sun-dial of Ahaz, 2 Kings, xx. 11.] + + +FABLE IV. [II.367-400] + + Cycnus, king of Liguria, inconsolable for the death of Phaeton, is + transformed into a swan. + +Cycnus, the son of Sthenelus,[58] was present at this strange event; +who, although he was related to thee, Phaeton, on his mother's side, was +yet more nearly allied in affection. He having left his kingdom (for he +reigned over the people and the great cities of the Ligurians[59]) was +filling the verdant banks and the river Eridanus, and the wood, {now} +augmented by the sisters, with his complaints; when the man's voice +became shrill, and gray feathers concealed his hair. A long neck, too, +extends from his breast, and a membrane joins his reddening toes; +feathers clothe his sides, {and} his mouth holds a bill without a point. +Cycnus becomes a new bird; but he trusts himself not to the heavens or +the air, as being mindful of the fire unjustly sent from thence. He +frequents the pools and the wide lakes, and abhorring fire, he chooses +the streams, the {very} contrary of flames. + +Meanwhile, the father of Phaeton, in squalid garb, and destitute of his +comeliness, just as he is wont to be when he suffers an eclipse of his +disk, abhors both the light, himself, and the day; and gives his mind up +to grief, and adds resentment to his sorrow, and denies his services to +the world. "My lot," says he, "has been restless enough from the {very} +beginning of time, and I am tired of labors endured by me, without end +and without honor. Let any one else drive the chariot that carries the +light. If there is no one, and all the Gods confess that they cannot do +it, let {Jupiter} himself drive it; that, at least, while he is trying +my reins, he may for a time lay aside the lightnings that bereave +fathers. Then he will know, having made trial of the strength of the +flame-footed steeds, that he who did not successfully guide them, did +not deserve death." + +All the Deities stand around the Sun, as he says such things; and they +entreat him, with suppliant voice, not to determine to bring darkness +over the world. Jupiter, as well, excuses the hurling of his lightnings, +and imperiously adds threats to entreaties. Phoebus calls together his +steeds, maddened and still trembling with terror, and, subduing them, +vents his fury both with whip and lash; for he is furious, and upbraids +them with his son, and charges {his death} upon them. + + [Footnote 58: _Sthenelus._--Ver. 367. He was a king of Liguria. + Commentators have justly remarked that it was not very likely that + a king of Liguria should be related to Clymene, a queen of the + Ethiopians, as Ovid, in the next line, says was the case. This + story was probably invented by some writer, who fancied that there + were two persons of the name of Phaeton; one the subject of eastern + tradition, and the other a personage of the Latin mythology.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Ligurians._--Ver. 370. These were a people + situate on the eastern side of Etruria, between the rivers Var and + Macra. The Grecian writers were in the habit of styling the whole + of the north of Italy Liguria.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch places the tomb of Phaeton on the banks of the river Po; and + it is not improbable that his mother and sisters, grieving at his + fate, ended their lives in the neighborhood of his tomb, being + overcome with grief, which gave rise to the story that they were + changed into the poplars on its banks, which distilled amber. Some + writers say, that they were changed into larch trees, and not poplars. + Hesiod and Pindar also make mention of this tradition. Possibly, + Cycnus, being a friend of Phaeton, may have died from grief at his + loss, on which the poets graced his attachment with the story that he + was changed into a swan. Apollodorus mentions two other persons of the + name of Cycnus. One was the son of Mars, and was killed before Troy; + the other, as Hesiod tells us, was killed by Hercules. Lucian, in his + satirical vein, tells us, that inquiring on the banks of the Po for + the swans, and the poplars distilling amber, he was told that no such + things had ever been seen there; and that even the tradition of + Phaeton and his sisters was utterly unknown to the inhabitants of + those parts. + + +FABLE V. [II.401-465] + + Jupiter, while taking a survey of the world, to extinguish the remains + of the fire, falls in love with Calisto, whom he sees in Arcadia; and, + in order to seduce that Nymph, he assumes the form of Diana. Her + sister Nymphs disclose her misfortune before the Goddess, who drives + her from her company, on account of the violation of her vow of + chastity. + +But the omnipotent father surveys the vast walls of heaven, and +carefully searches, that no part, impaired by the violence of the fire, +may fall to ruin. After he has seen them to be secure and in their own +{full} strength, he examines the earth, and the works of man; yet a care +for his own Arcadia is more particularly his object. He restores, too, +the springs and the rivers, that had not yet dared to flow, he gives +grass to the earth: green leaves to the trees; and orders the injured +forests again to be green. While {thus} he often went to and fro, he +stopped short on {seeing} a virgin of Nonacris, and the fires engendered +within his bones received {fresh} heat. It was not her employment to +soften the wool by teasing, nor to vary her tresses in their +arrangement; while a buckle fastened her garment, and a white fillet her +hair, carelessly flowing; and at one time she bore in her hand a light +javelin, at another, a bow. She was a warrior of Phoebe; nor did any +{Nymph} frequent Maenalus, more beloved by Trivia,[60] than she; but no +influence is of long duration. The lofty Sun had {now} obtained a +position beyond the mid course, when she enters a grove which no +generation had {ever} cut. Here she puts her quiver off from her +shoulders, and unbends her pliant bow, and lies down on the ground, +which the grass had covered, and presses her painted quiver, with her +neck laid on it. When Jupiter saw her {thus} weary, and without a +protector, he said, "For certain, my wife will know nothing of this +stolen embrace; or, if she should chance to know, is her scolding, is +it, {I say}, of such great consequence?" + +Immediately he puts on the form and dress of Diana, and says, "O Virgin! +one portion of my train, upon what mountains hast thou been hunting?" +The virgin raises herself from the turf, and says, "Hail, Goddess! {that +art}, in my opinion, greater than Jove, even if he himself should hear +it." He both smiles and he hears it, and is pleased at being preferred +to himself; and he gives her kisses, not very moderate, nor such as +would be given by a virgin. He stops her as she is preparing to tell him +in what wood she has been hunting, by an embrace, and he does not betray +himself without the commission {of violence}. She, indeed, on the other +hand, as far as a woman could do (would that thou hadst seen her, +daughter of Saturn, {then} thou wouldst have been more merciful), she, +indeed, {I say}, resists; but what damsel, or who {besides}, could +prevail against Jupiter? Jove, {now} the conqueror, seeks the heavens +above; the grove and the conscious wood is {now} her aversion. Making +her retreat thence, she is almost forgetting to take away her quiver +with her arrows, and the bow which she had hung up. + +Behold, Dictynna,[61] attended by her train, as she goes along the lofty +Maenalus, and exulting in the slaughter of the wild beasts, beholds her, +and calls her, thus seen. Being so called, she drew back, and at first +was afraid lest Jupiter might be under her {shape}; but after she saw +the Nymphs walking along with her, she perceived that there was no +deceit,[62] and she approached their train. Alas! how difficult it is +not to betray a crime by one's looks! She scarce raises her eyes from +the ground, nor, as she used to do, does she walk by the side of the +Goddess, nor is she the foremost in the whole company; but she is +silent, and by her blushes she gives signs of her injured honor. And +Diana, but {for the fact}, that she is a virgin, might have perceived +her fault by a thousand indications; the Nymphs are said to have +perceived it. + +The horns of the Moon were {now} rising again in her ninth course, when +the hunting Goddess, faint from her brother's flames, lighted on a cool +grove, out of which a stream ran, flowing with its murmuring noise, and +borne along the sand worn fine {by its action}. When she had approved of +the spot, she touched the surface of the water with her foot; and +commending it as well, she says, "All overlookers are far off; let us +bathe our bodies, with the stream poured over them." She of +Parrhasia[63] blushed; they all put off their clothes; she alone sought +{an excuse for} delay. Her garment was removed as she hesitated, which +being put off, her fault was exposed with her naked body. Cynthia said +to her, in confusion, and endeavoring to conceal her stomach with her +hands, "Begone afar hence! and pollute not the sacred springs;" and she +ordered her to leave her train. + + [Footnote 60: _Trivia._--Ver. 416. This was an epithet of Diana, + as presiding over and worshipped in the places where three roads + met, which were called 'trivia.' Being known as Diana on earth, + the Moon in the heavens, and Proserpine in the infernal regions, + she was represented at these places with three faces; those of a + horse, a dog, and a female; the latter being in the middle.] + + [Footnote 61: _Dictynna._--Ver. 441. Diana was so called from the + Greek word +diktus+, 'a net,' which was used by her for the + purposes of hunting.] + + [Footnote 62: _There was no deceit._--Ver. 446. Clarke translates + 'sensit abesse dolos,' 'she was convinced there was no roguery in + the case.'] + + [Footnote 63: _She of Parrhasia._--Ver. 460. Calisto is so called + from Parrhasia, a region of Arcadia. Parrhasius was the name of a + mountain, a grove, and a city of that country and was derived from + the name of Parrhasus, a son of Lycaon.] + + +FABLES VI AND VII. [II.466-550] + + Juno, being jealous that Calisto has attracted Jupiter, transforms her + into a Bear. Her son, Arcas, not recognizing his mother in that shape, + is about to kill her; but Jupiter removes them both to the skies, + where they form the Constellations of the Great and the Little Bear. + The raven, as a punishment for his garrulity, is changed from white to + black. + +The spouse of the great Thunderer had perceived this some time before, +and had put off the severe punishment {designed for her}, to a proper +time. There is {now} no reason for delay; and now the boy Arcas (that, +too, was a grief to Juno) was born of the mistress {of her husband}. +Wherefore, she turned her thoughts, full of resentment, and her eyes +{upon her}, and said, "This thing, forsooth, alone was wanting, thou +adulteress, that thou shouldst be pregnant, and that my injury should +become notorious by thy labors, and that {thereby} the disgraceful +conduct of my {husband}, Jupiter, should be openly declared. Thou shalt +not go unpunished; for I will spoil that shape of thine, on which thou +pridest thyself, and by which thou, mischievous one,[64] dost charm my +husband." + +{Thus} she spoke; and seizing her straight in front by the hair,[65] +threw her on her face to the ground. She suppliantly stretched forth her +arms; those arms began to grow rough with black hair,[66] and her hands +to be bent, and to increase to hooked claws, and to do the duty of feet, +and the mouth, that was once admired by Jupiter, to become deformed with +a wide opening; and lest her prayers, and words not needed, should +influence her feelings, the power of speech is taken from her; an angry +and threatening voice, and full of terror, is uttered from her hoarse +throat. Still, her former understanding remains in her, even thus become +a bear; and expressing her sorrows by her repeated groans, she lifts up +her hands, such as they are, to heaven and to the stars, and she deems +Jove ungrateful, though she cannot call him so. Ah! how often, not +daring to rest in the lonely wood, did she wander about before her own +house, and in the fields once her own. Ah! how often was she driven over +the crags by the cry of the hounds; and, a huntress herself, she fled in +alarm, through fear of the hunters! Often, seeing the wild beasts, did +she lie concealed, forgetting what she was; and, a bear herself, dreaded +the he-bears seen on the mountains, and was alarmed at the wolves, +though her father was among them. + +Behold! Arcas, the offspring of the daughter of Lycaon, ignorant of who +is his parent, approaches her, thrice five birthdays being now nearly +past; and while he is following the wild beasts, while he is choosing +the proper woods, and is enclosing the Erymanthian forests[67] with his +platted nets, he meets with his mother. She stood still, upon seeing +Arcas, and was like one recognizing {another}. He drew back, and, in his +ignorance, was alarmed at her keeping her eyes fixed upon him without +ceasing; and, as she was desirous to approach still nearer, he would +have pierced her breast with the wounding spear. Omnipotent {Jove} +averted this, and removed both them and {such} wickedness; and placed +them, carried through vacant space with a rapid wind, in the heavens, +and made them neighboring Constellations. + +Juno swelled with rage after the mistress shone amid the stars, and +descended on the sea to the hoary Tethys, and the aged Ocean, a regard +for whom has often influenced the Gods; and said to them, inquiring the +reason of her coming, "Do you inquire why I, the queen of the Gods, am +come hither from the aethereal abodes? Another has possession of heaven +in my stead. May I be deemed untruthful, if, when the night has made the +world dark, you see not in the highest part of heaven stars but lately +{thus} honored to my affliction; there, where the last and most limited +circle surrounds the extreme part of the axis {of the world}. Is there, +then, {any ground} why one should hesitate to affront Juno, and dread my +being offended, who only benefit them by my resentment? See what a great +thing I have done! How vast is my power! I forbade her to be of human +shape; she has been made a Goddess; 'tis thus that I inflict punishment +on offenders; such is my mighty power! Let him obtain {for her} her +former shape, and let him remove this form of a wild beast; as he +formerly did for the Argive Phoronis. Why does he not marry her as well, +divorcing Juno, and place her in my couch, and take Lycaon for his +father-in-law? But if the wrong done to your injured foster-child +affects you, drive the seven Triones away from your azure waters, and +expel the stars received into heaven as the reward of adultery, that a +concubine may not be received into your pure waves." + +The Gods of the sea granted her request. The daughter of Saturn enters +the liquid air in her graceful chariot,[68] with her variegated +peacocks; peacocks just as lately tinted, upon the killing of Argus, as +thou, garrulous raven, hadst been suddenly transformed into {a bird +having} black wings, whereas thou hadst been white before. For this bird +was formerly of a silver hue, with snow-white feathers, so that he +equalled the doves entirely without spot; nor would he give place to the +geese that were to save the Capitol by their watchful voice, nor to the +swan haunting the streams. His tongue was the cause of his disgrace; his +chattering tongue being the cause, that the color which was white is now +the reverse of white. + +There was no one more beauteous in all Haemonia than Larissaean[69] +Coronis. At least, she pleased thee, Delphian {God}, as long as she +continued chaste, or was not the object of remark. But the bird of +Phoebus found out her infidelity;[70] and the inexorable informer winged +his way to his master, that he might disclose the hidden offence. Him +the prattling crow follows, with flapping wings, to make all inquiries +of him. And having heard the occasion of his journey, she says, "Thou +art going on a fruitless errand; do not despise the presages of my +voice." + + [Footnote 64: _Thou, mischievous one._--Ver. 475. Clarke, rather + too familiarly, renders 'importuna,' 'plaguy baggage.'] + + [Footnote 65: _In front by the hair._--Ver. 476. 'Adversa prensis + a fronte capillis,' is rendered by Clarke, 'seizing her fore-top.' + Had he been describing the combats of two fish-wives, such a + version would have been, perhaps, more appropriate than in the + present instance.] + + [Footnote 66: _With black hair._--Ver. 478. To the explanation + given at the end of the story, we may here add the curious one + offered by Palaephatus. He says that Calisto was a huntress who + entered the den of a bear, by which she was devoured; and that the + bear coming out, and Calisto being no more seen, it was reported + that she had been transformed into a bear.] + + [Footnote 67: _Erymanthian forests._--Ver. 499. Erymanthus was a + mountain of Arcadia, which was afterwards famous for the slaughter + there, by Hercules, of the wild boar, which made it his haunt.] + + [Footnote 68: _Graceful chariot._--Ver. 531. Clarke translates + 'habili curru,' 'her neat chariot.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Larissaean._--Ver. 542. Larissa was the chief city + of Thessaly, and was situate on the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Her infidelity._--Ver. 545. 'Sed ales sensit + adulterium Phoebeius,' is translated by Clarke, 'but the Phoeban + bird found out her pranks.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero (On the Nature of the Gods, Book iii.) tells us, that Lycaon + had a daughter who delighted in the chase, and that Jupiter, the + second of that name, the king of Arcadia, fell in love with her. This + was the ground on which she was said to have been a favorite of Diana. + The story of Calisto having been received into Heaven, and forming the + Constellation of the Bear, was perhaps grounded on the fact of Lycaon, + her father, having been the first known to take particular notice of + this Constellation. The story of the request of Juno, that Tethys will + not receive this new Constellation into the Ocean, is probably derived + from the circumstance, that the Bear, as well as the other stars + within the Arctic Circle, never sets. + + Possibly, Arcas, the son of Calisto, dying at a youthful age, may have + been the origin of the Constellation of the Lesser Bear. + + +FABLE VIII. [II.551-590] + + A virgin, the favorite of Apollo, of the same name with Coronis, is + changed into a crow, for a story which she tells Minerva, concerning + the basket in which Ericthonius was enclosed. + +"Consider what I was, and what I am, and inquire into my deserts. Thou +wilt find that my fidelity was my ruin. For once upon a time, Pallas had +enclosed Ericthonius, an offspring born without a mother, in a basket +made of Actaean twigs; and had given it to keep to the three virgins born +of the two-shaped[71] Cecrops, and had given them this injunction, that +they should not inquire into her secrets. I, being hidden among the +light foliage, was watching from a thick elm what they were doing. Two +{of them}, Pandrosos and Herse, observe their charge without {any} +treachery; Aglauros alone calls her sisters cowards, and unties the +knots with her hand; but within they behold a child, and a dragon +extended by him. I told the Goddess what was done; for which such a +return as this is made to me, that I am said to have been banished from +the protection of Minerva, and am placed after the bird of the night. My +punishment may warn birds not to incur dangers, by their chattering. But +I consider {that} she courted me with no inclination of my own, nor +asking for any such {favors}. This thou mayst ask of Pallas thyself; +although she is angry, she will not, with all her anger, deny this. For +Coroneus, one famous in the land of Phocis (I mention what is well +known) begot me: and {so} I was a virgin of royal birth, and was courted +by rich suitors ({so} despise me not). My beauty was the cause of my +misfortune; for while I was passing with slow steps along the sea-shore, +on the surface of the sand, as I was wont {to do}, the God of the Ocean +beheld me, and was inflamed; and when he had consumed his time to no +purpose, in entreating me with soft words, he prepared {to use} +violence, and followed me. I fled, and I left the firm shore, and +wearied myself in vain on the yielding sand. Then I invoked both Gods +and men; but my voice did not reach any mortal. A virgin was moved for a +virgin, and gave me assistance. I was extending my arms toward heaven; +{when those} arms began to grow black with light feathers. I struggled +to throw my garments from off my shoulders, but they were feathers, and +had taken deep root in my skin. I tried to beat my naked breast with my +hands, but I had now neither hands nor naked breast. I ran; and the sand +did not retard my feet as before, and I was lifted up from the surface +of the ground. After that, being lifted up, I was carried through the +air, and was assigned, as a faultless companion, to Minerva. Yet what +does this avail me, if Nyctimene, made a bird for a horrid crime, has +succeeded me in my honor?" + + [Footnote 71: _Two-shaped._--Ver. 555. Cecrops is here so called, + and in the Greek, +diphues+ from the fact of his having been born + in Egypt, and having settled in Greece, and was thus to be + reckoned both as an Egyptian, and in the number of the Greeks.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Ericthonius was fabled to be the son, or foster-child, of Athene, or + Minerva, perhaps because he was the son of the daughter of Cranaus, + who had the name of Athene, by a priest of Vulcan, which Divinity was + said to have been his progenitor. St. Augustine alleges that he was + exposed, and found in a temple dedicated to Minerva and Vulcan. His + name being composed of two words, +eris+ and +chthon+, signifying + 'contention,' and 'earth,' Strabo imagines that he was the son of + Vulcan and the Earth. But it seems that the real ground on which he + was called by that name was, that he disputed the right to the crown + of Athens with Amphictyon, on the death of Cranaus, the second king. + Amphictyon prevailed, but Ericthonius succeeded him. To hide his legs, + which were deformed, he is said to have invented chariots; though that + is not likely, as Egypt, from which Greece had received many colonies, + was acquainted with the use of them from the earliest times. He is + also said to have instituted the festival of the Panathenaea, at + Athens, whence, in process of time, it was adopted by the whole of + Greece. + + Hyginus tells us, that after his death he was received into heaven as + the constellation 'Auriga,' or 'the Charioteer;' and he further + informs us, that the deformity of his legs gave occasion to the + saying, that he was half man and half a serpent. Apollodorus says that + he was born in Attica; that he was the son of Cranae, the daughter of + Attis; and that he dethroned Amphictyon, and became the fourth king of + Athens. + + +FABLE IX. [II.591-632] + + Nyctimene having entertained a criminal passion for her father, + Nycteus, the Gods, to punish her incest, transform her into an owl. + Apollo pierces the breast of Coronis with an arrow, on the raven + informing him of the infidelity of his mistress. + +"Has not the thing, which is very well known throughout the whole of +Lesbos,[72] been heard of by thee, that Nyctimene defiled the bed of her +father? She is a bird indeed; but being conscious of her crime, she +avoids {the human} gaze and the light, and conceals her shame in the +darkness; and by all {the birds} she is expelled entirely from the sky." + +The raven says to him, saying such things, "May this, thy calling of me +back, prove a mischief to thee, I pray; I despise the worthless omen." +Nor does he drop his intended journey; and he tells his master, that he +has seen Coronis lying down with a youth of Haemonia. On hearing the +crime of his mistress, his laurel fell down; and at the same moment his +usual looks, his plectrum,[73] and his color, forsook the God. And as +his mind was {now} burning with swelling rage, he took up his wonted +arms, and levelled his bow bent from the extremities, and pierced, with +an unerring shaft, that bosom, that had been so oft pressed to his own +breast. Wounded, she uttered a groan, and, drawing the steel from out of +the wound, she bathed her white limbs with purple blood; and she said, +"I might {justly}, Phoebus, have been punished by thee, but {still I +might} have first brought forth; now we two shall die in one." Thus far +{she spoke}; and she poured forth her life, together with her blood. +A deadly coldness took possession of her body deprived of life. + +The lover, too late, alas! repents of his cruel vengeance, and blames +himself that he listened {to the bird, and} that he was so infuriated. +He hates the bird, through which he was forced to know of the crime and +the cause of his sorrow; he hates, too, the string, the bow, and his +hand; and together with his hand, {those} rash weapons, the arrows. He +cherishes her fallen to the ground, and by late resources endeavors to +conquer her destiny; and in vain he practices his physical arts. + +When he found that these attempts were made in vain, and that the +funeral pile was being prepared, and that her limbs were about to be +burnt in the closing flames, then, in truth, he gave utterance to sighs +fetched from the bottom of his heart (for it is not allowed the +celestial features to be bathed with tears). No otherwise than, as when +an axe, poised from the right ear {of the butcher}, dashes to pieces, +with a clean stroke, the hollow temples of the sucking calf, while the +dam looks on. Yet after Phoebus had poured the unavailing perfumes on her +breast, when he had given the {last} embrace and had performed the due +obsequies prematurely hastened, he did not suffer his own offspring to +sink into the same ashes; but he snatched the child from the flames and +from the womb of his mother, and carried him into the cave of the +two-formed Chiron. And he forbade the raven, expecting for himself the +reward of his tongue that told no untruth, to perch any longer among the +white birds. + + [Footnote 72: _Lesbos._--Ver. 591. This was an island in the AEgean + sea, lying to the south of Troy.] + + [Footnote 73: _Plectrum._--Ver. 601. This was a little rod, or + staff, with which the player used to strike the strings of the + lyre, or cithara, on which he was playing.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + History does not afford us the least insight into the foundation of + the story of Coronis transformed into a crow, for making too faithful + a report, nor that of the raven changed from white to black, for + talking too much. If they are based upon some events which really + happened, we must be content to acknowledge that these Fables refer to + the history of two persons entirely unknown to us, and who, perhaps, + lived as far back as the time of the daughters of Cecrops, to whom the + story seems to bear some relation. Coronis being the name of a crow as + well as of a Nymph, Lucian and other writers have fabled that her son, + AEsculapius, was produced from the egg of that bird, and was born in + the shape of a serpent, under which form he was very generally + worshipped. + + +FABLE X. [II.633-675] + + Ocyrrhoe, the daughter of the Centaur Chiron, attempting to predict + future events, tells her father the fate of the child AEsculapius, on + which the Gods transform her into a mare. + +In the meantime the half-beast {Chiron} was proud of a pupil of Divine +origin, and rejoiced in the honor annexed to the responsibility. Behold! +the daughter of the Centaur comes, having her shoulders covered with her +yellow hair; whom once the nymph Chariclo,[74] having borne her on the +banks of a rapid stream, called Ocyrrhoe. She was not contented to learn +her father's arts {only; but} she sang the secrets of the Fates. +Therefore, when she had conceived in her mind the prophetic transports, +and grew warm with the God, whom she held confined within her breast, +she beheld the infant, and she said, "Grow on, child, the giver of +health to the whole world; the bodies of mortals shall often owe their +{own existence} to thee. To thee will it be allowed to restore life when +taken away; and daring to do that once against the will of the Gods, +thou wilt be hindered by the bolts of thy grandsire from being able any +more to grant that {boon}. And from a God thou shalt become a lifeless +carcase; and a God {again}, who lately wast a carcase; and twice shalt +thou renew thy destiny. Thou likewise, dear father, now immortal, and +produced at thy nativity, on the condition of enduring for ever, wilt +then wish that thou couldst die, when thou shalt be tormented on +receiving the blood of a baneful serpent[75] in thy wounded limbs; and +the Gods shall make thee from an immortal {being}, subject to death, and +the three Goddesses[76] shall cut thy threads." + +Something still remained in addition to what she had said. She heaved a +sigh from the bottom of her breast, and the tears bursting forth, +trickled down her cheeks, and thus she said: "The Fates prevent me, and +I am forbidden to say any more, and the use of my voice is precluded. My +arts, which have brought the wrath of a Divinity upon me, were not of so +much value; I wish that I had not been acquainted with the future. Now +the human shape seems to be withdrawing from me; now grass pleases {me} +for my food; now I have a desire to range over the extended plains; I am +turned into a mare, and into a shape kindred {to that of my father}. But +yet, why entirely? For my father partakes of both forms." + +As she was uttering such words as these, the last part of her complaint +was but little understood; and her words were confused. And presently +neither {were} they words indeed, nor did it appear to be the voice of a +mare, but of one imitating a mare. And in a little time she uttered +perfect neighing, and stretched her arms upon the grass. Then did her +fingers grow together, and a smooth hoof united five nails in one +continued piece of horn. The length of her face and of her neck +increased; the greatest part of her long hair became a tail. And as the +hairs lay scattered about her neck, they were transformed into a mane +{lying} upon the right side; at once both her voice and her shape were +changed. And this wondrous change gave her the {new} name {of Enippe}. + + [Footnote 74: _Chariclo._--Ver. 636. She was the daughter of + Apollo, or of Oceanus, but is supposed not to have been the same + person that is mentioned by Apollodorus as the mother of the + prophet Tiresias.] + + [Footnote 75: _A baneful serpent._--Ver. 652. This happened when + one of the arrows of Hercules, dipped in the poison of the Lernaean + Hydra, pierced the foot of Chiron while he was examining it.] + + [Footnote 76: _The three Goddesses._--Ver. 654. Namely, Clotho, + Lachesis, and Atropos, the 'Parcae,' or 'Destinies.'] + + +FABLE XI. [II.676-707] + + Mercury, having stolen the oxen of Apollo, and Battus having perceived + the theft, he engages him, by a present, to keep the matter secret. + Mistrusting, however, his fidelity, he assumes another shape, and + tempting him with presents, he succeeds in corrupting him. To punish + his treachery, the God changes him into a touchstone. + +The Philyrean[77] hero wept, and in vain, {God} of Delphi, implored thy +assistance; but neither couldst thou reverse the orders of great +Jupiter, nor, if thou couldst have reversed them wast thou then present; +{for then} thou wast dwelling in Elis and the Messenian[78] fields. This +was the time when a shepherd's skin garment was covering thee, and a +stick cut out of the wood was the burden of thy left hand, {and} of the +other, a pipe unequal with its seven reeds. And while love is thy +concern, while thy pipe is soothing thee, some cows are said to have +strayed unobserved into the plains of Pylos.[79] The son of Maia the +daughter of Atlas, observes them, and with his {usual} skill hides them, +driven off, in the woods. Nobody but an old man, well-known in that +country, had noticed the theft: all the neighborhood called him Battus. +He was keeping the forests and the grassy pastures, and the set of +fine-bred mares of the rich Neleus.[80] + +{Mercury} was afraid of him, and took him aside with a gentle hand, and +said to him, "Come, stranger, whoever thou art, if, perchance any one +should ask after these herds, deny that thou hast seen them; and, lest +no requital be paid thee for so doing, take a handsome cow as thy +reward;" and {thereupon} he gave {him one}. On receiving it, the +stranger returned this answer: "Thou mayst go in safety. May that stone +first make mention of thy theft;" and he pointed to a stone. The son of +Jupiter feigned to go away. {But} soon he returned, and changing his +form, together with his voice, he said, "Countryman, if thou hast seen +any cows pass along this way, give me thy help, and break silence about +the theft; a female, coupled together with its bull shall be presented +thee as a reward." But the old man,[81] after his reward was {thus} +doubled, said, "They will be beneath those hills;" and beneath those +hills they {really} were. The son of Atlas laughed and said, "Dost thou, +treacherous man, betray me to my own self? Dost betray me to myself?" +and {then} he turned his perjured breast into a hard stone, which even +now is called the "Touchstone;"[82] and this old disgrace is {attached} +to the stone that {really} deserves it not. + + [Footnote 77: _Philyrean._--Ver. 676. Chiron was the son of + Philyra, by Saturn.] + + [Footnote 78: _Messenian._--Ver. 679. Elis and Messenia were + countries of Peloponnesus; the former was on the northwest, and + the latter on the southwest side of it.] + + [Footnote 79: _Plains of Pylos._--Ver. 684. There were three + cities named Pylos in Peloponnesus. One was in Elis, another in + Messenia, and the third was situate between the other two. The + latter is supposed to have been the native place of Nestor, though + they all laid claim to that honor.] + + [Footnote 80: _Neleus._--Ver. 689. He was the king of Pylos, and + the father of Nestor.] + + [Footnote 81: _The old man._--Ver. 702. Clarke quaintly translates + 'at senior,' 'but then the old blade.'] + + [Footnote 82: _The 'Touchstone.'_--Ver. 706. It is a matter of + doubt among commentators whether 'index' here means a general term + for the touchstone, by which metals are tested; or whether it + means that Battus was changed into one individual stone, which + afterwards was called 'index.' Lactantius, by his words, seems to + imply that the latter was the case. He says, 'He changed him into + a stone, which, from this circumstance, is called "index" about + Pylos.' 'Index' was a name of infamy, corresponding with the Greek + word +sykophantes+, and with our term 'spy.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The Centaurs, fabulous monsters, half men and half horses, were + perhaps the first horsemen in Thessaly and its neighborhood. It is + also probable that Chiron, who was one of these, acquired great fame + by the knowledge he had acquired at a time and in a country where + learning was little cultivated. The ancients regarded him as the first + promulgator of the utility of medicines, in which he was said to have + instructed his pupil AEsculapius. He was also considered to be an + excellent musician and a good astronomer, as we learn from Homer, + Diodorus Siculus, and other authors. Most of the heroes of that age, + and among them Hercules and Jason, studied under him. Very probably, + the only foundation for the story of the transformation of Ocyrrhoe, + was the skill and address which, under her father's instruction, she + acquired in riding and the management of horses. For if, as it seems + really was the case, the horsemen of that age were taken for monsters, + half men and half horses, it is not surprising to find the story that + the daughter of a Centaur was transformed into a mare. + + Chiron is generally supposed to have marked out the Constellations, + for the purpose of directing the Argonauts in their voyage for the + recovery of the Golden Fleece. + + +FABLE XII. [II.708-764] + + Mercury, falling in love with Herse, the daughter of Cecrops, + endeavors to engage Aglauros in his interest, and by her means, to + obtain access to her sister. She refuses to assist him, unless he + promises to present her with a large sum of money. + +Hence, the bearer of the caduceus raised himself upon equal wings; and +as he flew, he looked down upon the fields of Munychia,[83] and the land +pleasing to Minerva, and the groves of the well-planted Lycaeus. On that +day, by chance, the chaste virgins were, in their purity, carrying the +sacred offerings in baskets crowned with flowers, upon their heads to +the joyful citadel of Pallas. The winged God beholds them returning +thence; and he does not shape his course directly forward, but wheels +round in the {same} circle. As that bird swiftest in speed, the kite, on +espying the entrails, while he is afraid, and the priests stand in +numbers around the sacrifice, wings his flight in circles, and yet +ventures not to go far away, and greedily hovers around {the object of} +his hopes with waving wings, so does the active Cyllenian {God} bend his +course over the Actaean towers, and circles round in the same air. As +much as Lucifer shines more brightly than the other stars, and as much +as the golden Phoebe {shines more brightly} than thee, O Lucifer, so much +superior was Herse, as she went, to all the {other} virgins, and was the +ornament of the solemnity and of her companions. The son of Jupiter was +astonished at her beauty; and as he hung in the air, he burned no +otherwise than as when the Balearic[84] sling throws forth the plummet +of lead; it flies and becomes red hot in its course, and finds beneath +the clouds the fires which it had not {before}. + +He alters his course, and, having left heaven, goes a different way; nor +does he disguise himself; so great is his confidence in his beauty. +This, though it is {every way} complete, still he improves by care, and +smooths his hair and {adjusts} his mantle,[85] that it may hang +properly, so that the fringe and all the gold may be seen; {and minds} +that his long smooth wand, with which he induces and drives away sleep, +is in his right hand, and that his wings[86] shine upon his beauteous +feet. + +A private part of the house had three bed-chambers, adorned with ivory +and with tortoiseshell, of which thou, Pandrosos, hadst the right-hand +one, Aglauros the left-hand, and Herse had the one in the middle. She +that occupied the left-hand one was the first to remark Mercury +approaching, and she ventured to ask the name of the God, and the +occasion of his coming. To her thus answered the grandson of Atlas and +of Pleione: "I am he who carries the commands of my father through the +air. Jupiter himself is my father. Nor will I invent pretences; do thou +only be willing to be attached to thy sister, and to be called the aunt +of my offspring. Herse is the cause of my coming; I pray thee to favor +one in love." Aglauros looks upon him with the same eyes with which she +had lately looked upon the hidden mysteries of the yellow-haired +Minerva, and demands for her agency gold of great weight; {and}, in the +meantime, obliges him to go out of the house. The warlike Goddess turned +upon her the orbs of her stern eyes, and drew a sigh from the bottom {of +her heart}, with so great a motion, that she heaved both her breast and +the AEgis placed before her valiant breast. It occurred {to her} that she +had laid open her secrets with a profane hand, at the time when she +beheld progeny created for {the God} who inhabits Lemnos,[87] without a +mother, {and} contrary to the assigned laws; and that she could now be +agreeable both to the God and to the sister {of Aglauros}, and that she +would be enriched by taking the gold, which she, in her avarice, had +demanded. Forthwith she repairs to the abode of Envy, hideous with black +gore. Her abode is concealed in the lowest recesses of a cave, wanting +sun, {and} not pervious to any wind, dismal and filled with benumbing +cold; and which is ever without fire, and ever abounding with darkness. + + [Footnote 83: _Munychia._--Ver. 709. Munychia was the name of a + promontory and harbor of Attica, between the Piraeus and the + promontory of 'Sunium.' The spot was so called from Munychius, who + there built a temple in honor of Diana.] + + [Footnote 84: _Balearic._--Ver. 727. The Baleares were the islands + of Majorca, Minorca, and Iviza, in the Mediterranean, near the + coast of Spain. The natives of these islands were famous for their + skill in the use of the sling. That weapon does not appear to have + been used in the earliest times among the Greeks, as Homer does + not mention it; it had, however, been introduced by the time of + the war with Xerxes, though even then the sling was, perhaps, + rarely used as a weapon. The Acarnanians and the Achaeans of Agium, + Patrae, and Dymae were very expert in the use of the sling. That + used by the Achaeans was made of three thongs of leather, and not + of one only, like those of other nations. The natives of the + Balearic isles are said to have attained their skill from the + circumstance of their mothers, when they were children, obliging + them to obtain their food by striking it, from a tree, with a + sling. While other slings were made of leather, theirs were made + of rushes. Besides stones, plummets of lead, called 'glandes,' + (as in the present instance), and +molubdides+, of a form between + acorns and almonds, were cast in moulds, to be thrown from slings. + They have been frequently dug up in various parts of Greece, and + particularly on the plains of Marathon. Some have the device of a + thunderbolt; while others are inscribed with +dexai+, 'take this.' + It was a prevalent idea with the ancients that the stone + discharged from the sling became red hot in its course, from the + swiftness of its motion.] + + [Footnote 85: _Adjusts his mantle._--Ver. 733. 'Chlamydemque ut + pendeat apte, Collocat,' etc., is translated by Clarke--'And he + places his coat that it might hang agreeably, that the border and + all its gold might appear.'] + + [Footnote 86: _That his wings._--Ver. 736. Clarke renders 'ut + tersis niteant talaria plantis,' 'that his wings shine upon his + spruce feet.'] + + [Footnote 87: _God who inhabits Lemnos._--Ver. 757. Being + precipitated from heaven for his deformity, Vulcan fell upon the + Isle of Lemnos, in the AEgean Sea, where he exercised the craft of + a blacksmith, according to the mythologists. The birth of + Ericthonius, by the aid of Minerva, is here referred to.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero tells us, that there were several persons in ancient times + named Mercury. The probability is, that one of them fell in love with + Herse, one of the daughters of Cecrops, king of Athens; and that + Aglauros becoming jealous of her, this tradition was built upon facts + of so ordinary a nature. + + +FABLE XIII. [II.765-832] + + Pallas commands Envy to make Aglauros jealous of her sister Herse. + Envy obeys the request of the Goddess; and Aglauros, stung with that + passion, continues obstinate in opposing Mercury's passage to her + sister's apartment, for which the God changes her into a statue. + +When the female warrior, to be dreaded in battle, came hither, she stood +before the abode (for she did not consider it lawful to go under the +roof), and she struck the door-posts with the end of the spear. The +doors, being shaken, flew open; she sees Envy within, eating the flesh +of vipers, the nutriment of her own bad propensities; and when she sees +her, she turns away her eyes. But the other rises sluggishly from the +ground, and leaves the bodies of the serpents half devoured, and stalks +along with sullen pace. And when she sees the Goddess graced with beauty +and with {splendid} arms, she groans, and fetches a deep sigh at her +appearance. A paleness rests on her face, {and} leanness in all her +body; she never looks direct on you; her teeth are black with rust; her +breast is green with gall; her tongue is dripping with venom. Smiles +there are none, except such as the sight of grief has excited. Nor does +she enjoy sleep, being kept awake with watchful cares; but sees with +sorrow the successes of men, and pines away at seeing them. She both +torments and is tormented at the same moment, and is {ever} her own +punishment. Yet, though Tritonia[88] hated her, she spoke to her briefly +in such words as these: "Infect one of the daughters of Cecrops with thy +poison; there is occasion so {to do}; Aglauros is she." + +Saying no more, she departed, and spurned the ground with her spear +impressed on it. She, beholding the Goddess as she departed, with a look +askance, uttered a few murmurs, and grieved at the success of Minerva; +and took her staff, which wreaths of thorns entirely surrounded; and +veiled in black clouds, wherever she goes she tramples down the blooming +fields, and burns up the grass, and crops the tops {of the flowers}. +With her breath, too, she pollutes both nations and cities, and houses; +and at last she descries the Tritonian[89] citadel, flourishing in arts +and riches, and cheerful peace. Hardly does she restrain her tears, +because she sees nothing to weep at. But after she has entered the +chamber of the daughter of Cecrops, she executes her orders; and touches +her breast with her hand stained with rust, and fills her heart with +jagged thorns. She breathes into her as well the noxious venom, and +spreads the poison black as pitch throughout her bones, and lodges it in +the midst of her lungs. + +And that these causes of mischief may not wander through too wide a +space, she places her sister before her eyes, and the fortunate marriage +of {that} sister, and the God under his beauteous appearance, and +aggravates each particular. By this, the daughter of Cecrops being +irritated, is gnawed by a secret grief, and groans, tormented by night, +tormented by day, and wastes away in extreme wretchedness, with a slow +consumption, as ice smitten upon by a sun often clouded. She burns at +the good fortune of the happy Herse, no otherwise than as when fire is +placed beneath thorny reeds, which do not send forth flames, and burn +with a gentle heat. Often does she wish to die, that she may not be a +witness to any such thing; often, to tell the matters, as criminal, to +her severe father. At last, she sat herself down in the front of the +threshold, in order to exclude the God when he came; to whom, as he +proffered blandishments and entreaties, and words of extreme kindness, +she said, "Cease {all this}; I shall not remove myself hence, until thou +art repulsed." "Let us stand to that agreement," says the active +Cyllenian {God}; and he opens the carved door with his wand. But in her, +as she endeavors to arise, the parts which we bend in sitting cannot be +moved, through their numbing weight. She, indeed, struggles to raise +herself, with her body, upright; but the joints of her knees are stiff, +and a chill runs through her nails, and her veins are pallid, through +the loss of blood. + +And as the disease {of} an incurable cancer is wont to spread in all +directions, and to add the uninjured parts to the tainted; so, by +degrees, did a deadly chill enter her breast, and stop the passages of +life, and her respiration. She did not endeavor to speak; but if she had +endeavored, she had no passage for her voice. Stone had now possession +of her neck; her face was grown hard, and she sat, a bloodless statue. +Nor was the stone white; her mind had stained it. + + [Footnote 88: _Tritonia._--Ver. 783. Minerva is said to have been + called Tritonia, either from the Cretan word +trito+, signifying + 'a head,' as she sprang from the head of Jupiter; or from Trito, a + lake of Libya, near which she was said to have been born.] + + [Footnote 89: _Tritonian._--Ver. 794. Athens, namely, which was + sacred to Pallas, or Minerva, its tutelary divinity.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Pausanias, in his Attica, somewhat varies this story, and says that + the daughters of Cecrops, running mad, threw themselves from the top + of a tower. It is very probable that on the introduction of the + worship of Pallas, or Minerva, into Attica, these daughters of Cecrops + may have hesitated to encourage the innovation, and the story was + promulgated that the Goddess had in that manner punished their + impiety. This seems the more likely, from the fact mentioned by + Pausanias that Pandrosos, the third daughter of Cecrops, had, after + her death, a temple built in honor of her, near that of Minerva, + because she had continued faithful to that Goddess, and had not + disobeyed her, as her sisters had done. The reputation and good fame + of Herse and Aglauros had, however, been restored by the time of + Herodotus, since he informs us that they both had their temples at + Athens. + + +FABLE XIV. [II.833-875] + + Jupiter assumes the shape of a Bull, and carrying off Europa, swims + with her on his back to the isle of Crete. + +When the grandson of Atlas had inflicted this punishment upon her words +and her profane disposition, he left the lands named after Pallas, and +entered the skies with his waving wings. His father calls him on one +side; and, not owning the cause of his love, he says, "My son, the +trusty minister of my commands, banish delay, and swiftly descend with +thy usual speed, and repair to the region which looks towards thy +{Constellation} mother on the left side, (the natives call it +Sidonis[90] by name) and drive towards the sea-shore, the herd belonging +to the king, which thou seest feeding afar upon the grass of the +mountain." + +{Thus} he spoke; and already were the bullocks, driven from the +mountain, making for the shore named, where the daughter of the great +king, attended by Tyrian virgins, was wont to amuse herself. Majesty and +love but ill accord, nor can they continue in the same abode. The father +and the ruler of the Gods, whose right hand is armed with the +three-forked flames, who shakes the world with his nod, laying aside the +dignity of empire, assumes the appearance of a bull; and mixing with the +oxen, he lows, and, in all his beauty, walks about upon the shooting +grass. For his color is that of snow, which neither the soles of hard +feet have trodden upon, nor the watery South wind melted. His neck +swells with muscles; dewlaps hang from {between} his shoulders. His +horns are small indeed, but such as you might maintain were made with +the hand, and more transparent than a bright gem. There is nothing +threatening in his forehead; nor is his eye formidable; his countenance +expresses peace. + +The daughter of Agenor is surprised that he is so beautiful, and that he +threatens no attack; but although so gentle, she is at first afraid to +touch him. By and by she approaches him, and holds out flowers to his +white mouth. The lover rejoices, and till his hoped-for pleasure comes, +he gives kisses to her hands; scarcely, oh, scarcely, does he defer the +rest. And now he plays with her, and skips upon the green grass; {and} +now he lays his snow-white side upon the yellow sand. And, her fear +{now} removed by degrees, at one moment he gives his breast to be patted +by the hand of the virgin; at another, his horns to be wreathed with +new-made garlands. The virgin of royal birth even ventured to sit down +upon the back of the bull, not knowing upon whom she was pressing. Then +the God, by degrees {moving} from the land, and from the dry shore, +places the fictitious hoofs of his feet in the waves near the brink. +Then he goes still further, and carries his prize over the expanse of +the midst of the ocean. She is affrighted, and, borne off, looks back on +the shore she has left; and with her right hand she grasps his horn, +{while} the other is placed on his back; her waving garments are ruffled +by the breeze. + + [Footnote 90: _Sidonis._--Ver. 840. Sidon, or Sidonis, was a + maritime city of Phoenicia, near Tyre, of whose greatness it was + not an unworthy rival.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This Fable depicts one of the most famous events in the ancient + Mythology. As we have already remarked, it is supposed that there were + several persons of the name of Zeus, or Jupiter; though there is great + difficulty in assigning to each individual his own peculiar + adventures. Vossius refers the adventure of Niobe, the daughter of + Phoroneus, to Jupiter Apis, the king of Argos, who reigned about B.C. + 1770; and that of Danae to Jupiter Proetus, who lived about 1350 years + before the Christian era. It was Jupiter Tantalus, according to him, + that carried off Ganymede; and it was Jupiter, the father of Hercules, + that deceived Leda. He says that the subject of the present Fable was + Jupiter Asterius, who reigned about B.C. 1400. Diodorus Siculus tells + us that he was the son of Teutamus, who, having married the daughter + of Creteus, went with some Pelasgians to settle in the island of + Crete, of which he was the first king. We may then conclude, that + Jupiter Asterius, having heard of the beauty of Europa, the daughter + of Agenor, King of Tyre, fitted out a ship, for the purpose of + carrying her off by force. This is the less improbable, as we learn + from Herodotus, that the custom of carrying those away by force, who + could not be obtained by fair means, was very common in these rude + ages. + + The ship in which Asterius made his voyage, had, very probably, the + form of a bull for its figure-head; which, in time, occasioned those + who related the adventure, to say, that Jupiter concealed himself + under the shape of that animal, to carry off his mistress. Palaephatus + and Tzetzes suggest, that the story took its rise from the name of + the general of Asterius, who was called Taurus, which is also the + Greek name for a bull. Bochart has an ingenious suggestion, based upon + etymological grounds. He thinks that the twofold meaning of the word + 'Alpha,' or 'Ilpha,' which, in the Phoenician dialect, meant either a + ship or a bull, gave occasion to the fable; and that the Greeks, on + reading the annals of the Phoenicians, by mistake, took the word in + the latter sense. + + Europa was honored as a Divinity after her death, and a festival was + instituted in her memory, which Hesychius calls 'Hellotia,' from + +Hellotis+, the name she received after her death. + + + + +BOOK THE THIRD. + + +FABLE I. [III.1-34] + + Jupiter, having carried away Europa, her father, Agenor, commands his + son Cadmus to go immediately in search of her, and either to bring + back his sister with him, or never to return to Phoenicia. Cadmus, + wearied with his toils and fruitless inquiries, goes to consult the + oracle at Delphi, which bids him observe the spot where he should see + a cow lie down, and build a city there, and give the name of Boeotia + to the country. + +And now the God, having laid aside the shape of the deceiving Bull, had +discovered himself, and reached the Dictaean land; when her father, +ignorant {of her fate}, commands Cadmus to seek her {thus} ravished, and +adds exile as the punishment, if he does not find her; being {both} +affectionate and unnatural in the self-same act. The son of Agenor, +having wandered over the whole world,[1] as an exile flies from his +country and the wrath of his father, for who is there that can discover +the intrigues of Jupiter? A suppliant, he consults the oracle of Phoebus, +and inquires in what land he must dwell. "A heifer," Phoebus says, "will +meet thee in the lonely fields, one that has never borne the yoke, and +free from the crooked plough. Under her guidance, go on thy way; and +where she shall lie down on the grass, there cause a city to be built, +and call it the Boeotian[2] {city}." + +Scarcely had Cadmus well got down from the Castalian cave,[3] {when} he +saw a heifer, without a keeper, slowly going along, bearing no mark of +servitude upon her neck. He follows, and pursues her steps with +leisurely pace, and silently adores Phoebus, the adviser of his way. +{And} now he had passed the fords of the Cephisus, and the fields of +Panope, {when} the cow stood still and raising her forehead, expansive +with lofty horns, towards heaven, she made the air reverberate with her +lowings. And so, looking back on her companions that followed behind, +she lay down, and reposed her side upon the tender grass. Cadmus +returned thanks, and imprinted kisses upon the stranger land, and +saluted the unknown mountains and fields. He was {now} going to offer +sacrifice to Jupiter, and commanded his servants to go and fetch some +water for the libation from the running springs. An ancient grove was +standing {there, as yet} profaned by no axe. There was a cavern in the +middle {of it}, thick covered with twigs and osiers, forming a low arch +by the junction of the rocks; abounding with plenty of water. Hid in +this cavern, there was a dragon sacred to Mars,[4] adorned with crests +and a golden {color}. His eyes sparkle with fire, {and} all his body is +puffed out with poison; three tongues, {too}, are brandished, and his +teeth stand in a triple row. + + [Footnote 1: _Over the whole world._--Ver. 6. Apollodorus tells us + that Cadmus lived in Thrace until the death of his mother, + Telephassa, who accompanied him; and that, after her decease, he + proceeded to Delphi to make inquiries of the oracle.] + + [Footnote 2: _Boeotian._--Ver. 13. He implies here that Boeotia + received its name from the Greek word +bous+, 'an ox' or 'cow.' + Other writers say that it was so called from Boeotus, the son of + Neptune and Arne. Some authors also say that Thebes received its + name from the Syrian word 'Thebe,' which signified 'an ox.'] + + [Footnote 3: _Castalian cave._--Ver. 14. Castalius was a fountain + at the foot of Mount Parnassus, and in the vicinity of Delphi. It + was sacred to the Muses.] + + [Footnote 4: _Sacred to Mars._--Ver. 32. Euripides says, that the + dragon had been set there by Mars to watch the spot and the + neighboring stream. Other writers say that it was a son of Mars, + Dercyllus by name, and that a Fury, named Tilphosa, was its + mother. Ancient history abounds with stories of enormous serpents. + The army of Regulus is said by Pliny the Elder, to have killed a + serpent of enormous size, which obstructed the passage of the + river Bagrada, in Africa. It was 120 feet in length.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Reverting to the history of Europa, it may be here remarked, that + Apollodorus has preserved her genealogy. Libya, according to that + author, had two sons by Neptune, Belus and Agenor. The latter married + Telephassa, by whom he had Cadmus, Phoenix, and Cilix, and a daughter + named Europa. Some ancient writers, however, say, that Europa was the + daughter of Phoenix, and the grandchild of Agenor. + + Some authors, and Ovid among the rest, have supposed that Europe + received its name from Europa. Bochart has, with considerable + probability, suggested that it was originally so called from the fair + complexion of the people who inhabited it. Europa herself may have + received her name also from the fairness of her complexion: hence, the + poets, as the Scholiast on Theocritus tells us, invented a fable, that + a daughter of Juno stole her mother's paint, to give it to Europa, who + used it with so much success as to ensure, by its use, an extremely + fair and beautiful complexion. + + +FABLE II. [III.35-130] + + The companions of Cadmus, fetching water from the fountain of Mars, + are devoured by the Dragon that guards it. Cadmus, on discovering + their destruction, slays the monster, and, by the advice of Minerva, + sows the teeth, which immediately produce a crop of armed men. They + forthwith quarrel among themselves, and kill each other, with the + exception of five who assist Cadmus in building the city of Thebes. + +After the men who came from the Tyrian nation had touched this grove +with ill-fated steps, and the urn let down into the water made a splash; +the azure dragon stretched forth his head from the deep cave, and +uttered dreadful hissings. The urns dropped from their hands; and the +blood left their bodies, and a sudden trembling seized their astonished +limbs. He wreathes his scaly orbs in rolling spires, and with a spring +becomes twisted into mighty folds; and uprearing himself from below the +middle into the light air, he looks down upon all the grove, and is of +as large a size,[5] as, if you were to look on him entire, {the serpent} +which separates the two Bears. + +There is no delay; he seizes the Phoenicians (whether they are resorting +to their arms or to flight, or whether fear itself is preventing either +{step}); some he kills with his sting,[6] some with his long folds, some +breathed upon[7] by the venom of his baneful poison. + +The sun, now at its height, had made the shadows {but} small: the son of +Agenor wonders what has detained his companion and goes to seek his men. +His garment was a skin torn from a lion; his weapon was a lance with +shining steel, and a javelin; and a courage superior to any weapon. When +he entered the grove, and beheld the lifeless bodies, and the victorious +enemy of immense size upon them, licking the horrid wounds with +bloodstained tongue, he said, "Either I will be the avenger of your +death, bodies {of my} faithful {companions}, or {I will be} a sharer {in +it}." {Thus} he said; and with his right hand he raised a huge stone,[8] +and hurled the vast {weight} with a tremendous effort. {And} although +high walls with lofty towers would have been shaken with the shock of +it, {yet} the dragon remained without a wound; and, being defended by +his scales as though with a coat of mail, and the hardness of his black +hide, he repelled the mighty stroke with his skin. But he did not +overcome the javelin as well with the same hardness; which stood fast, +fixed in the middle joint of his yielding spine, and sank with the +entire {point of} steel into his entrails. Fierce with pain, he turned +his head towards his back, and beheld his wounds, and bit the javelin +fixed there. And after he had twisted it on every side with all his +might, with difficulty he wrenched it from his back; yet the steel stuck +fast in his bones. But then, when this newly inflicted wound has +increased his wonted fury, his throat swelled with gorged veins, and +white foam flowed around his pestilential jaws. The Earth, too, scraped +with the scales, sounds again, and the livid steam that issues from his +infernal mouth,[9] infects the tainted air. One while he is enrolled in +spires making enormous rings; sometimes he unfolds himself straighter +than a long beam. Now with a vast impulse, like a torrent swelled with +rain, he is borne along, and bears down the obstructing forests with his +breast. The son of Agenor gives way a little; and by the spoil of the +lion he sustains the shock, and with his lance extended before him, +pushes back his mouth, as it advances. The dragon rages, and vainly +inflicts wounds on the hard steel, and fixes his teeth upon the point. +And now the blood began to flow from his poisonous palate, and had dyed +the green grass with its spray. But the wound was slight; because he +recoiled from the stroke, and drew back his wounded throat, and by +shrinking prevented the blow from sinking deep, and did not suffer it to +go very far. At length, the son of Agenor, still pursuing, pressed the +spear lodged in his throat, until an oak stood in his way as he +retreated, and his neck was pierced, together with the trunk. The tree +was bent with the weight of the serpent, and groaned at having its trunk +lashed with the extremity of its tail. + +While the conqueror was surveying the vast size of his vanquished enemy, +a voice was suddenly heard (nor was it easy to understand whence {it +was}, but heard it was). "Why, son of Agenor, art thou {thus} +contemplating the dragon slain {by thee}? Even thou {thyself} shalt be +seen {in the form of} a dragon."[10] He, for a long time in alarm, lost +his color together with his presence of mind, and his hair stood on end +with a chill of terror. Lo! Pallas, the favorer of the hero, descending +through the upper region of the air, comes to him, and bids him sow the +dragon's teeth under the earth turned up, as the seeds of a future +people. He obeyed; and when he had opened a furrow with the pressed +plough, he scattered the teeth on the ground as ordered, the seed of a +race of men. Afterwards ('tis beyond belief) the turf began to move, and +first appeared a point of a spear out of the furrows, next the coverings +of heads nodding with painted cones;[11] then the shoulders and the +breast, and the arms laden with weapons start up, and a crop of men +armed with shields grows apace. So, when the curtains[12] are drawn up +in the joyful theaters, figures are wont to rise, and first to show +their countenances; by degrees the rest; and being drawn out in a +gradual continuation, the whole appear, and place their feet on the +lowest edge {of the stage}. Alarmed with this new enemy, Cadmus is +preparing to take arms, when one of the people that the earth had +produced cries out, "Do not take up {arms}, nor engage thyself in civil +war." And then, engaged hand to hand, he strikes one of his earth-born +brothers with the cruel sword, {while} he himself falls by a dart sent +from a distance. He, also, who had put him to death, lives no longer +than the other, and breathes forth the air which he has so lately +received. In a similar manner, too, the whole troop becomes maddened, +and the brothers {so} newly sprung up, fall in fight with each other, by +mutual wounds. And now the youths that had the space of {so} short an +existence allotted them, beat with throbbing breast their blood-stained +mother, five {only} remaining, of whom Echion[13] was one. He, by the +advice of Tritonia, threw his arms upon the ground, and both asked and +gave the assurance of brotherly concord. + +The Sidonian stranger had these as associates in his task, when he built +the city that was ordered by the oracle of Phoebus. + + [Footnote 5: _As large a size._--Ver. 44. This description of the + enormous size of the dragon or serpent is inconsistent with what + the Poet says in line 91, where we find Cadmus enabled to pin his + enemy against an oak.] + + [Footnote 6: _With his sting._--Ver. 48. He enumerates in this one + instance the various modes by which serpents put their prey to + death, either by means of their sting, or, in the case of the + larger kinds of serpent, by twisting round it, and suffocating it + in their folds.] + + [Footnote 7: _Some breathed upon._--Ver. 49. It was a prevalent + notion among the ancients, that some serpents had the power of + killing their prey by their poisonous breath. Though some modern + commentators on this passage may be found to affirm the same thing, + it is extremely doubtful if such is the fact. The notion was, + perhaps, founded on the power which certain serpents have of + fascinating their prey by the agency of the eye, and thus + depriving it of the means of escape.] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge stone._--Ver. 59. 'Molaris' here means a + stone as large as a mill-stone, and not a mill-stone itself, for + we must remember that this was an uninhabited country, and + consequently a stranger to the industry of man.] + + [Footnote 9: _His infernal mouth._--Ver. 76. 'Stygio' means + 'pestilential as the exhalations of the marshes of Styx.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Form of a dragon._--Ver. 98. This came to pass + when, having been expelled from his dominions by Zethus and + Amphion, he retired to Illyria, and was there transformed into a + serpent, a fate which was shared by his wife Hermione.] + + [Footnote 11: _With painted cones._--Ver. 108. The 'conus' was the + conical part of the helmet into which the crest of variegated + feathers was inserted.] + + [Footnote 12: _When the curtains._--Ver. 111. The 'Siparium' was a + piece of tapestry stretched on a frame, and, rising before the + stage, answered the same purpose as the curtain or drop-scene with + us, in concealing the stage till the actors appeared. Instead of + drawing up this curtain to discover the stage and actors, + according to our present practice, it was depressed when the play + began, and fell beneath the level of the stage; whence 'aulaea + premuntur,' 'the curtain is dropped,' meant that the play had + commenced. When the performance was finished, this was raised + again gradually from the foot of the stage; therefore 'aulaea + tolluntur,' 'the curtain is raised,' would mean that the play had + finished. From the present passage we learn, that in drawing it up + from the stage, the curtain was gradually displayed, the unfolding + taking place, perhaps, below the boards, so that the heads of the + figures rose first, until the whole form appeared in full with the + feet resting on the stage, when the 'siparium' was fully drawn up. + From a passage in Virgil's Georgics (book iii. l. 25), we learn + that the figures of Britons (whose country had then lately been + the scene of new conquests) were woven on the canvas of the + 'siparium,' having their arms in the attitude of lifting the + curtain.] + + [Footnote 13: _Echion._--Ver. 126. The names of the others were + Udeus, Chthonius, Hyperenor, and Pelor, according to Apollodorus. + To these some added Creon, as a sixth.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Agenor, on losing his daughter, commands his sons to go in search of + her, and not to return till they have found her. The young princes, + either unable to learn what was become of her, or, perhaps, being too + weak to recover her out of the hands of the king of Crete, did not + return to their father, but established themselves in different + countries; Cadmus settling in Boeotia, Cilix in Cilicia, to which he + gave his name, and Phoenix, as Hyginus tells us, remaining in Africa. + Photius, quoting from Conon, the historian, informs us, that the hope + of conquering some country in Europe, and establishing a colony there, + was the true ground of the voyage of Cadmus. + + Palaephatus, and other writers, say, that the Dragon which was killed + by Cadmus was a king of the country, who was named Draco, and was a + son of Mars: that his teeth were his subjects, who rallied again after + their defeat, and that Cadmus put them all to the sword, except + Chthonius, Udeus, Hyperenor, Pelor, and Echion, who became reconciled + to him. Heraclitus, however, assures us, that Cadmus really did slay a + serpent, which was very annoying to the Boeotian territory. Bochart + and LeClerc are of opinion that the Fable has the following + foundation:--They say, that in the Phoenician language, the same word + signifies either the teeth of a serpent, or short javelins, pointed + with brass; that the word which signifies the number five likewise + means an army; and that probably, from these circumstances, the Fable + may have taken its rise. For the Greeks, in following the annals + written in the Phoenician language, while writing the history of the + founder of Thebes, instead of describing his soldiers as wearing + helmets on their heads, with back and breast-plates, and with darts in + their hands pointed with brass, which equipment was then entirely + novel in Greece, chose rather to follow the more wonderful version, + and to say, that Cadmus had five companions produced from the teeth of + a serpent; as, according to Bochart's suggestion, the same Phoenician + phrase may either signify a company of men sprung from the teeth of a + serpent, or a company of men armed with brazen darts. + + This conjecture is, perhaps, confirmed by a story related by Herodotus + (book ii.), which resembles it very much. He tells us, that + Psammeticus, king of Egypt, being driven to the marshy parts of his + kingdom, sent to consult the oracle of Latona, which answered that he + should be restored by brass men coming from the sea. At the time, this + answer appeared to him entirely frivolous; but certain Ionian + soldiers, being obliged, some years after, to retire to Egypt, and + appearing on the shore with their weapons and armor, all of brass, + those who perceived them ran immediately to inform the king, that men + clad in brass were plundering the country. The prince then fully + comprehended the meaning of the oracle, and making an alliance with + them, recovered his throne by the assistance they gave him. These + brass men come from the sea, and those sprung from the earth were + soldiers who assisted Psammeticus and Cadmus in carrying out their + objects. Bochart's conjecture is strengthened by the fact, that Cadmus + was either the inventor of the cuirass and javelin, or the first that + brought them into Greece. Without inquiring further into the subject, + we may conclude, that the men sprung from the earth, or the dragon's + teeth which were sown, were the people of the country, whom Cadmus + found means to bring over to his interest; and that they first helped + him to conquer his enemies, and then to build the citadel of Thebes, + to ensure his future security. Apollodorus says that Cadmus, to + expiate the slaughter of the dragon, was obliged to serve Mars a whole + year; which year, containing eight of our years, it is not improbable + that Cadmus rendered services for a long time to his new allies before + he received any assistance from them. + + +FABLE III. [III.131-252] + + Actaeon, the grandson of Cadmus, fatigued with hunting and excessive + heat, inadvertently wanders to the cool valley of Gargaphie, the usual + retreat of Diana, when tired with the same exercise. There, to his + misfortune, he surprises the Goddess and her Nymphs while bathing, for + which she transforms him into a stag, and his own hounds tear him to + pieces. + +And now Thebes was standing; now Cadmus, thou mightst seem happy in thy +exile. Both Mars and Venus[14] had become thy father-in-law and +mother-in-law; add to this, issue by a wife so illustrious, so many +sons[15] and daughters, and grandchildren, dear pledges {of love}; +these, too, now of a youthful age. But, forsooth, the last day {of life} +must always be awaited by man, and no one ought to be pronounced happy +before his death,[16] and his last obsequies. Thy grandson, Cadmus, was +the first occasion of sorrow to thee, among so much prosperity, the +horns, too, not his own, placed upon his forehead, and you, O dogs, +glutted with the blood of your master. But, if you diligently inquire +into his {case}, you will find the fault of an accident, and not +criminality in him; for what criminality did mistake embrace? + +There was a mountain stained with the blood of various wild beasts; and +now the day had contracted the meridian shadow of things, and the sun +was equally distant from each extremity {of the heavens}; when the +Hyantian youth[17] {thus} addressed the partakers of his toils, as they +wandered along the lonely haunts {of the wild beasts}, with gentle +accent: "Our nets are moistened, my friends, and our spears, too, with +the blood of wild beasts; and the day has yielded sufficient sport; when +the next morn, borne upon her rosy chariot, shall bring back the light, +let us seek again our proposed task. Now Phoebus is at the same distance +from both lands, {the Eastern and the Western}, and is cleaving the +fields with his heat. Cease your present toils, and take away the +knotted nets." The men execute his orders, and cease their labors. There +was a valley, thick set with pitch-trees and the sharp-pointed cypress; +by name Gargaphie,[18] sacred to the active Diana. In the extreme recess +of this, there was a grotto in a grove, formed by no art; nature, by her +ingenuity, had counterfeited art; for she had formed a natural arch, in +the native pumice and the light sand-stones. A limpid fountain ran +murmuring on the right hand with its little stream, having its spreading +channels edged with a border of grass. Here, {when} wearied with +hunting, the Goddess of the woods was wont to bathe her virgin limbs in +clear water. + +After she had entered there, she handed to one of the Nymphs, her +armor-bearer, her javelin, her quiver, and her unstrung bow. Another +Nymph put her arms under her mantle, when taken off: two removed the +sandals from her feet. But Crocale,[19] the daughter of Ismenus, more +skilled than they, gathered her hair, which lay scattered over her neck, +into a knot, although she herself was with {her hair} loose. +Nephele,[20] and Hyale,[21] and Rhanis,[22] fetch water, Psecas[23] and +Phyale[24] {do the same}, and pour it from their large urns. And while +the Titanian {Goddess} was there bathing in the wonted stream, behold! +the grandson of Cadmus, having deferred the remainder of his sport till +{next day}, came into the grove, wandering through the unknown wood, +with uncertain steps; thus did his fate direct him. + +Soon as he entered the grotto, dropping with its springs, the Nymphs, +naked as they were, on seeing a man, smote their breasts, and filled all +the woods with sudden shrieks, and gathering round Diana, covered her +with their bodies. Yet the Goddess herself was higher than they, and was +taller than them all by the neck. The color that is wont to be in +clouds, tinted by the rays of the sun {when} opposite, or that of the +ruddy morning, was on the features of Diana, when seen without her +garments. She, although surrounded with the crowd of her attendants, +stood sideways, and turned her face back; and how did she wish that she +had her arrows at hand; {and} so she took up water,[25] which she did +have {at hand}, and threw it over the face of the man, and sprinkling +his hair with the avenging stream, she added these words, the presages +of his future woe: "Now thou mayst tell, if tell thou canst, how that I +was seen by thee without my garments." Threatening no more, she places +on his sprinkled head the horns of a lively stag; she adds length to his +neck, and sharpens the tops of his ears; and she changes his hands into +feet, and his arms into long legs, and covers his body with a spotted +coat of hair; fear, too is added. The Autonoeian[26] hero took to +flight, and wondered that he was so swift in his speed; but when he +beheld his own horns in the wonted stream, he was about to say, "Ah, +wretched me!" {when} no voice followed. He groaned; that was {all} his +voice, and his tears trickled down a face not his own, {but that of a +stag}. His former understanding alone remained. What should he do? +Should he return home, and to the royal abode? or should he lie hid in +the woods? Fear hinders the one {step}, shame the other. While he was +hesitating, the dogs espied him, and first Melampus,[27] and the +good-nosed Ichnobates gave the signal, in full cry. Ichnobates,[28] was +a Gnossian {dog}; Melampus was of Spartan breed. Then the rest rush on, +swifter than the rapid winds; Pamphagus,[29] and Dorcaeus,[30] and +Oribasus,[31] all Arcadian {dogs}; and able Nebrophonus,[32] and with +Laelaps,[33] fierce Theron,[34] and Pterelas,[35] excelling in speed, +Agre[36] in her scent, and Hylaeus,[37] lately wounded by a fierce boar, +and Nape,[38] begotten by a wolf, and Poemenis,[39] that had tended +cattle, and Harpyia,[40] followed by her two whelps, and the Sicyonian +Ladon,[41] having a slender girth; Dromas,[42] too, and Canace,[43] +Sticte,[44] and Tigris, and Alce,[45] and Leucon,[46] with snow-white +hair, and Asbolus,[47] with black, and the able-bodied Lacon,[48] and +Aello,[49] good at running, and Thoues,[50] and swift Lycisca,[51] with +her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] too, having his black face marked +with white down the middle, and Melaneus,[53] and Lachne,[54] with a +wire-haired body, and Labros,[55] and Agriodos,[56] bred of a Dictaean +sire, but of a Laconian dam, and Hylactor,[57] with his shrill note; and +others which it were tedious to recount. + +This pack, in eagerness for their prey, are borne over rocks and cliffs, +and crags difficult of approach, where the path is steep, and where +there is no road. He flies along the routes by which he has so often +pursued; alas! he is {now} flying from his own servants. Fain would he +have cried, "I am Actaeon, recognize your own master." Words are wanting +to his wishes; the air resounds with their barking. Melanchaetes[58] was +the first to make a wound on his back, Theridamas[59] the next; +Oresitrophus[60] fastened upon his shoulder. These had gone out later, +but their course was shortened by a near cut through the hill. While +they hold their master, the rest of the pack come up, and fasten their +teeth in his body. Now room is wanting for {more} wounds. He groans, and +utters a noise, though not that of a man, {still}, such as a stag cannot +make; and he fills the well-known mountains with dismal moans, and +suppliant on his bended knees, and like one in entreaty, he turns round +his silent looks as though {they were} his arms. + +But his companions, in their ignorance, urge on the eager pack with +their usual cries, and seek Actaeon with their eyes; and cry out "Actaeon" +aloud, as though he were absent. At his name he turns his head, as they +complain that he is not there, and in his indolence, is not enjoying a +sight of the sport afforded them. He wished, indeed, he had been away, +but there he was; and he wished to see, not to feel as well, the cruel +feats of his own dogs. They gather round him on all sides, and burying +their jaws in his body, tear their master in pieces under the form of an +imaginary stag. And the rage of the quiver-bearing Diana is said not to +have been satiated, until his life was ended by many a wound. + + [Footnote 14: _Mars and Venus._--Ver. 132. The wife of Cadmus was + Hermione, or Harmonia, who was said to have been the daughter of + Mars and Venus. The Deities honored the nuptials with their + presence, and presented marriage gifts, while the Muses and the + Graces celebrated the festivity with hymns of their own + composition.] + + [Footnote 15: _So many sons._--Ver. 134. Apollodorus, Hyginus, and + others, say that Cadmus had but one son, Polydorus. If so, 'tot,' + 'so many,' must here refer to the number of his daughters and + grandchildren. His daughters were four in number, Autonoe, Ino, + Semele, and Agave. Ino married Athamas, Autonoe Aristaeus, Agave + Echion, while Semele captivated Jupiter. The most famous of the + grandsons of Cadmus were Bacchus, Melicerta, Pentheus, and Actaeon.] + + [Footnote 16: _Before his death._--Ver. 135. This was the famous + remark of Solon to Croesus, when he was the master of the opulent + and flourishing kingdom of Lydia, and seemed so firmly settled on + his throne, that there was no probability of any interruption of + his happiness. Falling into the hands of Cyrus the Persian, and + being condemned to be burnt alive, he recollected this wise saying + of Solon, and by that means saved his life, as we are told by + Herodotus, who relates the story at length. Euripides has a + similar passage in his Troades, line 510.] + + [Footnote 17: _The Hyantian youth._--Ver. 147. Actaeon is thus + called, as being a Boeotian. The Hyantes were the ancient or + aboriginal inhabitants of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 18: _Gargaphie._--Ver. 156. Gargaphie, or Gargaphia, was + a valley situate near Plataea, having a fountain of the same name.] + + [Footnote 19: _Crocale._--Ver. 169. So called, perhaps, from + +kekruphalos+, an ornament for the head, being a coif, band, or + fillet of network for the hair called in Latin 'reticulum,' by + which name her office is denoted. The handmaid, whose duty it was + to attend to the hair, held the highest rank in ancient times + among the domestics.] + + [Footnote 20: _Nephele._--Ver. 171. From the Greek word +nephele+, + 'a cloud.'] + + [Footnote 21: _Hyale._--Ver. 171. This is from +hualos+, 'glass,' + the name signifying 'glassy,' 'pellucid.' The very name calls to + mind Milton's line in his Comus-- + 'Under the glassy, cool, translucent wave.'] + + [Footnote 22: _Rhanis._--Ver. 171. This name is adapted from the + Greek verb +rhaino+, 'to sprinkle.'] + + [Footnote 23: _Psecas._--Ver. 172. From the Greek +psekas+, 'a + dew-drop.'] + + [Footnote 24: _Phyale._--Ver. 172. This is from the Greek + +phiale+, 'an urn.'] + + [Footnote 25: _Took up water._--Ver. 189. The ceremonial of + sprinkling previous to the transformation seems not to have been + neglected any more by the offended Goddesses of the classical + Mythology, than by the intriguing enchantresses of the Arabian + Nights' Entertainments; as the unfortunate Beder, when under the + displeasure of the vicious queen Labe, experienced to his great + inconvenience. The love for the supernatural, combined with an + anxious desire to attribute its operations to material and visible + agencies, forms one of the most singular features of the human + character.] + + [Footnote 26: _Autonoeian._--Ver. 198. Autonoe was the daughter of + Cadmus and Hermione, or Harmonia, and the wife of Aristaeus, by + whom she was the mother of Actaeon. We may here remark, that in one + of his satires, Lucian introduces Juno as saying to Diana, that + she had let loose his dogs on Actaeon, for fear lest, having seen + her naked, he should divulge the deformity of her person.] + + [Footnote 27: _Melampus._--Ver. 206. These names are all from the + Greek, and are interesting, as showing the epithets by which the + ancients called their dogs. The pack of Actaeon is said to have + consisted of fifty dogs. Their names were preserved by several + Greek poets, from whom Apollodorus copied them; but the greater + part of his list has perished, and what remains is in a very + corrupt state. Hyginus has preserved two lists, the first of which + contains thirty-nine names, most of which are similar to those + here given by Ovid, and in almost the same order; while the second + contains thirty-six names, different from those here given. + AEschylus has named but four of them, and Ovid here names + thirty-six. Crete, Arcadia, and Laconia produced the most valuable + hounds. Melampus, 'Black-foot,' is from the Greek words +melas+, + 'black,' and +pous+, 'a foot.'] + + [Footnote 28: _Ichnobates._--Ver. 207. 'Tracer.' From the Greek + +ichnos+, 'a footstep,' and +baino+, 'to go.'] + + [Footnote 29: _Pamphagus._--Ver. 210. 'Glutton.' From +pan+, + 'all,' and +phago+, 'to eat.'] + + [Footnote 30: _Dorcaeus._--Ver. 210. 'Quicksight.' From +derko+, + 'to see.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Oribasus._--Ver. 210. 'Ranger.' From +oros+, 'a + mountain,' and +baino+, 'to go.'] + + [Footnote 32: _Nebrophonus._--Ver. 211. 'Kill-buck.' From + +nebros+, 'a fawn,' and +phoneo+, 'to kill.'] + + [Footnote 33: _Laelaps._--Ver. 211. 'Tempest.' So called from its + swiftness and power, +lailaps+, signifying 'a whirlwind.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Theron._--Ver. 211. 'Hunter.' From the Greek, + +thereuo+, 'to trace,' or 'hunt.'] + + [Footnote 35: _Pterelas._--Ver. 212. 'Wing.' 'Swift-footed,' from + +pteron+, 'a wing,' and +elauno+, 'to drive onward.'] + + [Footnote 36: _Agre._--Ver. 212. 'Catcher.' 'Quick-scented,' from + +agra+, 'hunting,' or 'the chase.'] + + [Footnote 37: _Hylaeus._--Ver. 213. 'Woodger,' or 'Wood-ranger;' + the Greek +hule+, signifying 'a wood.'] + + [Footnote 38: _Nape._--Ver. 214. 'Forester.' A 'forest,' or + 'wood,' being in Greek, +nape+.] + + [Footnote 39: _Poemenis._--Ver. 215. 'Shepherdess,' From the Greek + +poimenis+, 'a shepherdess.'] + + [Footnote 40: _Harpyia._--Ver. 215. 'Ravener.' From the Greek word + +harpuia+, 'a harpy,' or 'ravenous bird.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Ladon._--Ver. 216. This dog takes its name from + Ladon, a river of Sicyon, a territory on the shores of the gulf of + Corinth.] + + [Footnote 42: _Dromas._--Ver. 217. 'Runner.' From the Greek + +dromos+, 'a race.'] + + [Footnote 43: _Canace._--Ver. 217. 'Barker.' The word +kanache+, + signifies 'a noise,' or 'din.'] + + [Footnote 44: _Sticte._--Ver. 217. 'Spot.' So called from the + variety of her colors, as +stiktos+, signifies 'diversified with + various spots,' from +stizo+, 'to vary with spots.' 'Tigris' means + 'Tiger.'] + + [Footnote 45: _Alce._--Ver. 217. 'Strong.' From the Greek +alke+ + 'strength.'] + + [Footnote 46: _Leucon._--Ver. 218. 'White.' From +leukos+, + 'white.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Asbolus._--Ver. 218. 'Soot,' or 'Smut.' From the + Greek +asbolos+, 'soot.'] + + [Footnote 48: _Lacon._--Ver. 219. From his native country, + Laconia.] + + [Footnote 49: _Aello._--Ver. 219. 'Storm.' From +aella+, 'a + tempest.'] + + [Footnote 50: _Thoues._--Ver. 220. 'Swift.' From +thoos+, 'swift.' + Pliny the Elder states, that 'thos' was the name of a kind of + wolf, of larger make, and more active in springing than the common + wolf. He says that it is of inoffensive habits towards man; but + that it lives by prey, and is hairy in winter, but without hair in + summer. It is supposed by some that he alludes to the jackal. + Perhaps, from this animal, the dog here mentioned derived his + name.] + + [Footnote 51: _Lycisca._--Ver. 220. 'Wolf.' From the diminutive of + the Greek word +lukos+, 'a wolf.' Virgil uses 'Lycisca' as the + name of a dog, in his Eclogues.] + + [Footnote 52: _Harpalus._--Ver. 222. 'Snap.' From +harpazo+, 'to + snatch,' or 'plunder.'] + + [Footnote 53: _Melaneus._--Ver. 222. 'Black-coat.' From the Greek, + +melas+, 'black.'] + + [Footnote 54: _Lachne._--Ver. 222. 'Stickle.' From the Greek work + +lachne+, signifying 'thickness of the hair.'] + + [Footnote 55: _Labros._--Ver. 224. 'Worrier.' From the Greek + +labros,+ 'greedy.' Dicte was a mountain of Crete; whence the word + 'Dictaean' is often employed to signify 'Cretan.'] + + [Footnote 56: _Agriodos._--Ver. 224. 'Wild-tooth.' From +agrios,+ + 'wild,' and +odous+, 'a tooth.'] + + [Footnote 57: _Hylactor._--Ver. 224. 'Babbler.' From the Greek + word +hulakteo+, signifying 'to bark.'] + + [Footnote 58: _Melanchaetes._--Ver. 232. 'Black-hair.' From the + +melas+, 'black,' and +chaite+, 'mane.'] + + [Footnote 59: _Theridamas._--Ver. 233. 'Kilham.' From +ther+, 'a + wild beast,' and +damao+, 'to subdue.'] + + [Footnote 60: _Oresitrophus._--Ver. 223. 'Rover.' From +oros+ 'a + mountain,' and +trepho+ 'to nourish.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If the maxim of Horace, 'Nec Deus intersit, nisi dignus vindice + nodus,' had been a little more frequently observed by the ancient + poets, their Deities would not have been so often placed in a + degrading or disgusting light before posterity. There cannot be a + better illustration of the truth of this than the present Fable, where + Ovid represents the chaste and prudent Diana as revenging herself in a + cruel and barbarous manner for the indiscretion, or rather misfortune, + of an innocent young man. + + Cicero mentions several Goddesses of the name of Diana. The first was + the daughter of Jupiter and Proserpine; the second of Jupiter and + Latona; and the third of Upis and Glauce. Strabo mentions another + Diana, named Britomartis, the daughter of Eubalus. The worship, + however, of Diana as the Goddess of the Moon, was, most probably, + derived from Egypt, with the Isis of whom she is perhaps identical. + The adventure narrated in this Fable is most probably to be attributed + to Diana Britomartis, as Strabo tells us, that she was particularly + fond of the chase. Pausanias, in his Attica, tells the story in much + the same terms, but he adds, that on seeing Diana bathing, the novelty + of the sight excited Actaeon's curiosity, and prompted him to approach + nearer. To explain this fable, some authors suggest, that Actaeon's + dogs becoming mad, devoured him; while others suppose, that having + ruined himself by the expense of supporting a large pack of hounds, + and a hunting establishment, it was reported that he had been devoured + by his dogs. Diodorus Siculus, and Euripides, tell us, that Actaeon + showed contempt to Diana, and was about to eat of the sacrifice that + had been offered to her; and of course, in such a case, punishment at + the hands of the Goddess would be deemed a just retribution. + Apollodorus says, that Actaeon was brought up by Chiron, and that he + was put to death on Mount Cithaeron, for having seen Diana bathing; + though, according to one ancient authority, he was punished for having + made improper overtures to Semele. Apollodorus also says, that his + dogs died of grief, on the loss of their master, and he has preserved + some of their names. + + +FABLE IV. [III.253-301] + + Juno, incensed against Semele for her intrigue with Jupiter, takes the + form of Beroe, the more easily to ensure her revenge. Having first + infused in Semele suspicions of her lover, she then recommends her to + adopt a certain method of proving his constancy. Semele, thus + deceived, obtains a reluctant promise from Jupiter, to make his next + visit to her in the splendor and majesty in which he usually + approached his wife. + +They speak in various ways {of this matter}. To some, the Goddess seems +more severe than is proper; others praise her, and call her deserving +{of her state} of strict virginity: both sides find their reasons. The +wife of Jupiter alone does not so much declare whether she blames or +whether she approves, as she rejoices at the calamity of a family sprung +from Agenor, and transfers the hatred that she has conceived from the +Tyrian mistress to the partners of her race. Lo! a fresh occasion is +{now} added to the former one; and she grieves that Semele is pregnant +from the seed of great Jupiter. She then lets loose her tongue to abuse. + +"And what good have I done by railing so often?" said she. "She herself +must be attacked {by me}. If I am properly called the supreme Juno, +I will destroy her; if it becomes me to hold the sparkling sceptre in my +right hand; if I am the queen, and both the sister and wife of Jupiter. +The sister {I am}, no doubt. But I suppose she is content with a stolen +embrace, and the injury to my bed is but trifling. She is {now} +pregnant; that {alone} was wanting; and she bears the evidence of his +crime in her swelling womb, and wishes to be made a mother by Jupiter, +a thing which hardly fell to my lot alone. So great is her confidence in +her beauty. I will take care[61] he shall deceive her; and may I be no +daughter of Saturn, if she does not descend to the Stygian waves, sunk +{there} by her own {dear} Jupiter." + +Upon this she rises from her throne, and, hidden in a cloud of fiery +hue, she approaches the threshold of Semele. Nor did she remove the +clouds before she counterfeited an old woman, and planted gray hair on +her temples; and furrowed her skin with wrinkles, and moved her bending +limbs with palsied step, and made her voice that of an old woman. She +became Beroe[62] herself, the Epidaurian[63] nurse of Semele. When, +therefore, upon engaging in discourse with her, and {after} long +talking, they came to the name of Jupiter, she sighed, and said, +"I {only} wish it may be Jupiter; yet I {am apt to} fear everything. +Many a one under the name of a God has invaded a chaste bed. Nor yet is +it enough that he is Jupiter; let him, if, indeed, he is the real one, +give some pledge of his affection; and beg of him to bestow his caresses +on thee, just in the greatness and form in which he is received by the +stately Juno; and let him first assume his ensigns {of royalty}." With +such words did Juno tutor the unsuspecting daughter of Cadmus. She +requested of Jupiter a favor, without naming it. To her the God said, +"Make thy choice, thou shalt suffer no denial; and that thou mayst +believe it the more, let the majesty of the Stygian stream bear witness. +He {is} the dread and the God of the Gods." + +Overjoyed at {what was} her misfortune, and too {easily} prevailing, as +now about to perish by the complaisance of her lover, Semele said, +"Present thyself to me, just such as the daughter of Saturn is wont to +embrace thee, when ye honor the ties of Venus." The God wished to shut +her mouth as she spoke, {but} the hasty words had now escaped into air. +He groaned; for neither was it {now} possible for her not to have +wished, nor for him not to have sworn. Therefore, in extreme sadness, he +mounted the lofty skies, and with his nod drew along the attendant +clouds; to which he added showers and lightnings mingled with winds, and +thunders, and the inevitable thunderbolt. + + [Footnote 61: _I will take care._--Ver. 271. 'Faxo,' 'I will + make,' is sometimes used by the best authors for 'fecero;' and + 'faxim' for 'faciam,' or 'fecerim.'] + + [Footnote 62: _Beroe._--Ver. 278. Iris, in the fifth book of the + AEneid (l. 620), assumes the form of another Beroe; and a third + person of that name is mentioned in the fourth book of the + Georgics, l. 34.] + + [Footnote 63: _Epidaurian._--Ver. 278. Epidaurus was a famous city + of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, famous for its temple, dedicated to + the worship of AEsculapius, who was the tutelary Divinity of that + city.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is most probable, that an intrigue between a female named Semele + and one of the princes called Jupiter having had a tragical end, gave + occasion to this Fable. Pausanias, in his Laconica, tells us, that + Cadmus, exasperated against his daughter Semele, caused her and her + son to be thrown into the sea; and that being thrown ashore at Oreate, + an ancient town of Laconia, Semele was buried there. + + Semele, according to Apollodorus, was, after her death, ranked among + the Goddesses by the name of Thyone. He says that her son Bacchus + going down to hell, brought her thence, and carried her up to heaven; + where, according to Nonnus, she conversed with Pallas and Diana, and + ate at the same table with Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, and Venus. The + author, known by the name of Orpheus, gives Semele the title of + Goddess, and +Panbasileia+, or 'Queen of the Universe.' + + + +FABLE V. [III.302-338] + + Semele is visited by Jupiter, according to the promise she had obliged + him to make; but, being unable to support the effulgence of his + lightning, she is burnt to ashes in his presence. Bacchus, with whom + she is pregnant, is preserved; and Tiresias decided the dispute + between Jupiter and Juno, concerning the sexes. + +And yet, as much as possible, he tries to mitigate his powers. Nor is he +now armed with those flames with which he had overthrown the +hundred-handed Typhoeus; in those, {there is} too much fury. There is +another thunder, less baneful, to which the right hand of the Cyclops +gave less ferocity and flames, {and} less anger. The Gods above call +this second-rate thunder; it he assumes, and he enters the house of +Agenor. Her mortal body could not endure[64] the aethereal shock, and she +was burned amid her nuptial presents. The infant, as yet unformed, is +taken out of the womb of his mother, and prematurely (if we can believe +it) is inserted in the thigh of the father, and completes the time that +he should have spent in the womb. His aunt, Ino, nurses him privately in +his early cradle. After that, the Nyseian Nymphs[65] conceal him, +entrusted {to them}, in their caves, and give him the nourishment of +milk. + +And while these things are transacted on earth by the law of destiny, +and the cradle of Bacchus, twice born,[66] is secured; they tell that +Jupiter, by chance, well drenched with nectar, laid aside {all} weighty +cares, and engaged in some free jokes with Juno, in her idle moments, +and said: "Decidedly the pleasure of you, {females}, is greater than +that which falls to the lot of {us} males." She denied it. It was agreed +{between them}, to ask what was the opinion of the experienced Tiresias. +To him both pleasures were well known. For he had separated with a blow +of his staff two bodies of large serpents, as they were coupling in a +green wood; and (passing strange) become a woman from a man, he had +spent seven autumns. In the eighth, he again saw the same {serpents}, +and said, "If the power of a stroke given you is so great as to change +the condition of the giver into the opposite one, I will now strike you +again." Having struck the same snakes, his former sex returned, and his +original shape came {again}. He, therefore, being chosen as umpire in +this sportive contest, confirmed the words of Jove. The daughter of +Saturn is said to have grieved more than was fit, and not in proportion +to the subject; and she condemned the eyes of the umpire to eternal +darkness. + +But the omnipotent father (for it is not allowed any God to cancel the +acts of {another} Deity) gave him the knowledge of things to come, in +recompense for his loss of sight, and alleviated his punishment by this +honor. + + [Footnote 64: _Could not endure._--Ver. 308. 'Corpus mortale + tumultus Non tulit aethereos,' is rendered by Clarke, 'her mortal + body could not bear this aethereal bustle.'] + + [Footnote 65: _The Nyseian Nymphs._--Ver. 314. Nysa was the name + of a city and mountain of Arabia, or India. The tradition was, + that there the Nyseian Nymphs, whose names were Cysseis, Nysa, + Erato, Eryphia, Bromia, and Polyhymnia, brought up Bacchus. The + cave where he was concealed from the fury of Juno, was said to + have had two entrances, from which circumstance Bacchus received + the epithet of Dithyrites. Servius, in his commentary on the sixth + Eclogue of Virgil (l. 15), says that Nysa was the name of the + female that nursed Bacchus. Hyginus also speaks of her as being + the daughter of Oceanus. From the name 'Nysa,' Bacchus received, + in part, his Greek name 'Dionysus.'] + + [Footnote 66: _Twice born._--Ver. 318. Clarke thus translates and + explains this line--'They tell you, that Jupiter well drenched;' + _i.e._ 'fuddled with nectar,' etc.] + + +FABLE VI. [III.339-401] + + Echo, having often amused Juno with her stories, to give time to + Jupiter's mistresses to make their escape, the Goddess, at last, + punishes her for the deception. She is slighted and despised by + Narcissus, with whom she falls in love. + +He, much celebrated by fame throughout the cities of Aonia,[67] gave +unerring answers to the people consulting him. The azure Liriope[68] was +the first to make essay and experiment of his infallible voice; whom +once Cephisus encircled in his winding stream, and offered violence to, +{when} enclosed by his waters. The most beauteous Nymph produced an +infant from her teeming womb, which even then might have been beloved, +and she called him Narcissus. Being consulted concerning him, whether he +was destined to see the distant season of mature old age; the prophet, +expounding destiny, said, "If he never recognizes himself." Long did the +words of the soothsayer appear frivolous; {but} the event, the thing +{itself}, the manner of his death, and the novel nature of his frenzy, +confirmed it. + +And now the son of Cephisus had added one to three times five years, and +he might seem to be a boy and a young man as well. Many a youth,[69] and +many a damsel, courted him; but there was so stubborn a pride in his +youthful beauty, {that} no youths, no damsels made any impression on +him. The noisy Nymph, who has neither learned to hold her tongue after +another speaking, nor to speak first herself, resounding Echo, espied +him, as he was driving the timid stags into his nets. Echo was then a +body, not a voice; and yet the babbler had no other use of her speech +than she now has, to be able to repeat the last words out of many. Juno +had done this; because when often she might have been able to detect the +Nymphs in the mountains in the embrace of her {husband}, Jupiter, she +purposely used to detain[70] the Goddess with a long story, until the +Nymphs had escaped. After the daughter of Saturn perceived {this}, she +said, "But small exercise of this tongue, with which I have been +deluded, shall be allowed thee, and a very short use of thy voice." And +she confirmed her threats by the event. Still, in the end of one's +speaking she redoubles the voice, and returns the words she hears. When, +therefore, she beheld Narcissus[71] wandering through the pathless +forests, and fell in love with him, she stealthily followed his steps; +and the more she followed him, with the nearer flame did she burn. In no +other manner than as when the native sulphur, spread around[72] the tops +of torches, catches the flame applied {to it}. Ah! how often did she +desire to accost him in soft accents, and to employ soft entreaties! +Nature resists, and suffers her not to begin; but what {Nature} does +permit, that she is ready for; to await his voice, to which to return +her own words. + +By chance, the youth, being separated from the trusty company of his +attendants, cries out, "Is there any one here?" and Echo answers "Here!" +He is amazed; and when he has cast his eyes on every side, he cries out +with a loud voice, "Come!" {Whereon} she calls {the youth} who calls. He +looks back; and again, as no one comes, he says, "Why dost thou avoid +me?" and just as many words as he spoke, he receives. He persists; and +being deceived by the imitation of an alternate voice, he says, "Let us +come together here;" and Echo, that could never more willingly answer +any sound whatever, replies, "Let us come together here!" and she +follows up her own words, and rushing from the woods,[73] is going to +throw her arms around the neck she has {so} longed for. He flies; and as +he flies, he exclaims, "Remove thy hands from thus embracing me; I will +die first, before thou shalt have the enjoyment of me." She answers +nothing but "Have the enjoyment of me." {Thus} rejected, she lies hid in +the woods, and hides her blushing face with green leaves, and from that +time lives in lonely caves; but yet her love remains, and increases from +the mortification of her refusal. Watchful cares waste away her +miserable body; leanness shrivels her skin, and all the juices of her +body fly off in air. Her voice and her bones alone are left. + +Her voice {still} continues, {but} they say that her bones received the +form of stones. Since then, she lies concealed in the woods, and is +never seen on the mountains: {but} is heard in all {of them}. It is her +voice {alone} which remains alive in her. + + [Footnote 67: _Aonia._--Ver. 339. Aonia was a mountainous district + of Boeotia, so called from Aon, the son of Neptune, who reigned + there. The name is often used to signify the whole of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 68: _Liriope._--Ver. 342. She was the daughter of + Oceanus and Tethys, and was the mother of the youth Narcissus, by + the river Cephisus. Her name is derived from the Greek +leirion+, + 'a lily.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Many a youth._--Ver. 353. Clarke translates 'multi + juvenes,' 'many young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Used to detain._--Ver. 364. Clarke translates 'Illa + Deam longo prudens sermone tenebat Dum fugerent Nymphae,' 'She + designedly detained the Goddess with some long-winded discourse or + other till the Nymphs ran away.' He translates 'garrula,' in line + 360, 'the prattling hussy.'] + + [Footnote 71: _Narcissus._--Ver. 370. This name is from the Greek + word +narkan+, 'to fade away,' which was characteristic of the + youth's career, and of the duration of the flower.] + + [Footnote 72: _Sulphur spread around._--Ver. 372. These lines + show, that it was the custom of the ancients to place sulphur on + the ends of their torches, to make them ignite the more readily, + in the same manner as the matches of the present day are tipped + with that mineral.] + + [Footnote 73: _Rushing from the woods._--Ver. 388. 'Egressaque + sylvis.' Clarke renders, 'and bouncing out of the wood.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It appears much more reasonable to attempt the explanation of this + story on the grounds of natural philosophy than of history. The poets, + in their fondness for basing every subject upon fiction, probably + invented the fable, to explain what to them appeared an extraordinary + phenomenon. By way of embellishing their story, they tell us that Echo + was the daughter of the Air and the Tongue, and that the God Pan fell + in love with her; by which, probably, the simple fact is meant, that + some person, represented under the name of that god, endeavored to + trace the cause of this phenomenon. + + If, however, we should endeavor to base the story upon purely + historical grounds, we may suppose that it took its rise from some + Nymph, who wandered so far into the woods as to be unable to find her + way out again; and from the fact that those who went to seek her, + hearing nothing but the echo of their own voices, brought back the + strange but unsatisfactory intelligence that the Nymph had been + changed into a voice. + + +FABLE VII. [III.402-510] + + Narcissus falls in love with his own shadow, which he sees in a + fountain; and, pining to death, the Gods change him into a flower, + which still bears his name. + +Thus had he deceived her, thus, too, other Nymphs that sprung from the +water or the mountains, thus the throng of youths before {them}. +Some one, therefore, who had been despised {by him}, lifting up his +hands towards heaven, said, "Thus, though he should love, let him not +enjoy what he loves!" Rhamnusia[74] assented to a prayer so reasonable. +There was a clear spring, like silver, with its unsullied waters, which +neither shepherds, nor she-goats feeding on the mountains, nor any other +cattle, had touched; which neither bird nor wild beast had disturbed, +nor bough falling from a tree. There was grass around it, which the +neighboring water nourished, and a wood, that suffered the stream to +become warm with no {rays of the} sun. Here the youth, fatigued both +with the labor of hunting and the heat, lay down, attracted by the +appearance of the spot, and the spring; and, while he was endeavoring to +quench his thirst, another thirst grew {upon him}. + +While he is drinking, being attracted with the reflection of his own +form, seen {in the water}, he falls in love with a thing that has no +substance; {and} he thinks that to be a body, which is {but} a shadow. +He is astonished at himself, and remains unmoved with the same +countenance, like a statue formed of Parian marble.[75] Lying on the +ground, he gazes on his eyes {like} two stars, and fingers worthy of +Bacchus, and hair worthy of Apollo, and his youthful cheeks and ivory +neck, and the comeliness of his mouth, and his blushing complexion +mingled with the whiteness of snow; and everything he admires, for which +he himself is worthy to be admired. In his ignorance, he covets himself; +and he that approves, is himself {the thing} approved. While he pursues +he is pursued, and at the same moment he inflames and burns. How often +does he give vain kisses to the deceitful spring; how often does he +thrust his arms, catching at the neck he sees, into the middle of the +water, and yet he does not catch himself in them. He knows not what he +sees, but what he sees, by it is he inflamed; and the same mistake that +deceives his eyes, provokes them. Why, credulous {youth}, dost thou +vainly catch at the flying image? What thou art seeking is nowhere; what +thou art in love with, turn but away {and} thou shalt lose it; what thou +seest, the same is {but} the shadow of a reflected form; it has nothing +of its own. It comes and stays with thee; with thee it will depart, if +thou canst {but} depart thence. + +No regard for food,[76] no regard for repose, can draw him away thence; +but, lying along upon the overshadowed grass, he gazes upon the +fallacious image with unsatiated eyes, and by his own sight he himself +is undone. Raising himself a little {while}, extending his arms to the +woods that stand around him, he says, "Was ever, O, ye woods! any one +more fatally in love? For {this} ye know, and have been a convenient +shelter for many a one. And do you remember any one, who {ever} thus +pined away, during so long a time, though so many ages of your life has +been spent? It both pleases me and I see it; but what I see, and what +pleases me, yet I cannot obtain; so great a mistake possesses one in +love; and to make me grieve the more, neither a vast sea separates us, +nor a {long} way, nor mountains, nor a city with its gates closed; we +are kept asunder by a little water. He himself wishes to be embraced; +for as often as I extend my lips to the limpid stream, so often does he +struggle towards me with his face held up; you would think he might be +touched. It is a very little that stands in the way of lovers. Whoever +thou art, come up hither. Why, {dear} boy, the choice one, dost thou +deceive me? or whither dost thou retire, when pursued? Surely, neither +my form nor my age is such as thou shouldst shun; the Nymphs, too, have +courted me. Thou encouragest I know not what hopes in me with that +friendly look, and when I extend my arms to thee, thou willingly +extendest thine; when I smile, thou smilest in return; often, too, have +I observed thy tears, when I was weeping; my signs, too, thou returnest +by thy nods, and, as I guess by the motion of thy beauteous mouth, thou +returnest words that come not to my ears. In thee 'tis I, I {now} +perceive; nor does my form deceive me. I burn with the love of myself, +and both raise the flames and endure them. What shall I do? Should I be +entreated, or should I entreat? What, then, shall I entreat? What I +desire is in my power; plenty has made me poor. Oh! would that I could +depart from my own body! a new wish, {indeed}, in a lover; I could wish +that what I am in love with was away. And now grief is taking away my +strength, and no long period of my life remains; and in my early days am +I cut off; nor is death grievous to me, now about to get rid of my +sorrows by death. I wish that he who is beloved could enjoy a longer +life. Now we two, of one mind, shall die in {the extinction of} one +life." + +{Thus} he said, and, with his mind {but} ill at ease, he returned to the +same reflection, and disturbed the water with his tears; and the form +was rendered defaced by the moving of the stream; when he saw it +{beginning} to disappear, he cried aloud, "Whither dost thou fly? Stay, +I beseech thee! and do not in thy cruelty abandon thy lover; let it be +allowed me to behold that which I may not touch, and to give nourishment +to my wretched frenzy." And, while he was grieving, he tore his garment +from the upper border, and beat his naked breast with his palms, white +as marble. His breast, when struck, received a little redness, no +otherwise than as apples are wont, which are partly white {and} partly +red; or as a grape, not yet ripe, in the parti-colored clusters, is wont +to assume a purple tint. Soon as he beheld this again in the water, when +clear, he could not endure it any longer; but, as yellow wax with the +fire, or the hoar frost of the morning, is wont to waste away with the +warmth of the sun, so he, consumed by love, pined away, and wasted by +degrees with a hidden flame. And now, no longer was his complexion of +white mixed with red; neither his vigor nor his strength, nor {the +points} which had charmed when seen so lately, nor {even} his body, +which formerly Echo had been in love with, now remained. Yet, when she +saw these things, although angry, and mindful {of his usage of her}, she +was grieved, and, as often as the unhappy youth said, "Alas!" she +repeated, "Alas!" with re-echoing voice; and when he struck his arms +with his hands, she, too, returned the like sound of a blow. + +His last accents, as he looked into the water, as usual, were these: +"Ah, youth, beloved in vain!" and the spot returned just as many words; +and after he had said, "Farewell!" Echo, too, said, "Farewell!" He laid +down his wearied head upon the green grass, {when} night closed the eyes +that admired the beauty of their master; and even then, after he had +been received into the infernal abodes, he used to look at himself in +the Stygian waters. His Naiad sisters lamented him, and laid their +hair,[77] cut off, over their brother; the Dryads, too, lamented him, +{and} Echo resounded to their lamentations. And now they were preparing +the funeral pile, and the shaken torches, and the bier. The body was +nowhere {to be found}. Instead of his body, they found a yellow flower, +with white leaves encompassing it in the middle. + + [Footnote 74: _Rhamnusia._--Ver. 406. Nemesis, the Goddess of + Retribution, and the avenger of crime, was the daughter of + Jupiter. She had a famous temple at Rhamnus, one of the 'pagi,' or + boroughs of Athens. Her statue was there, carved by Phidias out of + the marble which the Persians brought into Greece for the purpose + of making a statue of Victory out of it, and which was thus + appropriately devoted to the Goddess of Retribution. This statue + wore a crown, and had wings, and holding a spear of ash in the + right hand, it was seated on a stag.] + + [Footnote 75: _Parian marble._--Ver. 419. Paros was an island in + the AEgean sea, one of the Cyclades; it was famous for the valuable + quality of its marble, which was especially used for the purpose + of making statues of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 76: _Regard for food._--Ver. 437. 'Cereris.' The name of + the Goddess of corn is here used instead of bread itself.] + + [Footnote 77: _Laid their hair._--Ver. 506. It was the custom + among the ancients for females, when lamenting the dead, not only + to cut off their hair, but to lay it on the body, when extended + upon the funeral pile.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If this story is based upon any historical facts, they are entirely + lost to us; as all we learn from history concerning Narcissus, is the + fact that he was a Thespian by birth. The Fable seems rather to be + intended as a useful moral lesson, disclosing the fatal effects of + self-love. His pursuit, too, of his own image, ever retiring from his + embrace, strongly resembles the little reality that exists in many of + those pleasures which mankind so eagerly pursue. + + Pausanias, in his Boeotica, somewhat varies the story. He tells us + that Narcissus having lost his sister, whom he tenderly loved, and who + resembled him very much, and was his constant companion in the chase, + thought, on seeing himself one day in a fountain, that it was the + shade of his lost sister, and, thereupon, pined away and died of + grief. According to him, the fountain was near a village called + Donacon, in the country of the Thespians. Pausanias regards the + account of his change into the flower which bears his name as a mere + fiction, since Pamphus says that Proserpina, when carried away, long + before the time of Narcissus, gathered that flower in the fields of + Enna; and that the same flower was sacred to her. Persons sacrificing + to the Furies, or Eumenides, used to wear chaplets made of the + Narcissus, because that flower commonly grew about graves and + sepulchres. + + Tiresias, who predicted the untoward fate of Narcissus, was, as we are + informed by Apollodorus, the son of Evenus and Chariclo, and was the + most renowned soothsayer of his time. He lost his life by drinking of + the fountain of Telphusa when he was overheated; or, as some suppose, + through the unwholesome quality of the water. As he lived to a great + age, and became blind towards the end of his life, the story, which + Ovid mentions, was invented respecting him. Another version of it was, + that he lost his sight, by reason of his having seen Minerva while + bathing. This story was very probably based either upon the fact that + he had composed a Treatise upon the Animal Functions of the Sexes, or + that he had promulgated the doctrine that the stars had not only souls + (a common opinion in those times), but also that they were of + different sexes. He is supposed to have lived about 1200 years before + the Christian era. + + +FABLE VIII. [III.511-733] + + Pentheus ridicules the predictions of Tiresias; and not only forbids + his people to worship Bacchus, who had just entered Greece in triumph, + but even commands them to capture him, and to bring him into his + presence. Under the form of Acoetes, one of his companions, Bacchus + suffers that indignity, and relates to Pentheus the wonders which the + God had wrought. The recital enrages Pentheus still more, who + thereupon goes to Mount Cithaeron, to disturb the orgies then + celebrating there; on which his own mother and the other Bacchantes + tear him to pieces. + +This thing, when known, brought deserved fame to the prophet through the +cities of Achaia;[78] and great was the reputation of the soothsayer. +Yet Pentheus,[79] the son of Echion, a contemner of the Gods above, +alone, of all men, despises him, and derides the predicting words of the +old man, and upbraids him with his darkened state, and the misfortune of +{having lost} his sight. He, shaking his temples, white with hoary hair, +says: "How fortunate wouldst thou be, if thou as well couldst become +deprived of this light, that thou mightst not behold the rites of +Bacchus. For soon the day will come, and even now I predict that it is +not far off, when the new {God} Liber, the son of Semele, shall come +hither. Unless thou shalt vouchsafe him the honor of a temple, thou +shalt be scattered, torn in pieces, in a thousand places, and with thy +blood thou shalt pollute both the woods, and thy mother and the sisters +of thy mother. {These things} will come to pass; for thou wilt not +vouchsafe honor to the Divinity; and thou wilt complain that under this +darkness I have seen too much." + +The son of Echion drives him away as he says such things as these. +Confirmation follows his words, and the predictions of the prophet are +fulfilled. Liber comes, and the fields resound with festive howlings. +The crowd runs out; both matrons and new-married women mixed with the +men, both high and low, are borne along to the {celebration of} rites +{till then} unknown. "What madness," says Pentheus, "has confounded your +minds, O ye warlike men,[80] descendants of the Dragon? Can brass +knocked against brass prevail so much with you? And the pipe with the +bending horn, and these magical delusions? And shall the yells of women, +and madness produced by wine, and troops of effeminate {wretches}, and +empty tambourines[81] prevail over you, whom neither the warrior's sword +nor the trumpet could affright, nor troops with weapons prepared {for +fight}? Am I to wonder at you, old men, who, carried over distant seas, +have fixed in these abodes a {new} Tyre, and your banished household +Gods, {but who} now allow them to be taken without a struggle? Or you, +of more vigorous age and nearer to my own, ye youths; whom it was +befitting to be brandishing arms, and not the thyrsus,[82] and to be +covered with helmets, not green leaves? Do be mindful, I entreat you, of +what race you are sprung, and assume the courage of that dragon, who +{though but} one, destroyed many. He died for his springs and his +stream; but do you conquer for your own fame. He put the valiant to +death; do you expel the feeble {foe}, and regain your country's honor. +If the fates forbid Thebes to stand long, I wish that engines of war[83] +and men should demolish the walls, and that fire and sword should +resound. {Then} should we be wretched without {any} fault {of our own}, +and our fate were to be lamented, {but} not concealed, and our tears +would be free from shame. But now Thebes will be taken by an unarmed +boy, whom neither wars delight, nor weapons, nor the employment of +horses, but hair wet with myrrh, and effeminate chaplets, and purple, +and gold interwoven with embroidered garments; whom I, indeed, (do you +only stand aside) will presently compel to own that his father is +assumed, and that his sacred rites are fictitious. Has Acrisius[84] +courage enough to despise the vain Deity, and to shut the gates of Argos +against his approach; and shall this stranger affright Pentheus with all +Thebes? Go quickly, (this order he gives to his servants), go, and bring +hither in chains the ringleader. Let there be no slothful delay in +{executing} my commands." + +His grandfather,[85] {Cadmus}, Athamas, and the rest of the company of +his friends rebuke him with expostulations, and in vain try to restrain +him. By their admonition he becomes more violent, and by being curbed +his fury is irritated, and is on the increase, and the very restraint +did him injury. So have I beheld a torrent, where nothing obstructed it +in its course, run gently and with moderate noise; but wherever beams +and stones in its way withheld it, it ran foaming and raging, and more +violent from its obstruction. Behold! {the servants} return, all stained +with blood; and when their master inquires where Bacchus is, they deny +that they have seen Bacchus. "But this one," say they, "we have taken, +who was his attendant and minister in his sacred rites." And {then} they +deliver one, who, from the Etrurian nation, had followed the sacred +rites of the Deity, with his hands bound behind his back. + +Pentheus looks at him with eyes that anger has made terrible, and +although he can scarcely defer the time of his punishment, he says, +"O {wretch}, doomed to destruction, and about, by thy death, to set an +example to others, tell me thy name, and the name of thy parents, and +thy country, and why thou dost attend the sacred rites of a new +fashion." He, void of fear, says, "My name is Acoetes; Maeonia[86] is my +country; my parents were of humble station. My father left me no fields +for the hardy oxen to till, no wool-bearing flocks, nor any herds. He +himself was {but} poor, and he was wont with line, and hooks, to deceive +the leaping fishes, and to take them with the rod. His trade was his +{only} possession. When he gave that calling over {to me}, he said, +'Receive, as the successor and heir of my employment, those riches which +I possess;' and at his death he left me nothing but the streams. This +one thing alone can I call my patrimony. {But} soon, that I might not +always be confined to the same rocks, I learned with a steadying right +hand to guide the helm of the ship, and I made observations with my eyes +of the showery Constellation of the Olenian she-goat,[87] and +Taygete,[88] and the Hyades,[89] and the Bear, and the quarters of the +winds, and the harbors fit for ships. By chance, as I was making for +Delos, I touched at the coast of the land of Dia,[90] and came up to the +shore by {plying} the oars on the right side; and I gave a nimble leap, +and lighted upon the wet sand. When the night was past, and the dawn +first began to grow red, I arose and ordered {my men} to take in fresh +water, and I pointed out the way which led to the stream. I myself, from +a lofty eminence, looked around {to see} what the breeze promised me; +and {then} I called my companions, and returned to the vessel. 'Lo! we +are here,' says Opheltes, my chief mate; and having found, as he +thought, a prize in the lonely fields, he was leading along the shore, +a boy with {all} the beauty of a girl. He, heavy with wine and sleep, +seemed to stagger, and to follow with difficulty. I examined his dress, +his looks, and his gait, {and} I saw nothing there which could be taken +to be mortal. I both was sensible of it, and I said to my companions, 'I +am in doubt what Deity is in that body; but in that body a Deity there +is. Whoever thou art, O be propitious and assist our toils; and pardon +these as well.' 'Cease praying for us,' said Dictys, than whom there was +not another more nimble at climbing to the main-top-yards, and at +sliding down by catching hold of a rope. This Libys, this the +yellow-haired Melanthus, the guardian of the prow, and this Alcimedon +approved of; and Epopeus[91] as well, the cheerer of their spirits, who +by his voice gave both rest and time to the oars; {and} so did all the +rest; so blind is the greed for booty. 'However,' I said, 'I will not +allow this ship to be damaged by this sacred freight. Here I have the +greatest share of right.' and I opposed them at the entrance. + +"Lycabas, the boldest of all the number, was enraged, who, expelled from +a city of Etruria, was suffering exile as the punishment for a dreadful +murder.[92] He, while I was resisting, seized hold of my throat with his +youthful fist, and shaking me, had thrown me overboard into the sea, if +I had not, although stunned, held fast by grasping a rope. The impious +crew approved of the deed. Then at last Bacchus (for Bacchus it was), as +though his sleep had been broken by the noise, and his sense was +returning into his breast after {much} wine, said: 'What are you doing? +What is this noise? Tell me, sailors, by what means have I come hither? +Whither do you intend to carry me?' 'Lay aside thy fears,' said Proreus, +'and tell us what port thou wouldst wish to reach. Thou shalt stop at +the land that thou desirest.' 'Direct your course then to Naxos,'[93] +says Liber, 'that is my home; it shall prove a hospitable land for you.' + +"In their deceit they swore by the ocean and by all the Deities, that so +it should be; and bade me give sail to the painted ship. Naxos was to +our right; {and} as I was {accordingly} setting sail for the right hand, +every one said for himself, 'What art thou about, madman? What insanity +possesses thee, Acoetes? Stand away to the left.' The greater part +signified {their meaning} to me by signs; some whispered in my ear what +they wanted. I was at a loss, and I said, 'Let some one else take the +helm;' and I withdrew myself from the execution both of their +wickedness, and of my own calling. I was reviled by them all, and the +whole crew muttered {reproaches} against me. AEthalion, among them, says, +'As if, forsooth, all our safety is centred in thee,' and he himself +comes up, and takes my duty; and leaving Naxos, he steers a different +course. Then the God, mocking them as if he had at last but that moment +discovered their knavery, looks down upon the sea from the crooked +stern; and, like one weeping, he says: 'These are not the shores, +sailors, that you have promised me; this is not the land desired by me. +By what act have I deserved this treatment? What honor is it to you, if +you {that are} young men, deceive a {mere} boy? if you {that are} many, +deceive me, {who am but} one?' I had been weeping for some time. The +impious gang laughed at my tears, and beat the sea with hastening oars. +Now by himself do I swear to thee (and no God is there more powerful +than he), that I am relating things to thee as true, as they are beyond +all belief. The ship stood still upon the ocean, no otherwise than if it +was occupying a dry dock. They, wondering at it, persisted in the plying +of their oars; they unfurled their sails, and endeavored to speed onward +with this twofold aid. Ivy impeded the oars,[94] and twined {around +them} in encircling wreaths; and clung to the sails with heavy clusters +of berries. He himself, having his head encircled with bunches of +grapes, brandished a lance covered with vine leaves. Around him, tigers +and visionary forms of lynxes, and savage bodies of spotted panthers, +were extended. + +"The men leaped overboard, whether it was madness or fear that caused +this; and first {of all}, Medon began to grow black with fins, with a +flattened body, and to bend in the curvature of the back-bone. To him +Lycabas said, 'Into what prodigy art thou changing?' and, as he spoke, +the opening of his mouth was wide, his nose became crooked, and his +hardened skin received scales upon it. But Libys, while he was +attempting to urge on the resisting oars, saw his hands shrink into a +small compass, and now to be hands no longer, {and} that now, {in fact}, +they may be pronounced fins. Another, desirous to extend his arms to the +twisting ropes, had no arms, and becoming crooked, with a body deprived +of limbs, he leaped into the waves; the end of his tail was hooked, just +as the horns of the half-moon are curved. They flounce about on every +side, and bedew {the ship} with plenteous spray, and again they emerge, +and once more they return beneath the waves. They sport with {all} the +appearance of a dance, and toss their sportive bodies, and blow forth +the sea, received within their wide nostrils. Of twenty the moment +before (for so many did that ship carry), I was the only one remaining. +The God encouraged me, frightened and chilled with my body all +trembling, and scarcely myself, saying, 'Shake off thy fear, and make +for Dia.' Arriving there, I attended upon the sacred rites of Bacchus, +at the kindled altars." + +"We have lent ear to a long story,"[95] says Pentheus, "that our anger +might consume its strength in its tediousness. Servants! drag him +headlong, and send to Stygian night his body, racked with dreadful +tortures." At once the Etrurian Acoetes, dragged away, is shut up in a +strong prison; and while the cruel instruments of the death that is +ordered, and the iron and the fire are being made ready, the report is +that the doors opened of their own accord, and that the chains, of their +own accord, slipped from off his arms, no one loosening them. + +The son of Echion persists: and now he does not command others to go, +but goes himself to where Cithaeron,[96] chosen for the celebration of +these sacred rites, was resounding with singing, and the shrill voices +of the votaries of Bacchus. Just as the high-mettled steed neighs, when +the warlike trumpeter gives the alarm with the sounding brass, and +conceives a desire for battle, so did the sky, struck with the +long-drawn howlings, excite Pentheus, and his wrath was rekindled on +hearing the clamor. There was, about the middle of the mountain, the +woods skirting its extremity, a plain free from trees, {and} visible on +every side. Here his mother was the first to see him looking on the +sacred rites with profane eyes; she first was moved by a frantic +impulse, {and} she first wounded her {son}, Pentheus, by hurling her +thyrsus, {and} cried out, "Ho! come, my two sisters;[97] that boar +which, of enormous size, is roaming amid our fields, that boar I must +strike." All the raging multitude rushes upon him alone; all collect +together, and all follow him, now trembling, now uttering words less +atrocious {than before}, now blaming himself, now confessing that he has +offended. + +However, on being wounded, he says, "Give me thy aid, Autonoe, my aunt; +let the ghost of Actaeon[98] influence thy feelings." She knows not what +Actaeon {means}, and tears away his right hand as he is praying; the +other is dragged off by the violence of Ino. The wretched {man} has +{now} no arms to extend to his mother; but showing his maimed body, with +the limbs torn off, he says, "Look at this, my mother!" At the sight +Agave howls aloud, and tosses her neck, and shakes her locks in the air; +and seizing his head, torn off, with her blood-stained fingers, she +cries out, "Ho! my companions, this victory is our work!" + +The wind does not more speedily bear off, from a lofty tree, the leaves +nipped by the cold of autumn, and now adhering with difficulty, than +were the limbs of the man, torn asunder by their accursed hands. +Admonished by such examples, the Ismenian matrons frequent the new +worship, and offer frankincense, and reverence the sacred altars. + + [Footnote 78: _Cities of Achaia._--Ver. 511. Achaia was properly + the name of a part of Peloponnesus, on the gulf of Corinth; but + the name is very frequently applied to the whole of Greece.] + + [Footnote 79: _Pentheus._--Ver. 513. He was the son of Echion and + Agave, the daughter of Cadmus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warlike men._--Ver. 531. 'Mavortia.' Mavors was a + name of Mars, frequently used by the poets. The Thebans were + 'proles Mavortia,' as being sprung from the teeth of the dragon, + who was said to be a son of Mars.] + + [Footnote 81: _Tambourines._--Ver. 537. 'Tympana.' These + instruments, among the ancients, were of various kinds. Some + resembled the modern tambourine; while others presented a flat + circular disk on the upper surface, and swelled out beneath, like + the kettle-drum of the present day. They were covered with the + hides of oxen, or of asses, and were beaten either with a stick or + the hand. They were especially used in the rites of Bacchus, and + of Cybele.] + + [Footnote 82: _The thyrsus._--Ver. 542. The thyrsus was a long + staff, carried by Bacchus, and by the Satyrs and Bacchanalians + engaged in the worship of the God of the grape. It was sometimes + terminated by the apple of the pine, or fir-cone, the fir-tree + being esteemed sacred to Bacchus, from the turpentine flowing + therefrom and its apples being used in making wine. It is, + however, frequently represented as terminating in a knot of ivy, + or vine leaves, with grapes or berries arranged in a conical form. + Sometimes, also, a white fillet was tied to the pole just below + the head. We learn from Diodorus Siculus, and Macrobius, that + Bacchus converted the thyrsi carried by himself and his followers + into weapons, by concealing an iron point in the head of leaves. + A wound with its point was supposed to produce madness.] + + [Footnote 83: _Engines of war._--Ver. 549. 'Tormenta.' These were + the larger engines of destruction used in ancient warfare. They + were so called from the verb 'torqueo,' 'to twist,' from their + being formed by the twisting of hair, fibre, or strips of leather. + The different sorts were called 'balistae' and 'catapultae.' The + former were used to impel stones; the latter, darts and arrows. In + sieges, the 'Aries,' or 'battering ram,' which received its name + from having an iron head resembling that of a ram, was employed in + destroying the lower part of the wall, while the 'balista' was + overthrowing the battlements, and the 'catapulta' was employed to + shoot any of the besieged who appeared between them. The 'balistae' + and 'catapultae' were divided into the 'greater' and the 'less.' + When New Carthage, the arsenal of the Carthaginians, was taken, + according to Livy (b. xxvi. c. 47), there were found in it 120 + large and 281 small catapultae, and twenty-three large and fifty-two + small balistae. The various kinds of 'tormenta' are said to have + been introduced about the time of Alexander the Great. If so, + Ovid must here be committing an anachronism, in making Pentheus + speak of 'tormenta,' who lived so many ages before that time. To + commit anachronisms with impunity seems, however, to be the poet's + privilege, from Ovid downwards to our Shakspere, where he makes + Falstaff talk familiarly of the West Indies. We find the + dictionaries giving 'tormentum' as the Latin word for 'cannon;' so + that in this case we may say not that 'necessity is the mother of + invention,' but rather that she is 'the parent of anachronism.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Acrisius._--Ver. 559. He was a king of Argos, the + son of Abas, and the father of Danae. He refused, and probably + with justice, to admit Bacchus or his rites within the gates of + his city.] + + [Footnote 85: _His grandfather._--Ver. 563. Athamas was the son of + AEolus, and being the husband of Ino, was the son-in-law of Cadmus; + who being the father of Agave, the mother of Pentheus, is the + grandfather mentioned in the present line.] + + [Footnote 86: _Maeonia._--Ver. 583. Colonists were said to have + proceeded from Lydia, or Maeonia, to the coasts of Etruria. Bacchus + assumes the name of Acoetes, as corresponding to the Greek epithet + +akoites+, 'watchful,' or 'sleepless;' which ought to be the + characteristic of the careful 'pilot,' or 'helmsman.'] + + [Footnote 87: _Olenian she-goat._--Ver. 594. Amalthea, the goat + that suckled Jupiter, is called Olenian, either because she was + reared in Olenus, a city of Boeotia, or because she was placed as a + Constellation between the arms, +olenai+, of the Constellation + Auriga, or the Charioteer. The rising and setting of this + Constellation were supposed to produce showers.] + + [Footnote 88: _Taygete._--Ver. 594. She was one of the Pleiades, + the daughters of Atlas, who were placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 89: _Hyades._--Ver. 594. These were the Dodonides, or + nurses of Bacchus, whom Jupiter, as a mark of his favor, placed in + the number of the Constellations. Their name is derived from + +huein+, 'to rain.'] + + [Footnote 90: _Dia._--Ver. 596. This was another name of the Isle + of Naxos. Gierig thinks that the reading here is neither 'Diae' nor + 'Chiae,' which are the two common readings; as the situation of + neither the Isle of Naxos nor that of Chios, would suit the course + of the ship, as stated in the text. He thinks that the Isle of + Ceos, or Cea, is meant, which Ptolemy calls +Kia+, and which he + thinks ought here to be written 'Ciae.'] + + [Footnote 91: _Epopeus._--Ver. 619. He was the +keleustes+, + 'pausarius,' or keeper of time for the rowers.] + + [Footnote 92: _A dreadful murder._--Ver. 626. They seem to have + been composed of much the same kind of lawless materials that + formed the daring crews of the buccanier Morgan and Captain Kydd + in more recent times.] + + [Footnote 93: _Naxos._--Ver. 636. This was the most famous island + of the group of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 94: _Ivy impeded the oars._--Ver. 664. Hyginus tells us, + that Bacchus changed the oars into thyrsi, the sails into clusters + of grapes, and the rigging into ivy branches. In the Homeric hymn + on this subject we find the ship flowing with wine, vines growing + on the sails, ivy twining round the mast, and the benches wreathed + with chaplets.] + + [Footnote 95: _To a long story._--Ver. 692. Clarke renders this + line, 'We have lent our ears to a long tale of a tub.'] + + [Footnote 96: _Cithaeron._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + Boeotia, famous for the orgies of Bacchus there celebrated.] + + [Footnote 97: _My two sisters._--Ver. 713. These were Ino and + Autonoe.] + + [Footnote 98: _Ghost of Actaeon._--Ver. 720. He appeals to Autonoe, + the mother of Actaeon, to remember the sad fate of her own son, and + to show him some mercy; but in vain: for, as one commentator on + the passage says, 'Drunkenness had taken away both her reason and + her memory.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Cicero mentions two Deities of the name of Bacchus; while other + authors speak of several of that name. The first was the son of + Jupiter and Proserpina; the second was the son of the Nile, and the + founder of the city of Nysa, in Arabia; Caprius was the father of the + third. The fourth was the son of the Moon and Jupiter, in honor of + whom the Orphic ceremonies were performed. The fifth was the son of + Nisus and Thione, and the instituter of the Trieterica. Diodorus + Siculus mentions but three of the name of Bacchus; namely, the Indian, + surnamed the bearded Bacchus, who conquered India; the son of Jupiter + and Ceres, who was represented with horns; and the son of Jupiter and + Semele, who was called the Theban Bacchus. + + The most reasonable opinion seems to be that of Herodotus and + Plutarch, who inform us, that the true Bacchus, and the most ancient + of them all, was born in Egypt, and was originally called Osiris. The + worship of that Divinity passed from Egypt to Greece, where it + received great alterations; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, it was + Orpheus who introduced it, and made those innovations. In gratitude to + the family of Cadmus, from which he had received many favors, he + dedicated to Bacchus, the grandson of Cadmus, those mysteries which + had been instituted in honor of Osiris, whose worship was then but + little known in Greece. Diodorus Siculus says, that as Semele was + delivered of Bacchus in the seventh month, it was reported that + Jupiter shut him up in his thigh, to carry him there the remaining + time of gestation. This Fable was probably founded on the meaning of + an equivocal word. The Greek word +meros+ signifies either 'a thigh,' + or 'the hollow of a mountain.' Thus the Greeks, instead of saying that + Bacchus had been nursed on Mount Nysa, in Arabia, according to the + Egyptian version of the story, published that he had been carried in + the thigh of Jupiter. + + As Bacchus applied himself to the cultivation of the vine, and taught + his subjects several profitable and necessary arts, he was honored as + a Divinity; and having won the esteem of many neighboring countries, + his worship soon spread. Among his several festivals there was one + called the Trieterica, which was celebrated every three years. In that + feast the Bacchantes carried the figure of the God in a chariot drawn + by two tigers, or panthers; and, crowned with vine leaves, and holding + thyrsi in their hands, they ran in a frantic manner around the + chariot, filling the air with the noise of tambourines and brazen + instruments, shouting 'Evoe. Bacche!' and calling the God by his + several names of Bromius, Lyaeus, Evan, Lenaeus, and Sabazius. To this + ceremonial, received from the Egyptians, the Greeks added other + ceremonies replete with abominable licentiousness, and repulsive to + common decency. These were often suppressed by public enactment, but + were as often re-established by the votaries of lewdness and + immodesty, and such as found in these festivals a pretext and + opportunity for the commission of the most horrible offences. + + The story of the unfortunate fate of Pentheus is supposed by the + ancient writers to have been strictly true. Pentheus, the son of + Echion and Agave, the daughter of Cadmus, having succeeded his + grandfather in his kingdom, is supposed, like him, to have opposed + those abuses that had crept into the mysteries of Bacchus, and went to + Mount Cithaeron for the purpose of chastising the Bacchantes, who were + celebrating his festival; whereupon, in their frantic madness, the + worshippers, among whom were his mother and his aunt, tore him in + pieces. Pausanias, however, says that Pentheus really was a wicked + prince; and he somewhat varies his story, as he tells us that having + got into a tree to overlook the secret ceremonies of the orgies, + Pentheus was discovered by the Bacchantes, who punished his curiosity + by putting him to death. The story of the transformation of the + mariners is supposed by Bochart to have been founded on the adventure + of certain merchants from the coast of Etruria, whose vessel had the + figure of a dolphin at the prow, or rather of the fish called + 'tursio,' probably the porpoise, or sea-hog. They were probably + shipwrecked near the Isle of Naxos, which was sacred to Bacchus, whose + mysteries they had perhaps neglected, or even despised. On this + slender ground, perhaps, the report spread, that the God himself had + destroyed them, as a punishment for their impiety. + + + + +BOOK THE FOURTH. + + +FABLE I. [IV.1-166] + + The daughters of Minyas, instead of celebrating the festival of + Bacchus, apply themselves to other pursuits during the ceremonies; and + among several narratives which they relate to pass away the time, they + divert themselves with the story of the adventures of Pyramus and + Thisbe. These lovers having made an appointment to meet without the + walls of Babylon, Thisbe arrives first; but at the sight of a lioness, + she runs to hide herself in a cave, and in her alarm, drops her veil. + Pyramus, arriving soon after, finds the veil of his mistress stained + with blood; and believing her to be dead, kills himself with his own + sword. Thisbe returns from the cave; and finding Pyramus weltering in + his blood, she plunges the same fatal weapon into her own breast. + +But Alcithoe, the daughter of Minyas,[1] does not think that the +rites[2] of the God ought to be received; but still, in her rashness, +denies that Bacchus is the progeny of Jupiter; and she has her +sisters[3] as partners in her impiety. + +The priest had ordered both mistresses and maids, laying aside their +employments, to have their breasts covered with skins, and to loosen the +fillets of their hair, and {to put} garlands on their locks, and to take +the verdant thyrsi in their hands; and had prophesied that severe would +be the resentment of the Deity, {if} affronted. Both matrons and +new-married women obey, and lay aside their webs and work-baskets,[4] +and their tasks unfinished; and offer frankincense, and invoke both +Bacchus and Bromius,[5] and Lyaeus,[6] and the son of the Flames, and the +Twice-Born, and the only one that had two mothers.[7] To these is added +{the name of} Nyseus, and the unshorn Thyoneus,[8] and with Lenaeus,[9] +the planter of the genial grape, and Nyctelius,[10] and father Eleleus, +and Iacchus,[11] and Evan,[12] and a great many other names, which thou, +Liber, hast besides, throughout the nations of Greece. For thine is +youth everlasting; thou art a boy to all time, thou art beheld {as} the +most beauteous {of all} in high heaven; thou hast the features of a +virgin, when thou standest without thy horns. By thee the East was +conquered, as far as where swarthy India is bounded by the remote +Ganges. Thou {God}, worthy of our veneration, didst smite Pentheus, and +the axe-bearing Lycurgus,[13] sacrilegious {mortals}; thou didst hurl +the bodies of the Etrurians into the sea. Thou controllest the neck of +the lynxes yoked to thy chariot, graced with the painted reins. The +Bacchanals and the Satyrs follow {thee}; the drunken old man, too, +{Silenus}, who supports his reeling limbs with a staff, and sticks by no +means very fast to his bending ass. And wherever thou goest, the shouts +of youths, and together the voices of women, and tambourines beaten with +the hands, and hollow cymbals resound, and the box-wood {pipe}, with its +long bore. The Ismenian matrons ask thee to show thyself mild and +propitious, and celebrate thy sacred rites as prescribed. + +The daughters of Minyas alone, within doors, interrupting the festival +with unseasonable labor,[14] are either carding wool, or twirling the +threads with their fingers, or are plying at the web, and keeping the +handmaids to their work. One of them, {as she is} drawing the thread +with her smooth thumb, says, "While others are idling, and thronging to +{these} fanciful rites, let us, whom Pallas, a better Deity, occupies, +alleviate the useful toil of our hands with varying discourse; and let +us relate by turns to our disengaged ears, for the general {amusement}, +something each in our turn, that will not permit the time to seem long." +They approve of what she says, and her sisters bid her to be the first +to tell her story. + +She considers which of many she shall tell (for she knows many a one), +and she is in doubt whether she shall tell of thee, Babylonian +Dercetis,[15] whom the people of Palestine[16] believe to inhabit the +pools, with thy changed form, scales covering thy limbs; or rather how +her daughter, taking wings, passed her latter years in whitened turrets; +or how a Naiad,[17] by charms and too potent herbs, changed the bodies +of the young men into silent fishes, until she suffered the same +herself. Or how the tree which bore white fruit {formerly}, now bears it +of purple hue, from the contact of blood. This {story} pleases her; +this, because it was no common tale, she began in manner such as this, +while the wool followed the thread:-- + +"Pyramus and Thisbe, the one the most beauteous of youths,[18] the other +preferred before {all} the damsels that the East contained, lived in +adjoining houses; where Semiramis is said to have surrounded her lofty +city[19] with walls of brick.[20] The nearness caused their first +acquaintance, and their first advances {in love}; with time their +affection increased. They would have united themselves, too, by the tie +of marriage, but their fathers forbade it. A thing which they could not +forbid, they were both inflamed, with minds equally captivated. There is +no one acquainted with it; by nods and signs, they hold converse. And +the more the fire is smothered, the more, when {so} smothered, does it +burn. The party-wall, common to the two houses, was cleft by a small +chink, which it had got formerly, when it was built. This defect, +remarked by no one for so many ages, you lovers (what does not love +perceive?) first found one, and you made it a passage for your voices, +and the accents of love used to pass through it in safety, with the +gentlest murmur. Oftentimes, after they had taken their stations, Thisbe +on one side, {and} Pyramus on the other, and the breath of their mouths +had been {mutually} caught by turns, they used to say, 'Envious wall, +why dost thou stand in the way of lovers? what great matter were it, for +thee to suffer us to be joined with our entire bodies? Or if that is too +much, that, at least, thou shouldst open, for the exchange of kisses. +Nor are we ungrateful; we confess that we are indebted to thee, that a +passage has been given for our words to our loving ears.' Having said +this much, in vain, on their respective sides, about night they said, +'Farewell'; and gave those kisses each on their own side, which did not +reach the other side. + +"The following morning had removed the fires of the night, and the Sun, +with its rays, had dried the grass wet with rime, {when} they met +together at the wonted spot. Then, first complaining much in low +murmurs, they determine, in the silent night, to try to deceive their +keepers, and to steal out of doors; and when they have left the house, +to quit the buildings of the city as well: but that they may not have to +wander, roaming in the open fields, to meet at the tomb of Ninus,[21] +and to conceal themselves beneath the shade of a tree. There was there a +lofty mulberry tree, very full of snow-white fruit, quite close to a +cold spring. The arrangement suits them; and the light, seeming to +depart {but} slowly, is buried in the waters, and from the same waters +the night arises. The clever Thisbe, turning the hinge, gets out in the +dark, and deceives her {attendants}, and, having covered her face, +arrives at the tomb, and sits down under the tree agreed upon; love made +her bold. Lo! a lioness approaches, having her foaming jaws besmeared +with the recent slaughter of oxen, about to quench her thirst with the +water of the neighboring spring. The Babylonian Thisbe sees her at a +distance, by the rays of the moon, and with a trembling foot she flies +to a dark cave; and, while she flies, her veil falling from her back, +she leaves it behind. When the savage lioness has quenched her thirst +with plenteous water, as she is returning into the woods, she tears the +thin covering, found by chance without Thisbe herself, with her +blood-stained mouth. + +"Pyramus, going out later {than Thisbe}, saw the evident footmarks of a +wild beast, in the deep dust, and grew pale all over his face. But, as +soon as he found her veil, as well, dyed with blood, he said: 'One night +will be the ruin of two lovers, of whom she was the most deserving of a +long life. My soul is guilty; 'tis I that have destroyed thee, much to +be lamented; who bade thee to come by night to places full of terror, +and came not hither first. O, whatever lions are lurking beneath this +rock, tear my body in pieces, and devour my accursed entrails with +ruthless jaws. But it is the part of a coward to wish for death.' He +takes up the veil of Thisbe, and he takes it with himself to the shade +of the tree agreed on, and, after he has bestowed tears on the +well-known garment, he gives kisses {to the same}, and he says, +'Receive, now, a draught of my blood as well!' and then plunges the +sword, with which he is girt, into his bowels; and without delay, as he +is dying, he draws it out of the warm wound. As he falls on his back +upon the ground, the blood spurts forth on high, not otherwise than as +when a pipe is burst on the lead decaying,[22] and shoots out afar the +liquid water from the hissing flaw, and cleaves the air with its jet. +The fruit of the tree, by the sprinkling of the blood, are changed to a +dark tint, and the root, soaked with the gore, tints the hanging +mulberries with a purple hue. Behold! not yet having banished her fear, +{Thisbe} returns, that she may not disappoint her lover, and seeks for +the youth both with her eyes and her affection, and longs to tell him +how great dangers she has escaped. And when she observes the spot, and +the altered appearance of the tree, she doubts if it is the same, so +uncertain does the color of the fruit make her. While she is in doubt, +she sees palpitating limbs throbbing upon the bloody ground; she draws +back her foot, and having her face paler than box-wood,[23] she shudders +like the sea, which trembles[24] when its surface is skimmed by a gentle +breeze. But, after pausing a time, she had recognized her own lover, she +smote her arms, undeserving {of such usage}, and tearing her hair, and +embracing the much-loved body, she filled the gashes with her tears, and +mingled her {tokens of} sorrow with his blood; and imprinting kisses on +his cold features, she exclaimed, 'Pyramus! what disaster has taken thee +away from me? Pyramus! answer me; 'tis thy own Thisbe, dearest, that +calls thee; hear me, and raise thy prostrate features.' + +"At the name of Thisbe, Pyramus raised his eyes, now heavy with death, +and, after he had seen her, he closed them again. After she had +perceived her own garment, and beheld, too, the ivory {sheath}[25] +without its sword, she said, ''Tis thy own hand, and love, that has +destroyed thee, ill-fated {youth}! I, too, have a hand bold {enough} for +this one purpose; I have love as well; this shall give me strength for +the wound. I will follow thee in thy death, and I shall be called the +most unhappy cause and companion of thy fate, and thou who, alas! +couldst be torn from me by death alone, shalt not be able, even by +death, to be torn from me. And you, O most wretched parents of mine and +his, be but prevailed upon, in this one thing, by the entreaties of us +both, that you will not deny those whom their constant love {and} whom +their last moments have joined, to be buried in the same tomb. But thou, +O tree, which now with thy boughs dost overshadow the luckless body of +{but} one, art fated soon to cover {those} of two. Retain a token of +{this our} fate, and ever bear fruit black and suited for mourning, as a +memorial of the blood of us two.' {Thus} she said; and having fixed the +point under the lower part of her breast, she fell upon the sword, which +still was reeking with his blood. + +"Her prayers, however, moved the Gods, {and} moved their parents. For +the color of the fruit, when it has fully ripened, is black;[26] and +what was left of them, from the funeral pile, reposed in the same urn." + + [Footnote 1: _Minyas._--Ver. 1. Alcithoe was the daughter of + Minyas, who, according to some, was the son of Orchomenus, + according to others, his father. Pausanias says that the Boeotians, + over whom he reigned, were called 'Minyae' from him; but he makes + no allusion to the females who are here mentioned by Ovid.] + + [Footnote 2: _Rites._--Ver. 1. 'Orgia:' this was the original name + of the Dionysia, or festival of Bacchus; but in time the word came + to be applied to any occasion of festivity.] + + [Footnote 3: _Her sisters._--Ver. 3. The names of the sisters of + Alcithoe, according to Plutarch, were Aristippe and Leucippe. The + names of the three, according to AElian, were Alcathoe, Leucippe, + and Aristippe, who is sometimes called Arsinoe. The latter author + says, that the truth of the case was, that they were decent women, + fond of their husbands and families, who preferred staying at + home, and attending to their domestic concerns, to running after + the new rites; on which it was said, by their enemies, that + Bacchus had punished them.] + + [Footnote 4: _Work-baskets._--Ver. 10. The 'calathus,' which was + called by the Greeks +kalathos, kalathiskos+, and +talaros+, + generally signifies the basket in which women placed their work, + and especially the materials used for spinning. They were + generally made of osiers and reeds, but sometimes of more valuable + materials, such as silver, perhaps in filagree work. 'Calathi' + were also used for carrying fruits and flowers. Virgil (Ecl. v. l. + 71) speaks of cups for holding wine, under the name of 'Calathi.'] + + [Footnote 5: _Bromius._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Bromius, from + +bremo+, 'to cry out,' or 'shout,' from the yells and noise made + by his worshippers, whose peculiar cries were, +Euoi Bakche, o + Iakche, Io Bakche, Euoi saboi+. 'Evoe, Bacche! O, Iacche! Io, + Bacche! Evoe sabae!'] + + [Footnote 6: _Lyaeus._--Ver. 11. Bacchus was called Lyaeus, from the + Greek word, +luein+, 'to loosen,' or 'relax,' because wine dispels + care.] + + [Footnote 7: _That had two mothers._--Ver. 12. The word 'bimater' + seems to have been fancied by Ovid as an appropriate epithet for + Bacchus, Jupiter having undertaken the duties of a mother for him, + in the latter months of gestation.] + + [Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._--Ver. 13. Bacchus was called Thyoneus, + either from Semele, his mother, one of whose names was Thyone, or + from the Greek, +thuein+, 'to be frantic,' from which origin the + Bacchanals also received their name of Thyades.] + + [Footnote 9: _Lenaeus._--Ver. 14. From the Greek word +lenos+, 'a + wine-press.'] + + [Footnote 10: _Nyctelius._--Ver. 15. From the Greek word +nux+, + 'night,' because his orgies were celebrated by night. Eleleus is + from the shout, or 'huzza' of the Greeks, which was +eleleu+.] + + [Footnote 11: _Iacchus._--Ver. 15. From the Greek +iache+, + 'clamor,' or 'noise.'] + + [Footnote 12: _Evan._--Ver. 15. From the exclamation, +Euoi+, or + 'Evoe' which the Bacchanals used in performing his orgies.] + + [Footnote 13: _Lycurgus._--Ver. 22. He was a king of Thrace, who + having slighted the worship of Bacchus, was afflicted with + madness, and hewed off his own legs with a hatchet, and, according + to Apollodorus, mistaking his own son Dryas for a vine, destroyed + him with the same weapon.] + + [Footnote 14: _Unseasonable labor._--Ver. 32. 'Minerva;' the name + of the Goddess Minerva is here used for the exercise of the art of + spinning, of which she was the patroness. The term 'intempestiva' + is appropriately applied, as the arts of industry and frugality, + which were first invented by Minerva, but ill accorded with the + idle and vicious mode of celebrating the festival of Bacchus.] + + [Footnote 15: _Dercetis._--Ver. 45. Lucian, speaking of Dercetis, + or Derceto, says, 'I have seen in Phoenicia a statue of this + goddess, of a very singular kind. From the middle upwards, it + represents a woman, but below it terminates in a fish. The statue + of her, which is shown at Hieropolis, represents her wholly as a + woman.' He further says, that the temple of this last city was + thought by some to have been built by Semiramis, who consecrated + it not to Juno, as is generally believed, but to her own mother, + Derceto. Atergatis was another name of this Goddess. She was said, + by an illicit amour, to have been the mother of Semiramis, and in + despair, to have thrown herself into a lake near Ascalon, on which + she was changed into a fish.] + + [Footnote 16: _Palestine._--Ver. 46. Palaestina, or Philistia, + in which Ascalon was situate, was a part of Syria, lying in its + south-western extremity.] + + [Footnote 17: _How a Naiad._--Ver. 49. The Naiad here mentioned is + supposed to have been a Nymph of the Island of the Sun, called + also Nosola, between Taprobana (the modern Ceylon) and the coast + of Carmania (perhaps Coromandel), who was in the habit of changing + such youths as fell into her hands into fishes. As a reward for + her cruelty, she herself was changed into a fish by the Sun.] + + [Footnote 18: _Most beauteous of youths._--Ver. 55. Clarke + translates 'juvenum pulcherrimus alter,' 'one of the most handsome + of all the young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 19: _Her lofty city._--Ver. 57. The magnificence of + ancient Babylon has been remarked by many ancient writers, from + Herodotus downwards. Its walls are said to have been 60 miles in + compass, 87 feet in thickness, and 350 feet in height.] + + [Footnote 20: _Walls of brick._--Ver. 58. The walls were built by + Semiramis of bricks dried in the sun, cemented together with + layers of bitumen.] + + [Footnote 21: _The tomb of Ninus._--Ver. 88. According to Diodorus + Siculus, the sepulchre of Ninus, the first king of Babylon, was + ten stadia in length, and nine in depth; it had the appearance of + a vast citadel, and was at a considerable distance from the city + of Babylon. Commentators have expressed some surprise that Ovid + here uses the word 'busta,' for 'tomb,' as the place of meeting + for these chaste lovers, as the prostitutes of Rome used to haunt + the 'busta,' or 'tombs;' whence they obtained the epithet of + 'bustuariae.'] + + [Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._--Ver. 122. 'Fistula' here means + 'a water-pipe.' Vitruvius speaks of three methods of conveying + water; by channels of masonry, earthen pipes, and leaden pipes. + The latter were smaller, and more generally used; to them + reference is here made. They were formed by bending plates of lead + into a form, not cylindrical, but the section of which was oblong, + and tapering towards the top like a pear. The description here + given, though somewhat homely, is extremely natural, and, as + frequent experience shows us, depicts the results when the + soldering of a water-pipe has become decayed.] + + [Footnote 23: _Paler than box-wood._--Ver. 134. From the light + color of boxwood, the words 'buxo pallidiora,' 'paler than + boxwood,' became a proverbial expression among the Romans.] + + [Footnote 24: _The sea which trembles._--Ver. 136. The ripple, or + shudder, which runs along the surface of the sea, when a breath of + wind is stirring in a calm, is very beautifully described here, + and is worthy of notice.] + + [Footnote 25: _The ivory sheath._--Ver. 148. The 'vagina,' or + 'sheath' of the sword, was often highly decorated; and we learn + from Homer and Virgil, as well as Ovid, that ivory was much used + for that purpose. The sheath was worn by the Greeks and Romans on + the left side of the body, so as to enable them to draw the sword + from it, by passing the right hand in front of the body, to take + hold of the hilt, with the thumb next to the blade.] + + [Footnote 26: _Is black._--Ver. 165. He thus accounts for the deep + purple hue of the mulberry which, before the event mentioned here, + he says was white.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is pretty clear, as we have already seen, that the establishment of + the worship of Bacchus in Greece met with great opposition, and that + his priests and devotees published several miracles and prodigies, the + more easily to influence the minds of their fellow-men. Thus, the + daughters of Minyas are said to have been changed into bats, solely + because they neglected to join in the orgies of that God; when, + probably, the fact was, that they were either secretly despatched, or + were forced to fly for their lives; and their absence was accounted + for to the ignorant and credulous, by the invention of this Fable. The + story of Dercetis, as related by Diodorus Siculus, Pliny, and + Herodotus, is, that having offended Venus, that Goddess caused her to + fall in love with a young man, by whom she had a daughter. In despair + at her misfortune, she killed her lover, and exposed her child, and + afterwards drowned herself. The Syrians, lamenting her fate, built a + temple near where she was drowned, and honored her as a Goddess. They + stated that she was turned into a fish, and they there represented her + under the figure of a woman down to the waist, and of a fish thence + downwards. They also abstained from eating fish; though they offered + them to her in sacrifice, and suspended gilded ones in her temple. + Selden, in his Treatise on the Syrian Gods, suggests that the story of + Dercetis, or Atergatis, was founded on the figure and worship of + Dagon, the God of the Philistines, who was represented under the + figure of a fish; and that the name of Atergatis is a corruption of + 'Adir Dagon,' 'a great fish,' which is not at all improbable. The same + author supposes that Dercetis was originally the same Deity with + Venus, Astarte, Minerva, Juno, Isis, and the Moon; and that she was + worshipped under the name of Mylitta by the Assyrians, and as Alilac + by the Arabians. Lucian tells us, that Dercetis was reported to have + been the mother of Semiramis. + + Ovid and Hyginus are the only authors that make mention of the story + of Pyramus and Thisbe, and both agree in making Babylon the scene of + it. It seems to be rather intended as a moral tale, than to have been + built upon any actual circumstance. It affords a lesson to youth not + to enter rashly into engagements: and to parents not to pursue, too + rigorously, the gratification of their own resentment, but rather to + consult the inclination of their children, when not likely to be + productive of unhappiness at a future period. + + The reader cannot fail to call to mind the admirable travesty of this + story by Shakspere, in the 'Midsummer Night's Dream.' + + +FABLE II. [IV.167-233] + + The Sun discovers to Vulcan the intrigue between Mars and Venus, and + then, himself, falls in love with Leucothoe. Venus, in revenge for the + discovery, resolves to make his amours unfortunate. + +Here she ended; and there was {but} a short time betwixt, and {then} +Leuconoe began[27] to speak. Her sisters held their peace. "Love has +captivated even this Sun, who rules all things by his aethereal light. +I will relate the loves of the Sun. This God is supposed to have been +the first to see the adultery of Venus with Mars; this God is the first +to see everything. He was grieved at what was done, and showed to the +husband, the son of Juno,[28] the wrong done to his bed, and the place +of the intrigue. Both his senses, and the work which his skilful right +hand was {then} holding, quitted him {on the instant}. Immediately, he +files out some slender chains of brass, and nets, and meshes, which can +escape the eye. The finest threads cannot surpass that work, nor yet the +cobweb that hangs from the top of the beam. He makes it so, too, as to +yield to a slight touch, and a gentle movement, and skilfully arranges +it drawn around the bed. When the wife and the gallant come into the +same bed, being both caught through the artifice of the husband, and +chains prepared by this new contrivance, they are held fast in the +{very} midst of their embraces. + +"The Lemnian {God} immediately threw open the folding doors[29] of +ivory, and admitted the Deities. {There} they lay disgracefully bound. +And yet many a one of the Gods, not the serious ones, could fain wish +thus to become disgraced. The Gods of heaven laughed, and for a long +time was this the most noted story in all heaven. The Cytherean[30] +goddess exacts satisfaction of the Sun, in remembrance of this betrayal; +and, in her turn, disturbs him with the like passion, who had disturbed +her secret amours. What now, son of Hyperion,[31] does thy beauty, thy +heat, and thy radiant light avail thee? For thou, who dost burn all +lands with thy flames, art {now} burnt with a new flame; and thou, who +oughtst to be looking at everything, art gazing on Leucothoe, and on one +maiden art fixing those eyes which thou oughtst {to be fixing} on the +universe. At one time thou art rising earlier in the Eastern sky; at +another thou art setting late in the waves; and in taking time to gaze +{on her}, thou art lengthening the hours of mid-winter. Sometimes thou +art eclipsed, and the trouble of thy mind affects thy light, and, +darkened, thou fillest with terror the breasts of mortals. Nor art thou +pale, because the form of the moon, nearer to the earth, stands in thy +way. It is that passion which occasions this complexion. Thou lovest her +alone, neither does Clymene, nor Rhodos,[32] nor the most beauteous +mother[33] of the AEaean Circe engage thee, nor {yet} Clytie, who, though +despised, was longing for thy embraces; at that very time thou wast +suffering these grievous pangs. Leucothoe occasioned the forgetting of +many a damsel; she, whom Eurynome, the most beauteous of the +perfume-bearing[34] nation produced.[35] But after her daughter grew up, +as much as the mother excelled all {other Nymphs}, so much did the +daughter {excel} the mother. Her father, Orchamus, ruled over the +Achaemenian[36] cities, and he is reckoned the seventh in descent from +the ancient Belus.[37] + +"The pastures of the horses of the Sun are under the Western sky; +instead of grass, they have ambrosia.[38] That nourishes their limbs +wearied with their daily service, and refits them for labor. And while +the coursers are there eating their heavenly food, and night is taking +her turn; the God enters the beloved chamber, changed into the shape of +her mother Eurynome, and beholds Leucothoe among twice six handmaids, +near the threshold, drawing out the smooth threads with her twirling +spindle. When, therefore, as though her mother, he has given kisses to +her dear daughter, he says, "There is a secret matter, {which I have to +mention}; maids, withdraw, and take not from a mother the privilege of +speaking in private {with her daughter}." They obey; and the God being +left in the chamber without any witness, he says, 'I am he, who measures +out the long year, who beholds all things, {and} through whom the earth +sees all things; the eye, {in fact}, of the universe. Believe me, thou +art pleasing to me.' She is affrighted; and in her alarm, both her +distaff and her spindle fall from her relaxed fingers. Her very fear +becomes her; and, he, no longer delaying, returns to his true shape, and +his wonted beauty. But the maiden, although startled at the unexpected +sight, overcome by the beauty of the God,[39] {and} dismissing {all} +complaints, submits to his embrace. + + [Footnote 27: _Leuconoe began._--Ver. 168. It is worthy of remark, + how strongly the affecting tale of Pyramus and Thisbe contrasts + with the loose story of the loves of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 28: _The son of Juno._--Ver. 173. Vulcan is called + 'Junonigena,' because, according to some, he was the son of Juno + alone. Other writers, however, say that he was the only son of + Jupiter and Juno.] + + [Footnote 29: _The folding doors._--Ver. 185. The plural word + 'valvae' is often used to signify a door, or entrance, because + among the ancients each doorway generally contained two doors + folding together. The internal doors even of private houses were + bivalve; hence, as in the present case, we often read of the + folding doors of a bed-chamber. Each of these doors or valves was + usually wide enough to permit persons to pass each other in egress + and ingress without opening the other door as well. Sometimes each + valve was double, folding like our window-shutters.] + + [Footnote 30: _Cytherean._--Ver. 190. Cythera was an island on the + southern coast of Laconia; where Venus was supposed to have + landed, after she had risen from the sea. It was dedicated to her + worship.] + + [Footnote 31: _Hyperion._--Ver. 192. He was the son of Coelus, or + Uranus, and the father of the Sun. The name of Hyperion is, + however, often given by the poets to the Sun himself.] + + [Footnote 32: _Rhodos._--Ver. 204. She was a damsel of the Isle of + Rhodes, the daughter of Neptune, and, according to some, of Venus. + She was greatly beloved by Apollo, to whom she bore seven + children.] + + [Footnote 33: _Beauteous mother._--Ver. 205. This was Persa, the + daughter of Oceanus, and the mother of the enchantress Circe, who + is here called 'AEaea,' from AEaea, a city and peninsula of Colchis. + Circe is referred to more at length in the 14th Book of the + Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 34: _Perfume-bearing._--Ver. 209. Being born in Arabia, + the producer of all kinds of spices and perfumes, which were much + in request among the ancients, for the purposes of sacrifice.] + + [Footnote 35: _Produced._--Ver. 210. Eurynome was the wife of + Orchamus, and was the daughter of Oceanus and Tethys.] + + [Footnote 36: _Achaemenian._--Ver. 212. Persia is called + Achaemenian, from Achaemenes, one of its former kings.] + + [Footnote 37: _Ancient Belus._--Ver. 213. The order of descent is + thus reckoned from Belus; Abas, Acrisius, Danae, Perseus, Bachaemon, + Achaemenes, and Orchamus.] + + [Footnote 38: _Ambrosia._--Ver. 215. Ambrosia was said to be the + food of the Deities, and nectar their drink.] + + [Footnote 39: _Beauty of the God._--Ver. 233. Clarke translates, + 'Virgo victa nitore Dei.' 'The young lady--charmed with the + spruceness of the God.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plutarch, in his Treatise 'How to read the Poets,' suggests a curious + explanation of the discovery by the Sun of the intrigue of Mars and + Venus. He says that such persons as are born under the conjunction of + the planets Mars and Venus, are naturally of an amorous temperament; + but that if the Sun does not happen then to be at a distance, their + indiscretions will be very soon discovered. + + Palaephatus gives a historical solution to the story. He says that + Helius, the son of Vulcan, king of Egypt, resolving to cause his + father's laws against adultery to be strictly observed, and having + been informed that a lady of the court had an intrigue with one of the + courtiers, entered her apartment in the night, and obtaining ocular + proof of the courtier's guilt, caused him to be severely punished. He + also tells us that the similarity of the name gave birth to the Fable + which Homer was the first to relate, with a small variation, and which + is here copied by Ovid. Libanius, deploring the burning of the Temple + of Apollo near Antioch, complains of the ingratitude of Vulcan to that + God, who had formerly discovered to him the infidelity of his wife; + a subject upon which St. Chrysostom seems to think that the + rhetorician would have done better to have been silent. + + +FABLE III. [IV.234-270] + + Clytie, in a fit of revenge, discovers the adventure of Leucothoe to + her father, who orders her to be buried alive. The Sun, grieved at her + misfortune, changed her into the frankincense tree; he also despises + the informer, who pines away for love of him, and is at last changed + into the sunflower. + +Clytie envied her, (for the love of the Sun[40] for her had not been +moderate), and, urged on by resentment at a rival, she published the +intrigue, and, when spread abroad, brought it to the notice of her +father. He, fierce and unrelenting, cruelly buried her alive deep in the +ground, as she entreated and stretched out her hands towards the light +of the Sun, and cried, "'Twas he that offered violence to me against my +will;" and upon her he placed a heap of heavy sand. The son of Hyperion +scattered it with his rays, and gave a passage to thee, by which thou +mightst be able to put forth thy buried features. + +But thou, Nymph, couldst not now raise thy head smothered with the +weight of the earth; and {there} thou didst lie, a lifeless body. The +governor of the winged steeds is said to have beheld nothing more +afflicting than that, since the lightnings that caused the death of +Phaeton. He, indeed, endeavors, if he can, to recall her cold limbs to +an enlivening heat, by the strength of his rays. But, since fate opposes +attempts so great, he sprinkles both her body and the place with +odoriferous nectar, and having first uttered many a complaint he says, +"Still shalt thou reach the skies."[41] Immediately, the body, steeped +in the heavenly nectar, dissolves, and moistens the earth with its +odoriferous juices; and a shoot of frankincense having taken root by +degrees through the clods, rises up and bursts the hillock with its top. + +But the author of light came no more to Clytie (although love might have +excused her grief, and her grief the betrayal); and he put an end to his +intercourse with her. From that time she, who had made so mad a use of +her passion, pined away, loathing the {other} Nymphs; and in the open +air, night and day, she sat on the bare ground, with her hair +dishevelled and unadorned. And for nine days, without water or food, she +subsisted in her fast, merely on dew and her own tears; and she did not +raise herself from the ground. She only used to look towards the face of +the God as he moved along, and to turn her own features towards him. +They say that her limbs became rooted fast in the ground; and a livid +paleness turned part of her color into {that of} a bloodless plant. +There is a redness in some part; and a flower, very like a violet,[42] +conceals her face. Though she is held fast by a root, she turns towards +the Sun, and {though} changed, she {still} retains her passion. + + [Footnote 40: _For the love of the Sun._--Ver. 234. This remark is + added, to show that the God had not been sufficiently cautious in + his courtship of her sister to conceal it from the observation of + Clytie.] + + [Footnote 41: _Reach the skies._--Ver. 251. That is to say, 'You + shall arise from the earth as a tree bearing frankincense: the + gums of which, burnt in sacrifice to the Gods, shall reach the + heavens with their sweet odors.' Persia and Arabia have been + celebrated by the poets, ancient and modern, for their great + fertility in frankincense and other aromatic plants.] + + [Footnote 42: _Like a violet._--Ver. 268. This cannot mean the + large yellow plant which is called the sunflower. The small + aromatic flower which we call heliotrope, with its violet hue and + delightful perfume, more nearly answers the description. The + larger flower probably derived its name from the resemblance which + it bears to the sun, surrounded with rays, as depicted by the + ancient painters.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + No ascertained historical fact can be found as the basis of the story + of Leucothoe being buried alive by her father Orchamus, or of her + rival Clytie being metamorphosed into a sunflower. The story seems to + have been most probably simply founded on principles of natural + philosophy. Leucothoe, it is not unreasonable to suppose, may have + been styled the daughter of Orchamus, king of Persia, for no other + reason but because that Prince was the first to introduce the + frankincense tree, which was called Leucothoe, into his kingdom; and + it was added that she fell in love with Apollo, because the tree + produces an aromatic drug much used in physic, of which that God was + fabled to have been the inventor. The jealousy of Clytie was, perhaps, + founded upon a fact, stated by some naturalists, that the sunflower is + a plant which kills the frankincense tree, when growing near it. + Pliny, however, who ascribes several properties to the sunflower, does + not mention this among them. + + Orchamus is nowhere mentioned by the ancient writers, except in the + present instance. + + +FABLE IV. [IV.271-284] + + Daphnis is turned into a stone. Scython is changed from a man into a + woman. Celmus is changed into adamant. Crocus and Smilax are made into + flowers. The Curetes are produced from a shower. + +{Thus} she spoke; and the wondrous deed charms their ears. Some deny +that it was possible to be done, some say that real Gods can do all +things; but Bacchus is not one of them. When her sisters have become +silent, Alcithoe is called upon; who running with her shuttle through +the warp of the hanging web, says, "I keep silence upon the well-known +amours of Daphnis, the shepherd of Ida,[43] whom the resentment of the +Nymph, his paramour, turned into a stone. Such mighty grief inflames +those who are in love. Nor do I relate how once Scython, the law of +nature being altered, was of both sexes first a man, then a woman. Thee +too, I pass by, O Celmus, now adamant, formerly most attached to Jupiter +{when} little; and the Curetes,[44] sprung from a plenteous shower of +rain; Crocus, too, changed, together with Smilax,[45] into little +flowers; and I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty." + + [Footnote 43: _Shepherd of Ida._--Ver. 277. This may mean either + Daphnis of Crete, or of Phrygia; for in both those countries there + was a mountain named Ida.] + + [Footnote 44: _The Curetes._--Ver. 282. According to Dionysius of + Halicarnassus, the Curetes were the ancient inhabitants of Crete. + We may here remark, that the story of their springing from the + earth after a shower of rain, seems to have no other foundation + than the fact of their having been of the race of the Titans; that + is, they were descended from Uranus, or Coelus and Tita, by which + names were meant the heaven and the earth.] + + [Footnote 45: _Smilax._--Ver. 283. The dictionary meanings given + for this word are--1. Withwind, a kind of herb. 2. The yew tree. + 3. A kind of oak. The Nymph was probably supposed to have been + changed into the first.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Most probably, the story of the shepherd Daphnis being turned into a + stone, was no other than an allegorical method of expressing the + insensibility of an individual. Thalia was the name of the Nymph who + was thus affronted by Daphnis. + + The story of Scython changing his sex, is perhaps based upon the fact, + that the country of Thrace, which took the name of Thracia from a + famous sorceress, was before called Scython; and that as it lost a + name of the masculine gender for one of the feminine, in after times + it became reported that Scython had changed sexes. + + Pliny tells us that Celmus was a young man of remarkable wisdom and + moderation, and that the passions making no impression on him, he was + changed into adamant. Some, however, assert that he was foster-father + to Jupiter, by whom he was enclosed in an impenetrable tower, for + revealing the immortality of the Gods. + + According to one account, Crocus and Smilax were a constant and happy + married couple, who for their chaste and innocent life were said to + have been changed into flowers; but another story is, that Crocus was + a youth beloved by Smilax, and that on his rejecting the Nymph's + advances, they were both turned into flowers. + + The story of the Curetes being sprung from rain, is possibly founded + on the report that they were descended from Uranus and Tita, the + Heaven and the Earth. Some suppose them to have been the original + inhabitants of the isle of Crete; and they are said to have watched + over the infancy of Jupiter, by whom they were afterwards slain, for + having concealed Epaphus from his wrath. + + +FABLE V. [IV.285-388] + + The Naiad Salmacis falls in love with the youth Hermaphroditus, who + rejects her advances. While he is bathing, she leaps into the water, + and seizing the youth in her arms, they become one body, retaining + their different sexes. + +Learn how Salmacis became infamous, {and} why it enervates, with its +enfeebling waters, and softens the limbs bathed {in it}. The cause is +unknown; {but} the properties of the fountain are very well known. The +Naiads nursed a boy, born to Mercury of the Cytherean Goddess in the +caves of Ida; whose face was such that therein both mother and father +could be discerned; he likewise took his name from them. As soon as he +had completed thrice five years, he forsook his native mountains, and +leaving Ida, the place of his nursing, he loved to wander over unknown +spots, {and} to see unknown rivers, his curiosity lessening the fatigue. +He went, too, to the Lycian[46] cities, and the Carians, that border +upon Lycia. Here he sees a pool of water, clear to the {very} ground at +the bottom; here there are no fenny reeds, no barren sedge, no rushes +with their sharp points. The water is translucent; but the edges of the +pool are enclosed with green turf, and with grass ever verdant. A Nymph +dwells {there}; but one neither skilled in hunting, nor accustomed to +bend the bow, nor to contend in speed; the only one, too, of {all} the +Naiads not known to the swift Diana. The report is, that her sisters +often said to her, "Salmacis, do take either the javelin, or the painted +quiver, and unite thy leisure with the toils of the chase." She takes +neither the javelin, nor the painted quiver, nor does she unite her +leisure with the toils of the chase. But sometimes she is bathing her +beauteous limbs in her own spring; {and} often is she straitening her +hair with a comb of Citorian boxwood,[47] and consulting the waters, +into which she looks, what is befitting her. At other times, covering +her body with a transparent garment, she reposes either on the soft +leaves or on the soft grass. Ofttimes is she gathering flowers. And +then, too, by chance was she gathering them when she beheld the youth, +and wished to possess him, {thus} seen. + +But though she hastened to approach {the youth}, still she did not +approach him before she had put herself in order, and before she had +surveyed her garments, and put on her {best} looks, and deserved to be +thought beautiful. Then thus did she begin to speak: "O youth, most +worthy to be thought to be a God! if thou art a God, thou mayst {well} +be Cupid; but, if thou art a mortal, happy are they who begot thee, and +blessed is thy brother, and fortunate indeed thy sister, if thou hast +one, and the nurse {as well} who gave thee the breast. But far, far more +fortunate than all these {is she}; if thou hast any wife, if thou +shouldst vouchsafe any one {the honor of} marriage. And if any one is +thy {wife, then} let my pleasure be stolen; but, if thou hast none, let +me be {thy wife}, and let us unite in one tie." After these things +{said}, the Naiad is silent; a blush tinges the face of the youth: he +knows not what love is, but even to blush becomes him. Such is the color +of apples, hanging on a tree exposed to the sun, or of painted ivory, or +of the moon blushing beneath her brightness when the aiding +{cymbals}[48] {of} brass are resounding in vain. Upon the Nymph +desiring, without ceasing, such kisses at least as he might give to his +sister, and now laying her hands upon his neck, white as ivory, he says, +"Wilt thou desist, or am I to fly, and to leave this place, together +with thee?" + +Salmacis is affrighted, and says, "I freely give up this spot to thee, +stranger," and, with a retiring step, she pretends to go away. But then +looking back, and hid in a covert of shrubs, she lies concealed, and +puts her bended knees down to the ground. But he, just like a boy, and +as though unobserved on the retired sward, goes here and there, and in +the sportive waves dips the soles of his feet, and {then} his feet as +far as his ankles. Nor is there any delay; being charmed with the +temperature of the pleasant waters, he throws off his soft garments from +his tender body. Then, indeed, Salmacis is astonished, and burns with +desire for his naked beauty. The eyes, too, of the Nymph are on fire, no +otherwise than as when the Sun,[49] most brilliant with his clear orb, +is reflected from the opposite image of a mirror. With difficulty does +she endure delay; hardly does she now defer her joy. Now she longs to +embrace him; and now, distracted, she can hardly contain herself. He, +clapping his body with his hollow palms, swiftly leaps into the stream, +and throwing out his arms alternately, shines in the limpid water, as if +any one were to cover statues of ivory, or white lilies, with clear +glass. + +"I have gained my point," says the Naiad; "see, he is mine!" and, all +her garments thrown aside, she plunges in the midst of the waters, and +seizes him resisting her, and snatches reluctant kisses, and thrusts +down her hands, and touches his breast against his will, and clings +about the youth, now one way, and now another. Finally, as he is +struggling against her, and desiring to escape, she entwines herself +about him, like a serpent which the royal bird takes up and is bearing +aloft; and as it hangs, it holds fast his head and feet, and enfolds his +spreading wings with its tail. Or, as the ivy is wont to wind itself +along the tall trunks {of trees}; and as the polypus[50] holds fast its +enemy, caught beneath the waves, by letting down his suckers on all +sides; {so} does the descendant of Atlas[51] {still} persist, and deny +the Nymph the hoped-for joy. She presses him hard; and clinging to him +with every limb, as she holds fast, she says, "Struggle as thou mayst, +perverse one, still thou shalt not escape. So ordain it, ye Gods, and +let no time separate him from me, nor me from him." Her prayers find +propitious Deities, for the mingled bodies of the two are united,[52] +and one human shape is put upon them; just as if any one should see +branches beneath a common bark join in growing, and spring up together. +So, when their bodies meet together in the firm embrace, they are no +more two, and their form is twofold, so that they can neither be styled +woman nor boy; they seem {to be} neither and both. + +Therefore, when Hermaphroditus sees that the limpid waters, into which +he had descended as a man, have made him but half a male, and that his +limbs are softened in them, holding up his hands, he says, but now no +longer with the voice of a male, "O, both father and mother, grant this +favor to your son, who has the name of you both, that whoever enters +these streams a man, may go out thence {but} half a man, and that he may +suddenly become effeminate in the waters when touched." Both parents, +moved, give their assent to the words of their two-shaped son, and taint +the fountain with drugs of ambiguous quality. + + [Footnote 46: _Lycian._--Ver. 296. Lycia was a province of Asia + Minor, on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. Caria was another + province, adjoining to Lycia.] + + [Footnote 47: _Citorian boxwood._--Ver. 311. Citorus, or Cythorus, + was a mountain of Paphlagonia, famous for the excellence of the + wood of the box trees that grow there. The Greeks and Romans made + their combs of it. The Egyptians used them made of ivory and wood, + and toothed on one side only; those of the Greeks had teeth on + both sides. Great care was usually taken of the hair; to go with + it uncombed was a sign of affliction.] + + [Footnote 48: _The aiding cymbals._--Ver. 333. The witches and + magicians, in ancient times, and especially those of Thessaly, + professed to be able, with their charms and incantations, to bring + the moon down from heaven. The truth of these assertions being + commonly believed, at the period of an eclipse it was supposed by + the multitude that the moon was being subjected to the spells of + these magicians, and that she was struggling (laborabat) against + them, on which the sound of drums, trumpets, and cymbals was + resorted to, to distract the attention of the moon, and to drown + the charms repeated by the enchanters, for which reason, the + instruments employed for the purpose were styled 'auxiliares.'] + + [Footnote 49: _As when the Sun._--Ver. 349. Bailey gives this + explanation of the passage,-- 'The eyes of the Nymph seemed to + sparkle and shine, just as the rays of the sun in a clear sky when + a looking-glass is placed against them, for then they seem most + splendid, and contract the fire.' From the mention of the eyes of + the Nymph burning 'flagrant,' we might be almost justified in + concluding that 'speculum' means here not a mirror, but a + burning-glass. The 'specula,' or looking-glasses, of the ancients + were usually made of metal, either a composition of tin and + copper, or silver; but in later times, alloy was mixed with the + silver. Pliny mentions the obsidian stone, or, as it is now + called, the Icelandic agate, as being used for this purpose. Nero + is said to have used emeralds for mirrors. Pliny the Elder says + that mirrors were made in the glass-houses of Sidon, which + consisted of glass plates, with leaves of metal at the back; they + were probably of an inferior character. Those of copper and tin + were made chiefly at Brundisium. The white metal formed from this + mixture soon becoming dim, a sponge with powdered pumice stone was + usually fastened to the mirrors made of that composition. They + were generally small, of a round or oval shape, and having a + handle; and female slaves usually held them, while their + mistresses were performing the duties of the toilet. Sometimes + they were fastened to the walls, and they were occasionally of the + length of a person's body. Venus was supposed often to use the + mirror; but Minerva repudiated the use of it.] + + [Footnote 50: _Polypus._--Ver. 366. This is a fish which entangles + its prey, mostly consisting of shell fish, in its great number of + feet or feelers. Ovid here calls them 'flagella;' but in the + Halieuticon he styles them 'brachia' and 'crines.' Pliny the Elder + calls them 'crines' and 'cirri.'] + + [Footnote 51: _Descendant of Atlas._--Ver. 368. Hermaphroditus was + the great-grandson of Atlas; as the latter was the father of Maia, + the mother of Mercury, who begot Hermaphroditus.] + + [Footnote 52: _The two are united._--Ver. 374. Clarke translates, + 'nam mixta duorum corpora junguntur,' 'for the bodies of both, + being jumbled together, are united.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The only probable solution of this story seems to have been the fact + that there was in Caria, near the town of Halicarnassus, as we read in + Vitruvius, a fountain which was instrumental in civilizing certain + barbarians who had been driven from that neighborhood by the Argive + colony established there. These men being obliged to repair to the + fountain for water, and meeting the Greek colonists there, their + intercourse not only polished them, but in course of time corrupted + them, by the introduction of the luxurious manners of Greece. Hence + the fountain had the reputation of changing men into women. + + Possibly the water of that fountain, by some peculiar chemical + quality, made those who drank of it become soft and effeminate, as + waters are to be occasionally found with extraordinary qualities. + Lylius Gyraldus suggests, that several disgraceful adventures happened + near this fountain (which was enclosed by walls), which in time gave + it a bad name. + + +FABLE VI. [IV.389-415] + + Bacchus, to punish the daughters of Minyas for their contempt of his + worship, changes them into bats, and their work into ivy and vine + leaves. + +There was {now} an end of their stories; and still do the daughters of +Minyas go on with their work, and despise the God, and desecrate his +festival; when, on a sudden, tambourines unseen resound with their +jarring noise; the pipe, too, with the crooked horn, and the tinkling +brass, re-echo; myrrh and saffron shed their fragrant odors; and, +a thing past all belief, their webs begin to grow green, and the cloth +hanging {in the loom} to put forth foliage like ivy. Part changes into +vines, and what were threads before, are {now} turned into vine shoots. +Vine branches spring from the warp, and the purple lends its splendor to +the tinted grapes. + +And now the day was past, and the time came on, which you could neither +call darkness nor light, but yet the {very} commencement of the dubious +night along with the light. The house seemed suddenly to shake, and +unctuous torches to burn, and the building to shine with glowing fires, +and the fictitious phantoms of savage wild beasts to howl. Presently, +the sisters are hiding themselves throughout the smoking house, and in +different places are avoiding the fires and the light. While they are +seeking a hiding-place, a membrane is stretched over their small limbs, +and covers their arms with light wings; nor does the darkness suffer +them to know by what means they have lost their former shape. No +feathers bear them up; yet they support themselves on pellucid wings; +and, endeavoring to speak, they utter a voice very diminutive {even} in +proportion to their bodies, and express their low complaints with a +squeaking sound. They frequent houses, not woods; and, abhorring the +light, they fly {abroad} by night. And from the late evening do they +derive their name.[53] + + [Footnote 53: _Derive their name._--Ver. 415. In Greek they are + called +nukterides+, from +nux+, 'night;' and in Latin, + 'vespertiliones,' from 'vesper,' 'evening,' on account of their + habits.] + + +FABLE VII. [IV.416-562] + + Tisiphone, being sent by Juno to the Palace of Athamas, causes him to + become mad; on which he dashes his son Learchus to pieces against a + wall. He then pursues his wife Ino, who throws herself headlong from + the top of a rock into the sea, with her other son Melicerta in her + arms: when Neptune, at the intercession of Venus, changes them into + Sea Deities. The attendants of Ino, who have followed her in her + flight, are changed, some into stone, and others into birds, as they + are about to throw themselves into the sea after their mistress. + +But then the Divine power of Bacchus is famed throughout all Thebes; and +his aunt is everywhere telling of the great might of the new Divinity; +she alone,[54] out of so many sisters, is free from sorrow, except that +which her sisters have occasioned. Juno beholds her, having her soul +elevated with her {children}, and her alliance with Athamas, and the God +her foster-child. She cannot brook this, and says to herself, "Was the +child of a concubine able to transform the Maeonian sailors, and to +overwhelm them in the sea, and to give the entrails of the son to be +torn to pieces by his mother, and to cover the three daughters of Minyas +with newly formed wings? Shall Juno be able to do nothing but lament +these griefs unrevenged? And is that sufficient for me? Is this my only +power? He himself instructs me what to do. It is right to be taught even +by an enemy. And what madness can do, he shows enough, and more than +enough, by the slaughter of Pentheus. Why should not Ino, {too}, be +goaded by madness, and submit to an example kindred to those of her +sisters?" + +There is a shelving path, shaded with dismal yew, which leads through +profound silence to the infernal abodes. {Here} languid Styx exhales +vapors; and the new-made ghosts descend this way, and phantoms when they +have enjoyed[55] funeral rites. Horror and winter possess these dreary +regions far and wide, and the ghosts newly arrived know not where the +way is that leads to the Stygian city, {or} where is the dismal palace +of the black Pluto. The wide city has a thousand passages, and gates +open on every side. And as the sea {receives} the rivers for the whole +earth, so does that spot[56] receive all the souls; nor is it {too} +little for any {amount of} people, nor does it perceive the crowd to +increase. The shades wander about, bloodless, without body and bones; +and some throng the place of judgment; some the abode of the infernal +prince. Some pursue various callings, in imitation of their former life; +their own punishment confines others. + +Juno, the daughter of Saturn, leaving her celestial habitation, submits +to go thither, so much does she give way to hatred and to anger. Soon as +she has entered there, and the threshold groans, pressed by her sacred +body, Cerberus raises his threefold mouth, and utters triple barkings at +the same moment. She summons the Sisters,[57] begotten of Night, +terrible and implacable Goddesses. They are sitting before the doors of +the prison shut close with adamant, and are combing black vipers from +their hair. Soon as they recognize her amid the shades of darkness, +{these} Deities arise. This place is called "the accursed." Tityus[58] +is giving his entrails to be mangled, and is stretched over nine acres. +By thee, Tantalus,[59] no waters are reached, and the tree which +overhangs thee, starts away. Sisyphus,[60] thou art either catching or +thou art pushing on the stone destined to fall again. Ixion[61] is +whirled round, and both follows and flies from himself. The +granddaughters, too, of Belus, who dared to plot the destruction of +their cousins, are everlastingly taking up the water which they lose. +After the daughter of Saturn has beheld all these with a stern look, and +Ixion before all; again, after him, looking upon Sisyphus, she says, + +"Why does he alone, of {all} the brothers, suffer eternal punishment? +and why does a rich palace contain the proud Athamas, who, with his +wife, has ever despised me?" And {then} she explains the cause of her +hatred and of her coming, and what it is she desires. What she desires +is, that the palace of Cadmus shall not stand, and that the Sister +{Furies} shall involve Athamas in crime. She mingles together promises, +commands, and entreaties, and solicits the Goddesses. When Juno has thus +spoken, Tisiphone, with her locks dishevelled as they are, shakes them, +and throws back from her face the snakes crawling over it; and thus she +says: "There is no need of a long preamble; whatever thou commandest, +consider it as done: leave these hateful realms, and betake thyself to +the air of a better heaven." + +Juno returns, overjoyed; and, preparing to enter heaven, Iris,[62] the +daughter of Thaumas, purifies her by sprinkling water. Nor is there any +delay; the persecuting Tisiphone[63] takes a torch reeking with gore, +and puts on a cloak red with fluid blood, and is girt with twisted +snakes, and {then} goes forth from her abode. Mourning attends her as +she goes, and Fright, and Terror, and Madness with quivering features. +She {now} reaches the threshold; the AEolian door-posts are said to have +shaken, and paleness tints the maple door; the Sun, too, flies from the +place. His wife is terrified at these prodigies; Athamas, {too}, is +alarmed, and they are {both} preparing to leave the house. The baneful +Erinnys stands in the way, and blocks up the passage; and extending her +arms twisted round with folds of vipers, she shakes her locks; the +snakes {thus} moved, emit a sound. Some lying about her shoulders, some +gliding around her temples, send forth hissings and vomit forth +corruption, and dart forth their tongues. Then she tears away two snakes +from the middle of her hair, which, with pestilential hand, she throws +against them. But these creep along the breasts of Ino and Athamas, and +inspire them with direful intent. Nor do they inflict any wounds upon +their limbs; it is the mind that feels the direful stroke. She had +brought, too, with her a monstrous composition of liquid poison, the +foam of the mouth of Cerberus, and the venom of Echidna;[64] and +purposeless aberrations, and the forgetfulness of a darkened +understanding, and crime, and tears, and rage, and the love of murder. +All these were blended together; and, mingled with fresh blood she had +boiled them in a hollow vessel of brass, stirred about with {a stalk of} +green hemlock. And while they are trembling, she throws the maddening +poison into the breasts of them both, and moves their inmost vitals. +Then repeatedly waving her torch in the same circle, she swiftly follows +up the flames {thus} excited with {fresh} flames. Thus triumphant, and +having executed her commands, she returns to the empty realms of the +great Pluto; and she ungirds the snakes which she had put on. +Immediately the son of AEolus, filled with rage, cries out, in the midst +of his palace, "Ho! companions, spread your nets in this wood; for here +a lioness was just now beheld by me with two young ones." And, in his +madness, he follows the footsteps of his wife, as though of a wild +beast; and he snatches Learchus, smiling and stretching forth his little +arms from the bosom of his mother, and three or four times he whirls him +round in the air like a sling, and, frenzied, he dashes in pieces[65] +the bones of the infant against the hard stones. Then, at last, the +mother being roused (whether it was grief that caused it, or whether the +power of the poison spread {over her}), yells aloud, and runs away +distracted, with dishevelled hair; and carrying thee, Melicerta, +a little {child}, in her bare arms, she cries aloud "Evoe, Bacche." At +the name of Bacchus, Juno smiles, and says, "May thy foster-child[66] do +thee this service." + +There is a rock[67] that hangs over the sea; the lowest part is worn +hollow by the waves, and defends the waters covered {thereby} from the +rain. The summit is rugged, and stretches out its brow over the open +sea. This Ino climbs (madness gives her strength), and, restrained by no +fear, she casts herself and her burden[68] into the deep; the water, +struck {by her fall}, is white with foam. But Venus, pitying the +misfortunes of her guiltless granddaughter,[69] in soothing words thus +addresses her uncle: "O Neptune, thou God of the waters, to whom fell a +power next after the {empire of} heaven, great things indeed do I +request; but do thou take compassion on my kindred, whom thou seest +being tossed upon the boundless Ionian sea;[70] and add them to thy +Deities. I have {surely} some interest with the sea, if, indeed, I once +was foam formed in the hollowed deep, and my Grecian name is derived[71] +from that." Neptune yields to her request; and takes away from them +{all} that is mortal, and gives them a venerable majesty; and alters +both their name and their shape, and calls Palaemon a Divinity,[72] +together with his mother Leucothoe. + +Her Sidonian attendants,[73] so far as they could, tracing the prints of +their feet, saw the last of them on the edge of the rock; and thinking +that there was no doubt of their death, they lamented the house of +Cadmus, with their hands tearing their hair and their garments; and they +threw the odium on the Goddess, as being unjust and too severe against +the concubine. Juno could not endure their reproaches, and said, "I will +make you yourselves tremendous memorials of my displeasure." +Confirmation followed her words. For the one who had been especially +attached, said, "I will follow the queen into the sea;" and about to +give the leap, she could not be moved any way, and adhering to the rock, +{there} she stuck fast. Another, while she was attempting to beat her +breast with the accustomed blows, perceived in the attempt that her arms +had become stiff. One, as by chance she had extended her hands over the +waters of the sea, becoming a rock, held out her hands in those same +waters. You might see the fingers of another suddenly hardened in her +hair, as she was tearing her locks seized on the top of her head. In +whatever posture each was found {at the beginning of the change}, in the +same she remained. Some became birds; which, sprung from Ismenus, skim +along the surface of the waves in those seas, with the wings which they +have assumed. + + [Footnote 54: _She alone._--Ver. 419. This was Ino, whose only + sorrows hitherto had been caused by the calamities which befell + her sisters and their offspring: Semele having died a shocking + death, Autonoe having seen her son Actaeon changed into a stag, and + then devoured by his dogs, and Agave having assisted in tearing to + pieces her own son Pentheus.] + + [Footnote 55: _When they have enjoyed._--Ver. 435. The spirits + whose bodies had not received the rites of burial, we learn from + Homer and Virgil, were not allowed to pass the river Styx, but + wandered on its banks for a hundred years.] + + [Footnote 56: _So does that spot._--Ver. 441. That is to say, + whatever number of ghosts arrives there, it receives them all with + ease, and is not sensible of the increase of number; either + because the place itself is of such immense extent, or because the + souls of the dead do not occupy space.] + + [Footnote 57: _The Sisters._--Ver. 450. These were the Furies, + fabled to be the daughters of Night and Acheron. They were three + in number, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Megaera, and were supposed to be + the avengers of crime and wickedness.] + + [Footnote 58: _Tityus._--Ver. 456. Tityus was the son of Jupiter + and Elara. On account of his enormous size, the poets sometimes + style him a son of the earth. Attempting to commit violence upon + Latona, he was slain by the arrows of Apollo, and precipitated to + the infernal regions, where he was condemned to have his liver + constantly devoured by a vulture, and then renewed, to perpetuate + his torments.] + + [Footnote 59: _Tantalus._--Ver. 457. He was the son of Jupiter, by + the Nymph Plote. The crime for which he was punished is + differently related by the poets. Some say, that he divulged the + secrets of the Gods, that had been entrusted to him; while others + relate, that at an entertainment which he gave to the Deities, he + caused his own son, Pelops, to be served up, on which Ceres + inadvertently ate his shoulder. He was doomed to suffer intense + hunger and thirst, amid provisions of all kinds within his reach, + which perpetually receded from him.] + + [Footnote 60: _Sisyphus._--Ver. 459. Sisyphus, the son of AEolus, + was a daring robber, who infested Attica. He was slain by Theseus; + and being sent to the infernal regions, was condemned to the + punishment of rolling a great stone to the top of a mountain, + which it had no sooner reached than it fell down again, and + renewed his labor.] + + [Footnote 61: _Ixion._--Ver. 461. Being advanced by Jupiter to + heaven, he presumed to make an attempt on Juno. Jupiter, to + deceive him, formed a cloud in her shape, on which Ixion begot the + Centaurs. He was cast into Tartarus, and was there fastened to a + wheel, which turned round incessantly.] + + [Footnote 62: _Iris._--Ver. 480. Iris was the daughter of Thaumas + and Electra, and the messenger of Juno. She was the Goddess of the + Rainbow.] + + [Footnote 63: _Tisiphone._--Ver. 481. Clarke translates 'Tisiphone + importuna,' 'the plaguy Tisiphone.'] + + [Footnote 64: _Echidna._--Ver. 501. This word properly means, + 'a female viper;' but it here refers to the Hydra, or dragon of + the marsh of Lerna, which Hercules slew. It was fabled to be + partly a woman, and partly a serpent, and to have been begotten by + Typhon. According to some accounts, this monster had seven heads.] + + [Footnote 65: _Dashes in pieces._--Ver. 519. Euripides and Hyginus + relate, that Athamas slew his son while hunting; and Apollodorus + says, that he mistook him for a stag.] + + [Footnote 66: _Thy foster-child._--Ver. 524. Bacchus was the + foster-child of Ino, who was the sister of his mother Semele. The + remaining portion of the story of Ino and Melicerta is again + related by Ovid in the sixth book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 67: _There is a rock._--Ver. 525. Pausanias calls this + the Molarian rock, and says, that it was one of the Scironian + rocks, near Megara, in Attica. It was a branch of the Geranian + mountain.] + + [Footnote 68: _And her burden._--Ver. 530. This was her son + Melicerta, who, according to Pausanias, was received by dolphins, + and was landed by them on the isthmus of Corinth.] + + [Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._--Ver. 531. Venus was the + grandmother of Ino, inasmuch as Hermione, or Harmonia, the wife of + Cadmus, was the daughter of Mars and Venus.] + + [Footnote 70: _Boundless Ionian sea._--Ver. 535. The Ionian sea + must be merely mentioned here as a general name for the broad + expanse of waters, of which the Saronic gulf, into which the + Molarian rock projected, formed part. Ovid may, however, mean to + say that Ino threw herself from some rock in the Ionian sea, and + not from the Molarian rock; following, probably, the account of + some other writer, whose works are lost.] + + [Footnote 71: _Grecian name is derived._--Ver. 538. Venus was + called Aphrodite, by the Greeks, from +aphros+, 'the foam of the + sea,' from which she was said to have sprung.] + + [Footnote 72: _A Divinity._--Ver. 542. Ino and Melicerta were + worshipped as Divinities both in Greece and at Rome.] + + [Footnote 73: _Sidonian attendants._--Ver. 543. The Theban matrons + are meant, who had married the companions of Cadmus that + accompanied him from Phoenices.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Ino, Athamas, and Melicerta appears to have been based + upon historical facts, as we are informed by Herodotus, Diodorus + Siculus, and Pausanias. + + Athamas, the son of AEolus, and great-grandson of Deucalion, having, on + the death of Themisto, his first wife, married Ino, the daughter of + Cadmus, divorced her soon afterwards, to marry Nephele, by whom he had + Helle and Phryxus. She having been divorced in her turn, he took Ino + back again, and by her had Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, not being able + to endure the presence of the children of Nephele, endeavored to + destroy them. The city of Thebes being at that time afflicted with + famine, which was said to have been caused by Ino, who ordered the + seed to be parched before it was sown, Athamas ordered the oracle of + Delphi to be consulted. The priests, either having been bribed, or the + messengers having been corrupted, word was brought, that, to remove + this affliction, the children of Nephele must be sacrificed. + + Phryxus being warned of the designs of his stepmother, embarked in a + ship, with his sister Helle, and sailed for Colchis, where he met with + a kind reception from his kinsman AEetes. The young princess, however, + either becoming sea-sick, and leaning over the bulwarks of the vessel, + fell overboard and was drowned, or died a natural death in the passage + of the Hellespont, to which she gave its name from that circumstance. + Athamas, having discovered the deceitful conduct of Ino, in his rage + killed her son Learchus, and sought her, for the purpose of + sacrificing her to his vengeance. To avoid his fury, she fled with her + son Melicerta, and, being pursued, threw herself from a rock into the + sea. To console her relatives, the story was probably invented, that + the Gods had changed Ino and Melicerta into Sea Deities, under the + names of Leucothoe and Palaemon. Melicerta was afterwards worshipped in + the Isle of Tenedos, where children were offered to him in sacrifice. + In his honor, Glaucus established the Isthmian games, which were + celebrated for many ages at Corinth; and, being interrupted for a + time, were revived by Theseus, in honor of Neptune. Leucothoe was also + worshipped at Rome, and the Roman women used to offer up their vows to + her for their brothers' children, not daring to supplicate the Goddess + for their own, because she had been unfortunate in hers. This Ovid + tells us in the Sixth Book of the Fasti. The Romans gave the name of + Matuta to Ino, and Melicerta, or Palaemon, was called Portunus. + + The circumstance mentioned by Ovid, that some of Ino's attendants were + changed into birds, and others into rocks, is, perhaps, only a + poetical method of saying that some of her attendants escaped, while + others perished with her. + + +FABLE VIII. [IV.563-603] + + The misfortunes of his family oblige Cadmus to leave Thebes, and to + retire with his wife Hermione to Illyria, where they are changed into + serpents. + +The son of Agenor knows not that his daughter and his little grandson +are {now} Deities of the sea. Forced by sorrow, and a succession of +calamities, and the prodigies which, many in number, he had beheld, the +founder flies from his city, as though the {ill}-luck of the spot, and +not his own, pressed {hard} upon him, and driven, in a long series of +wandering, he reaches the coast of Illyria, with his exiled wife. And +now, loaded with woes and with years, while they are reflecting on the +first disasters of their house, and in their discourse are recounting +their misfortunes, Cadmus says, "Was that dragon a sacred one, that was +pierced by my spear, at the time when, setting out from Sidon, I sowed +the teeth of the dragon in the ground, a seed {till then} unknown? If +the care of the Gods avenges this with resentment so unerring, I pray +that I myself, as a serpent, may be lengthened out into an extended +belly." {Thus} he says; and, as a serpent, he is lengthened out into an +extended belly, and perceives scales growing on his hardened skin, and +his black body become speckled with azure spots; and he falls flat on +his breast, and his legs, joined into one, taper out by degrees into a +thin round point. His arms are still remaining; those arms which remain +he stretches out; and, as the tears are flowing down his face, still +that of a man, he says, "Come hither, wife, come hither, most unhappy +one, and, while something of me yet remains, touch me; and take my hand, +while it is {still} a hand, {and} while I am not a serpent all over." +He, indeed, desires to say more, but, on a sudden, his tongue is divided +into two parts. Nor are words in his power when he offers {to speak}; +and as often as he attempts to utter any complaints, he makes a hissing: +this is the voice that Nature leaves him. His wife, smiting her naked +breast with her hand, cries aloud, "Stay, Cadmus! and deliver thyself, +unhappy one, from this monstrous form. Cadmus, what means this? Where +are thy feet? where are both thy shoulders and thy hands? where is thy +color and thy form, and, while I speak, {where} all else {besides}? Why +do ye not, celestial Gods, turn me as well into a similar serpent?" +{Thus} she spoke; he licked the face of his wife, and crept into her +dear bosom, as though he recognized her; and gave her embraces, and +reached her well-known neck. + +Whoever is by, (some attendants are present), is alarmed; but the +crested snakes soothe them with their slippery necks, and suddenly they +are two {serpents}, and in joined folds they creep along, until they +enter the covert of an adjacent grove. Now, too, do they neither shun +mankind, nor hurt them with wounds, and the gentle serpents keep in mind +what once they were. + + +EXPLANATION. + + After Cadmus had reigned at Thebes many years, a conspiracy was formed + against him. Being driven from the throne, and his grandson Pentheus + assuming the crown, he and his wife Hermione retired into Illyria, + where, as Apollodorus says, he commanded the Illyrian army, and at + length was chosen king: on his death, the story here related by Ovid + was invented. It is possible that it may have been based on the + following grounds:-- + + The Phoenicians were anciently called 'Achivi,' which name they still + retained after their establishment in Greece. 'Chiva' being also the + Hebrew, and perhaps Phoenician word for 'a serpent,' the Greeks, + probably in reference to the Phoenician origin of Cadmus, reported + after his death, that he and his wife were serpents; and in time, that + transformation may have been stated to have happened at the end of his + life. According to Aulus Gellius, the ancient inhabitants of Illyria + had two eyelids to each eye, and with their looks, when angered, they + were able to kill those whom they beheld stedfastly. The Greeks hence + called them serpents and basilisks; and, it is not unlikely, that when + Cadmus retired among them, they said that he had become one of the + Illyrians, otherwise a dragon, or a serpent. All the ancient writers + who mention his history agree that Cadmus really did retire into + Illyria, where he first assisted the Enchelians in their war against + the Illyrians. The latter were defeated, and, to obtain a peace from + the Enchelians, they gave the crown to Cadmus; to which, on his death, + his son Illyrus succeeded. The historian Christodorus, quoted by + Pausanias, says that he built the city of Nygnis, in the country of + the Enchelians. + + Some writers have supposed, upon the authority of Euhemerus as quoted + by Eusebius that Cadmus was not the son of Agenor, but was one of his + officers, who eloped thence with Hermione, a singing girl. Others + suppose that Cadmus is not really a proper name, but that it signifies + a 'leader,' or 'conductor;' and that he received the name from leading + a colony into Greece. Bochart says that he was called Cadmus, because + he came from the eastern part of Phoenicia, which is called in + Scripture 'Cadmonia,' or 'oriental;' and that Hermione probably + received her name from Mount Hermon. + + +FABLE IX. [IV.604-662] + + Perseus, the son of Jupiter and Danae, having killed Medusa, carries + her head into Africa, where the blood that runs from it produces + serpents. Atlas, king of that country, terrified at the remembrance of + an oracle, which had foretold that his golden fruit should be taken by + one of the sons of Jupiter, not only orders him to depart, but even + resorts to violence to drive him away, on which Perseus shows him the + Gorgon's head, and changes him into a mountain. + +But yet their grandson, {Bacchus} gave them both a great consolation, +under this change of form; whom India, subdued {by him}, worshipped {as +a} God, {and} whom Achaia honored with erected temples. Acrisius the son +of Abas,[74] descended of the same race,[75] alone remained, to drive +him from the walls of the Argive city, and to bear arms against the God, +and to believe him not to be the offspring of Jove. Neither did he think +Perseus to be the offspring of Jupiter, whom Danae had conceived in a +shower of gold; but soon (so great is the power of truth) Acrisius was +sorry, both that he had insulted the God, and that he had not +acknowledged his grandson. The one was now placed in heaven, while the +other, bearing the memorable spoil of the viperous monster, cut the +yielding air with hissing wings; and while the conqueror was hovering +over the Libyan sands, bloody drops, from the Gorgon's head, fell down, +upon receiving {which, the} ground quickened them into various serpents. +For this cause, that region is filled and infested with snakes. + +Carried thence, by the fitful winds, through boundless space, he is +borne now here, now there, just like a watery cloud, and, from the lofty +sky, looks down upon the earth, removed afar; and he flies over the +whole world. Three times he saw the cold Bears, thrice did he see the +claws of the Crab; ofttimes he was borne to the West, many a time to the +East. And now, the day declining, afraid to trust himself to the night, +he stopped in the Western part of the world, in the kingdom of Atlas; +and {there} he sought a little rest, until Lucifer should usher forth +the fires of Aurora, Aurora, the chariot of the day. Here was Atlas, the +son of Iapetus, surpassing all men in the vastness of his body. Under +this king was the extremity of the earth, and the sea which holds its +waters under the panting horses of the Sun, and receives the wearied +chariot. For him, a thousand flocks, and as many herds, wandered over +the pastures, and no neighboring places disturbed the land. Leaves of +the trees, shining with radiant gold, covered branches of gold, {and} +apples of gold. "My friend," said Perseus to him, "if the glory of a +noble race influences thee, Jupiter is the author of my descent; or if +thou art an admirer of exploits, thou wilt admire mine. I beg of thee +hospitality, and a resting place." The other was mindful of an ancient +oracle. The Parnassian Themis had given this response: "A time will +come, Atlas, when thy tree shall be stripped of its gold, and a son of +Jove shall have the honor of the prize." Dreading this, Atlas had +enclosed his orchard with solid walls, and had given it to be kept by a +huge dragon;[76] and expelled all strangers from his territories. {To +Perseus}, too, he says, "Far hence begone, lest the glory of the +exploits, to which thou falsely pretendest, and Jupiter as well, be far +from protecting thee." He adds violence as well to his threats, and +tries to drive him from his doors, as he hesitates and mingles resolute +words with persuasive ones. Inferior in strength (for who could be a +match for Atlas in strength?), he says "Since my friendship is of so +little value to thee, accept {this} present;" and then, turning his face +away, he exposes on the left side the horrible features of Medusa. +Atlas, great as he is, becomes a mountain. Now his beard and his hair +are changed into woods; his shoulders and his hands become mountain +ridges, and what was formerly his head, is the summit on the top of the +mountain. His bones become stones; then, enlarged on every side, he +grows to an immense height (so you willed it, ye Gods), and the whole +heaven, with so many stars, rests upon him. + + [Footnote 74: _Son of Abas._--Ver. 608. Acrisius was the son of + Abas, king of Argos. He was the father of Danae, by whom Jupiter + was the father of Perseus.] + + [Footnote 75: _Of the same race._--Ver. 607. Some suppose that by + this it is meant that as Belus, the father of Abas, and + grandfather of Acrisius, was the son of Jupiter, who was also the + father of Bacchus, the latter and Acrisius were consequently + related.] + + [Footnote 76: _A huge dragon._--Ver. 647. The name of the dragon + was Ladon.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the seduction of Danae, the mother of Perseus, by + Jupiter, in the form of a shower of gold, has been thus explained by + some of the ancient writers. Acrisius, hearing of a prediction that + Danae, his daughter, should bring forth a child that would kill him, + caused her to be shut in a tower with brazen gates, or, according to + some, in a subterraneous chamber, covered with plates of that metal; + which place, according to Pausanias, remained till the time of + Perilaus, the king of Argos, by whom it was destroyed. The precautions + of Acrisius were, however, made unavailing by his brother Proetus; who, + falling in love with his niece, corrupted the guards with gold, and + gained admission into the tower. Danae, being delivered of Perseus, + her father caused them to be exposed in a boat to the mercy of the + waves. Being cast on shore near Seriphus, the king, Polydectes, gave + them a hospitable reception, and took care of the education of + Perseus. + + Diodorus Siculus says that the Gorgons were female warriors, who + inhabited the neighborhood of Lake Tritonis, in Libya. Pausanias + explains the story of Medusa, by saying that she ruled the people in + that neighborhood, and laid waste the lands of the nations in her + vicinity. Perseus, having fled, with some companions, from + Peloponnesus, surprised her by night, and killed her, together with + her escort. The next morning, the beauty of her face appeared so + remarkable that he cut it off, and afterwards took it with him to + Greece, to show it to the people, who could not look on it without + being struck with astonishment. On this explanation we may remark, + that if it is true, Perseus must have had more skill than the surgeons + of our day, in being able to preserve the beauty of the features so + long after death. + + Again, many of the ancient historians, with Pliny, Athenaeus, and + Solinus, think that the Gorgons were wild women of a savage nature, + living in caves and forests, who, falling on wayfarers, committed + dreadful atrocities. Palaephatus and Fulgentius think that the Gorgons + really were three young women, possessed of great wealth, which they + employed in a very careful manner; Phorcus, their father, having left + them three islands, and a golden statue of Minerva, which they placed + in their common treasury. They had one minister in common for the + management of their affairs, who used to go for that purpose from one + island to another, whence arose the story that they had but one eye, + and that they lent it to one another alternately. Perseus, a fugitive + from Argos, hearing of the golden statue, determined to obtain it; and + with that view, seized their minister, or, in the allegorical language + of the poets, took their eye away from them. He then sent them word, + that if they would give him the statue, he would deliver up his + captive, and threatened, in case of refusal, to put him to death. + Stheno and Euryale consented to this; but Medusa resisting, she was + killed by Perseus. Upon his obtaining the statue, which was called the + Gorgon, or Gorgonian, he broke it in pieces, and placed the head on + the prow of his ship. As the sight of this, and the fame of the + exploits of Perseus, spread terror everywhere, and caused passive + submission to him, the fable originated, that with Medusa's head he + turned his enemies into stone. Landing in the Isle of Seriphus, the + king fled, with all his subjects; and, on entering the chief city, + finding nothing but the bare stones there, he caused the report to be + spread, that he had petrified the inhabitants. + + Servius, in his Commentary on the AEneid, quotes an opinion of Ammonius + Serenus, that the Gorgons were young women of such beauty as to make a + great impression on all that saw them; for which reason they were said + to turn them into statues. Le Clerc thinks that the story bears + reference to a voyage which the Phoenicians had made in ancient times + to the coast of Africa, whence they brought a great number of horses; + and that the name 'Perseus' comes from the Phoenician word 'pharscha,' + 'a horseman;' while the horse Pegasus was so called from the Phoenician + 'pagsous,' 'a bridled horse,' according to the conjecture of Bochart. + Alexander of Myndus, a historian quoted by Athenaeus, says that Libya + had an animal which the natives called 'gorgon;' that it resembled a + sheep, and with its breath killed all those who approached it; that a + tuft of hair fell over its eyes, which was so heavy as to be removed + with difficulty, for the purpose of seeing the objects around it; but + that when it was removed, by its looks it struck dead any person whom + it gazed upon. He says, that in the war with Jugurtha, some of the + soldiers of Marius were thus slain by it, and that it was at last + killed by means of arrows discharged from a great distance. + + The Gorgons are said to have inhabited the Gorgades, islands in the + AEthiopian Sea, the chief of which was called Cerna, according to + Diodorus and Palaephatus. It is not improbable that the Cape Verde + Islands were called by this name. The fable of the transformation of + Atlas into the mountain of that name may possibly have been based upon + the simple fact, that Perseus killed him in the neighborhood of that + range, from which circumstance it derived the name which it has borne + ever since. The golden apples, which Atlas guarded with so much care, + were probably either gold mines, which Atlas had discovered in the + mountains of his country, and had secured with armed men and watchful + dogs; or sheep, whose fleeces were extremely valuable for their + fineness; or else oranges and lemons, and other fruits peculiar to + very hot climates, for the production of which the poets especially + remarked the country of Tingitana (the modern Tangier), as being very + celebrated. + + +FABLE X. [IV.663-803] + + Perseus, after his victory over Atlas, and his change into a mountain, + arrives in AEthiopia, at the time when Andromeda is exposed to be + devoured by a monster. He kills it, and hides the Gorgon's head under + the sand, covered with sea-weed and plants; which are immediately + turned into coral. He then renders thanks to the Gods for his victory, + and marries Andromeda. At the marriage feast he relates the manner in + which he had killed Medusa; and the reason why Minerva had changed her + hair into serpents. + +The grandson of Hippotas[77] had shut up the winds in their eternal +prison; and Lucifer, who reminds {men} of their work, was risen in the +lofty sky, in all his splendor. Resuming his wings, {Perseus} binds his +feet with them on either side, and is girt with his crooked weapon, and +cleaves the liquid air with his winged ankles. Nations innumerable being +left behind, around and below, he beholds the people of the AEthiopians +and the lands of Cepheus. There the unjust Ammon[78] had ordered the +innocent Andromeda to suffer punishment for her mother's tongue.[79] + +Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her, with her arms bound to the +hard rock, but that the light breeze was moving her hair, and her eyes +were running with warm[80] tears, he would have thought her to be a work +of marble. Unconsciously he takes fire, and is astonished; captivated +with the appearance of her beauty, {thus} beheld, he almost forgets to +wave his wings in the air. When he has lighted {on the ground}, he says, +"O thou, undeserving of these chains, but {rather} of those by which +anxious lovers are mutually united, disclose to me, inquiring both the +name of this land and of thyself, and why thou wearest {these} chains." +At first she is silent, and, a virgin, she does not dare address[81] a +man; and with her hands she would have concealed her blushing features, +if she had not been bound; her eyes, 'twas {all} she could do, she +filled with gushing tears. Upon his often urging her, lest she should +seem unwilling to confess her offence, she told the name both of her +country and herself, and how great had been the confidence of her mother +in her beauty. All not yet being told, the waves roared, and a monster +approaching,[82] appeared with its head raised out of the boundless +ocean, and covered the wide expanse with its breast. The virgin shrieks +aloud; her mournful father, and her distracted mother, are there, both +wretched, but the latter more justly so. Nor do they bring her any help +with them, but tears suitable to the occasion, and lamentations, and +they cling round her body, bound {to the rock}. + +Then thus the stranger says: "Plenty of time will be left for your tears +{hereafter}, the season for giving aid is {but} short. If I were to +demand her {in marriage}, I, Perseus, the son of Jove, and of her whom, +in prison, Jove embraced in the impregnating {shower of} gold, Perseus, +the conqueror of the Gorgon with her serpent locks, and who has dared, +on waving wings, to move through the aetherial air, I should surely be +preferred before all as your son-in-law. To so many recommendations I +endeavor to add merit (if only the Deities favor me). I {only} stipulate +that she may be mine, {if} preserved by my valor." Her parents embrace +the condition, (for who could hesitate?) and they entreat {his aid}, and +promise as well, the kingdom as a dowry. Behold! as a ship onward +speeding, with the beak fixed {in its prow}, plows the waters, impelled +by the perspiring arms[83] of youths; so the monster, moving the waves +by the impulse of its breast, was as far distant from the rocks, as +{that distance} in the mid space of air, which a Balearic string can +pass with the whirled plummet of lead; when suddenly the youth, spurning +the earth with his feet, rose on high into the clouds. As the shadow of +the hero was seen on the surface of the sea, the monster vented its fury +on the shadow {so} beheld. And as the bird of Jupiter,[84] when he has +espied on the silent plain a serpent exposing its livid back to the +sun, seizes it behind; and lest it should turn upon him its raging +mouth, fixes his greedy talons in its scaly neck; so did the winged +{hero}, in his rapid flight through the yielding {air}, press the back +of the monster, and the descendant of Inachus thrust his sword up to the +very hilt in its right shoulder, as it roared aloud. + +Tortured by the grievous wound, it sometimes raises itself aloft in the +air, sometimes it plunges beneath the waves, sometimes it wheels about, +just like a savage boar, which a pack of hounds in full cry around him +affrights. With swift wings he avoids the eager bites[85] {of the +monster}, and, with his crooked sword, one while wounds its back covered +with hollow shells, where it is exposed, at another time the ribs of its +sides, and now, where its tapering tail terminates in {that of} a fish. +The monster vomits forth from its mouth streams mingled with red blood; +its wings, {made} heavy {by it}, are wet with the spray. Perseus, not +daring any longer to trust himself on his dripping pinions,[86] beholds +a rock, which with its highest top projects from the waters {when} +becalmed, {but is now} covered by the troubled sea. Resting on that, and +clinging to the upper ridge[87] of the rock with his left hand, three or +four times he thrusts his sword through its entrails aimed at {by him}. +A shout, with applause, fills the shores and the lofty abodes of the +Gods. Cassiope and Cepheus, the father, rejoice, and salute him as their +son-in-law, and confess that he is the support and the preserver of +their house. + +Released from her chains, the virgin walks along, both the reward and +the cause of his labors. He himself washes his victorious hands in water +taken {from the sea}; and that it may not injure the snake-bearing head +with the bare sand, he softens the ground with leaves; and strews some +weeds produced beneath the sea, and lays upon them the face of Medusa, +the daughter of Phorcys. The fresh weeds, being still alive, imbibed the +poison of the monster in their spongy pith, and hardened by its touch; +and felt an unwonted stiffness in their branches and their leaves. But +the Nymphs of the sea attempt the wondrous feat on many {other} weeds, +and are pleased at the same result; and raise seed again from them +scattered on the waves. Even now the same nature remains in the coral, +that it receives hardness from contact with the air; and what was a +plant in the sea, out of the sea becomes stone. + +To three Deities he erects as many altars of turf; the left one to +Mercury; the right to thee, warlike Virgin; the altar of Jove is in the +middle. A cow is sacrificed to Minerva; a calf to the wing-footed {God, +and} a bull to thee, greatest of the Deities. Forthwith he takes +Andromeda, and the reward of an achievement so great, without any dowry. +Hymenaeus and Cupid wave their torches before them; the fires are heaped +with abundant perfumes. Garlands, too, are hanging from the houses: +flageolets and lyres, and pipes, and songs resound, the happy tokens of +a joyous mind. The folding-doors thrown open, the entire gilded halls +are displayed, and the nobles of king Cepheus sit down at a feast +furnished with splendid preparations. After they have done the feast, +and have cheered their minds with the gifts of the generous Bacchus, the +grandson of Abas inquires the customs and habits of the country. +Immediately one {of them}, Lyncides, tells him, on his inquiring, the +manners and habits of the inhabitants. Soon as he had told him these +things, he said, "Now, most valiant Perseus, tell us, I beseech thee, +with how great valor and by what arts thou didst cut off the head all +hairy with serpents." The descendant of Abas tells them that there is a +spot situate beneath cold Atlas, safe in its bulwark of a solid mass; +that, in the entrance of this, dwelt the two sisters, the daughters of +Phorcys, who shared the use of a single eye; that he stealthily, by sly +craft, while it was being handed over,[88] obtained possession of this +by putting his hand in the way; and that through rocks far remote, and +pathless, and bristling with woods on their craggy sides, he had arrived +at the abodes of the Gorgons, and saw everywhere, along the fields and +the roads, statues of men and wild beasts turned into stone, from their +{natural form}, at the sight of Medusa; yet that he himself, from the +reflection on the brass of the shield[89] which his left hand bore, +beheld the visage of the horrible Medusa; and that, while a sound sleep +held her and her serpents {entranced}, he took the head from off the +neck; and that Pegasus and his brother,[90] fleet with wings, were +produced from the blood of {her}, their mother. He added, too, the +dangers of his lengthened journey, {themselves} no fiction;[91] what +seas, what lands he had seen beneath him from on high, and what stars he +had reached with his waving wings. + +Yet, before it was expected,[92] he was silent; {whereupon} one of the +nobles rejoined, inquiring why she alone, of the sisters, wore snakes +mingled alternately with her hair. "Stranger," said he, "since thou +inquirest on a matter worthy to be related, hear the cause of the thing +thou inquirest after. She was the most famed for her beauty, and the +coveted hope of many wooers; nor, in the whole of her person, was any +part more worthy of notice than her hair: I have met {with some} who +said they had seen it. The sovereign of the sea is said to have +deflowered her in the Temple of Minerva. The daughter of Jove turned +away, and covered her chaste eyes with her shield. And that this might +not be unpunished, she changed the hair of the Gorgon into hideous +snakes. Now, too, that she may alarm her surprised foes with terror, she +bears in front upon her breast, those snakes which she {thus} produced." + + [Footnote 77: _Hippotas._--Ver. 663. AEolus, the God of the Winds, + was the son of Jupiter, by Acesta, the daughter of Hippotas.] + + [Footnote 78: _Ammon._--Ver. 671. Jupiter, with the surname of + Ammon, had a temple in the deserts of Libya, where he was + worshipped under the shape of a ram; a form which he was supposed + to have assumed, when, in common with the other Deities, he fled + from the attacks of the Giants. The oracle of Jupiter Ammon being + consulted relative to the sea monster, which Neptune, at the + request of the Nereids, had sent against the Ethiopians, answered + that Andromeda must be exposed to be devoured by it; which Ovid + here, not without reason, calls an unjust demand.] + + [Footnote 79: _Mother's tongue._--Ver. 670. Cassiope, the mother + of Andromeda, had dared to compare her own beauty with that of the + Nereids. Cepheus, the son of Phoenix, was the father of Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 80: _Warm._--Ver. 674. 'Tepido,' 'warm,' is decidedly + preferable here to 'trepido,' 'trembling.'] + + [Footnote 81: _Dare address._--Ver. 682. Heinsius thinks that + 'appellare' here is not the correct reading; and suggests + 'aspectare,' which seems to be more consistent with the sense of + the passage, which would then be, 'and does not dare to look down + upon the hero.'] + + [Footnote 82: _Monster approaching._--Ver. 689. Pliny the Elder + and Solinus tell us that the bones of this monster were afterwards + brought from Joppa, a seaport of Judaea, to Rome, and that the + skeleton was forty feet in length, and the spinal bone was six + feet in circumference.] + + [Footnote 83: _The perspiring arms._--Ver. 707. 'Juvenum + sudantibus acta lacertis' is translated by Clarke, 'forced forward + by the arms of sweating young fellows.'] + + [Footnote 84: _Bird of Jupiter._--Ver. 714. The eagle was the bird + sacred to Jove. The larger kinds of birds which afforded auguries + from their mode of flight, were called 'praepetes.'] + + [Footnote 85: _Avoids the eager bites._--Ver. 723. Clarke + translates this line, 'He avoids the monster's eager snaps with + his swift wings.'] + + [Footnote 86: _His dripping pinions._--Ver. 730. 'Talaria' were + either wings fitted to the ankles, or shoes having such wings + fastened to them; they were supposed to be usually worn by + Mercury.] + + [Footnote 87: _Clinging to the upper ridge._--Ver. 733. 'Tenens + juga prima sinistra' is rendered by Clarke, 'seizing the tip-top + of it with his left hand.'] + + [Footnote 88: _Being handed over._--Ver. 766. Of course, as they + had but one eye between them, they must have both been blind while + it was passing from one hand to another, so that Perseus could + have had but little difficulty in effecting the theft here + mentioned.] + + [Footnote 89: _Brass of the shield._--Ver. 783. This reflecting + shield Perseus is said to have received from Minerva, and by + virtue of it he was enabled to see without being seen. Lucian says + that Minerva herself held this reflecting shield before him, and + by that means afforded him the opportunity of seeing the + reflection of Medusa's figure; and that Perseus, seizing her by + the hair with his left hand, and keeping his eye fixed on the + image reflected in the shield, took his sword in his right, and + cut off her head, and then, by the aid of his wings, flew away + before the other Gorgon sisters were aware of what he had done.] + + [Footnote 90: _Pegasus and his brother._--Ver. 786. Pegasus and + Chrysaor were two winged horses, which were fabled to have sprung + up from the blood of Medusa, when slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 91: _Themselves no fiction._--Ver. 787. His dangers were + not false or imaginary, inasmuch as he was pursued by Sthenyo and + Euryale, the sisters of Medusa, who were fabled to have wings, and + claws of iron on their hands. Ovid deals a sly hit in the words + 'non falsa pericula cursus,' at the tales of travellers, who, even + in his day, seem to have commenced dealing in the marvellous; as, + indeed, we may learn for ourselves, on turning to the pages of + Herodotus, who seems to have been often imposed upon.] + + [Footnote 92: _Before it was expected._--Ver. 790. Showing thereby + how delighted his audience was with his narrative.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + It is extremely difficult to surmise what may have given rise to many + of the fabulous circumstances here narrated. It has been conjectured + by some, that Pegasus and his brother Chrysaor, the two horses + produced from the blood of Medusa, were really two ships in the harbor + of the island where that princess was residing at the time when she + was slain by Perseus; and that, on that event, they were seized by + him. Perhaps they had the figure of a winged horse on the prow; from + which circumstance the fable had its origin. Possibly, the story of + the production of coral from the blood of Medusa may have originated + in the fact, that on the defeat of the Gorgons, navigation became more + safe, and, consequently, the fishing for coral more common than it had + been before. + + The story of the exposure of Andromeda may be founded on the fact, + that she was contracted by her parents against her will to some + fierce, piratical prince, who infested the adjacent seas with his + depredations; and that the betrothal was made, on condition that he + should allow the realms of her father, Cepheus, to be free and + undisturbed; Perseus, being informed of this, slew the pirate, and + Phineus having been kept in a state of inactivity through dread of the + valor of Perseus, it was fabled that he had been changed into a stone. + This interpretation of the story is the one suggested by Vossius. + + Some writers think, that Phineus, the uncle of Andromeda, was the + enemy from which she was rescued by Perseus, and who is here + represented under the form of a monster; while others suggest that + this monster was the name of the ship in which the pirate before + mentioned was to have carried away Andromeda. + + + + +BOOK THE FIFTH. + + +FABLE I. [V.1-242] + + While Perseus is continuing the relation of the adventures of Medusa, + Phineus, to whom Andromeda has been previously promised in marriage, + rushes into the palace, with his adherents, and attacks his rival. + A furious combat is the consequence, in which Perseus gives signal + proofs of his valor. At length, perceiving himself likely to be + overpowered by the number of his enemies, he shows them the head of + the Gorgon; on which Phineus and his followers are turned into statues + of stone. After this victory, he takes Andromeda with him to Argos, + his native city, where he turns the usurper Proetus into stone, and + re-establishes his grandfather Acrisius on the throne. + +And while the hero, the son of Danae, is relating these things in the +midst of the company of the subjects of Cepheus, the royal courts are +filled with a raging multitude; nor is the clamor such as celebrates a +marriage-feast, but one which portends dreadful warfare. You might +compare the banquet, changed into a sudden tumult, to the sea, which, +when calm, the boisterous rage of the winds disturbs by raising its +waves. + +Foremost among these, Phineus,[1] the rash projector of the onslaught, +shaking an ashen spear with a brazen point, cries, "Behold! {now}, +behold! I am come, the avenger of my wife, ravished from me; neither +shall thy wings nor Jupiter turned into fictitious gold, deliver thee +from me." As he is endeavoring to hurl {his lance}, Cepheus cries out, +"What art thou doing? What fancy, my brother, impels thee, in thy +madness, to this crime? Is this the due acknowledgment to return +for deserts so great? Dost thou repay the life of her {thus} preserved, +with this reward? 'Twas not Perseus, if thou wouldst know the truth, +that took her away from thee; but the incensed majesty of the Nereids, +and horned Ammon, and the monster of the sea, which came to be glutted +with my bowels. She was snatched from thee at that moment, at which she +was to have perished; unless it is that thou dost, in thy cruelty, +insist upon that very thing, that she should perish, and wilt be +appeased only by my affliction. It is not enough, forsooth, that in thy +presence she was bound and that thou, both her uncle and her betrothed, +didst give no assistance; wilt thou be grieving, besides, that she was +saved by another, and wilt thou deprive him of his reward? If this +appears great to thee, thou shouldst have recovered it from the rock to +which it was fastened. Now, let him who has recovered it, through whom +my old age is not childless, have what he stipulated for, both by his +merits and his words; and know that he was preferred not before thee, +but before certain death." + +{Phineus said} nothing, on the other hand; but viewing both him and +Perseus, with alternate looks, he was uncertain whether he should +{first} attack the one or the other; and, having paused a short time, he +vainly threw his spear, hurled with all the force that rage afforded. As +it stood fixed in the cushion,[2] then, at length, Perseus leapt off +from the couch, and in his rage would have pierced the breast of his +enemy with the weapon, thrown back, had not Phineus gone behind an +altar, and {thus} (how unworthily!) an altar[3] protected a miscreant. +However, the spear, not thrown in vain, stuck in the forehead of Rhoetus; +who, after he fell, and the steel was wrenched from the skull, he +{still} struggled, and besprinkled the laid tables with his blood. But +then does the multitude burst forth into ungovernable rage, and hurl +their weapons. Some there are, who say that Cepheus ought to die with +his son-in-law; but Cepheus has gone out by the entrance of the house, +calling right and good faith to witness, and the Gods of hospitality,[4] +that this disturbance is made contrary to his will. The warlike Pallas +comes; and with her shield protects her brother {Perseus}, and gives him +courage. There was an Indian, Athis {by name},[5] whom Limnate, the +daughter of the river Ganges, is believed to have brought forth beneath +the glassy waters; excelling in beauty, which he improved by his rich +dress; in his prime, as yet but twice eight years of age, dressed in a +purple tunic, which a golden fringe bordered; a gilded necklace graced +his neck, and a curved hair-pin his hair wet with myrrh. He, indeed, had +been taught to hit things, although at a distance, with his hurled +javelin, but {he was} more skilled at bending the bow. {Perseus} struck +him even then, as he was bending with his hands the flexible horns {of a +bow}, with a billet, which, placed in the middle of the altar, was +smoking, and he crushed his face into his broken skull. + +When the Assyrian Lycabas, who was a most attached friend of his, and no +concealer of his real affection, saw him rolling his features, the +objects of such praises, in his blood; after he had bewailed Athis, +breathing forth his life from this cruel wound, he seized the bow which +he had bent, and said, "And {now} let the contest against thee be with +me; not long shalt thou exult in the fate of the youth, by which thou +acquirest more hatred than praise." All this he had not yet said, {when} +the piercing weapon darted from the string, and {though} avoided, still +it hung in the folds of his garment. The grandson of Acrisius turned +against him his falchion,[6] {already} proved in the slaughter of +Medusa, and thrust it into his breast. But he, now dying, with his eyes +swimming in black night, looked around for Athis, and sank upon him, and +carried to the shades the consolation of a united death. Lo! Phorbas of +Syene,[7] the son of Methion, and Amphimedon, the Libyan, eager to +engage in the fight, fell down, slipping in the blood with which the +earth was warm, soaked on every side; as they arose the sword met them, +being thrust in the ribs of the one, {and} in the throat of Phorbas. But +Perseus does not attack Erithus, the son of Actor, whose weapon is a +broad battle-axe, by using his sword, but he takes up, with both hands, +a huge bowl,[8] standing out with figures deeply embossed, and of vast +mass in its weight, and hurls it against the man. The other vomits forth +red blood, and, falling on his back, beats the ground with his dying +head. Then he slays Polydaemon, sprung from the blood of Semiramis, and +the Caucasian Abaris, and Lycetus, the son of Sperchius,[9] and Elyces, +with unshorn locks, and Phlegias, and Clytus; and he tramples upon the +heaps of the dying, which he has piled up. + +But Phineus, not daring to engage hand to hand with his enemy, hurls his +javelin, which accident carries against Idas, who, in vain, has declined +the warfare[10] and has followed the arms of neither. He, looking at the +cruel Phineus with stern eyes, says, "Since I am {thus} forced to take a +side, take the enemy, Phineus, that thou hast made, and make amends for +my wound with this wound." And now, just about to return the dart drawn +from his body, he falls sinking down upon his limbs void of blood. Here, +too, Odytes, the next in rank among the followers of Cepheus, after the +king, lies prostrate under the sword of Clymenus; Hypseus kills +Protenor, {and} Lyncides Hypseus. There is, too, among them the aged +Emathion, an observer of justice, and a fearer of the Gods; as his years +prevent him from fighting, he engages by talking, and he condemns and +utters imprecations against their accursed arms. As he clings to the +altars[11] with trembling hands, Chromis cuts off his head with his +sword, which straightway falls upon the altar, and there, with his dying +tongue he utters words of execration, and breathes forth his soul in the +midst of the fires. Upon this, two brothers, Broteas and Ammon +invincible at boxing, if swords could only be conquered by boxing, fell +by the hand of Phineus; Ampycus, too, the priest of Ceres, having his +temples wreathed with a white fillet. Thou too, son of Iapetus, not to +be employed for these services; but one who tuned the lyre, the work of +peace, to thy voice, hadst been ordered to attend the banquet and +festival with thy music. As thou art standing afar, and holding the +unwarlike plectrum, Pettalus says, laughing, "Go sing the rest to the +Stygian ghosts," and fixes the point of the sword in his left temple. He +falls, and with his dying fingers he touches once again the strings of +the lyre; and in his fall he plays a mournful dirge.[12] The fierce +Lycormas does not suffer him to fall unpunished; and tearing away a +massive bar from the doorpost on the right, he dashes it against the +bones of the middle of the neck {of Pettalus}; struck, he falls to the +ground, just like a slaughtered bullock. + +The Cinyphian[13] Pelates, too, was trying to tear away the oaken bar of +the doorpost on the left; as he was trying, his right hand was fastened +{thereto} by the spear of Corythus, the son of Marmarus, and it stood +riveted to the wood. {Thus} riveted, Abas pierced his side; he did not +fall, however, but dying, hung from the post, which still held fast his +hand. Melaneus, too, was slain, who had followed the camp of Perseus, +and Dorylas, very rich in Nasamonian land.[14] Dorylas, rich in land, +than whom no one possessed it of wider extent, or received {thence} so +many heaps of corn. The hurled steel stood fixed obliquely in his groin; +the hurt was mortal. When the Bactrian[15] Halcyoneus, the author of the +wound, beheld him sobbing forth his soul, and rolling his eyes, he said, +"Take {for thine own} this {spot} of earth which thou dost press, out of +so many fields," and he left his lifeless body. The descendant of Abas, +as his avenger, hurls against {Halcyoneus} the spear torn from his wound +{yet} warm, which, received in the middle of the nostrils, pierced +through his neck, and projected on both sides. And while fortune is +aiding his hand, he slays, with different wounds, Clytius and Clanis, +born of one mother. For an ashen spear poised with a strong arm is +driven through both the thighs of Clytius; with his mouth does Clanis +bite the javelin. Celadon, the Mendesian,[16] falls, too; Astreus falls, +born of a mother of Palestine, {but} of an uncertain father. AEthion, +too, once sagacious at foreseeing things to come, {but} now deceived[17] +by a false omen; and Thoactes, the armor-bearer of the king, and +Agyrtes, infamous for slaying his father. + +More work still remains, than what is {already} done; for it is the +intention of all to overwhelm one. The conspiring troops fight on all +sides, for a cause that attacks both merit and good faith. The one side, +the father-in-law, attached in vain, and the new-made wife, together +with her mother, encourage; and {these} fill the halls with their +shrieks. But the din of arms, and the groans of those that fall, +prevail; and for once, Bellona[18] is deluging the household Gods +polluted with plenteous blood, and is kindling the combat anew. Phineus, +and a thousand that follow Phineus, surround Perseus {alone}; darts are +flying thicker than the hail of winter, on both his sides, past his +eyes, and past his ears. On this, he places his shoulders against the +stone of a large pillar, and, having his back secure, and facing the +adverse throng, he withstands their attack. Chaonian[19] Molpeus presses +on the left, Nabathaean Ethemon on the right. As a tiger, urged on by +hunger, when it hears the lowings of two herds, in different valleys, +knows not on which side in preference to rush out, and {yet} is eager to +rush out on both; so Perseus, being in doubt whether to bear onward to +the right or to the left, repulses Molpeus by a wound in the leg, which +he runs through, and is contented with his flight. Nor, indeed, does +Ethemon give him time, but fiercely attacks him; and, desirous to +inflict a wound deep in his neck, he breaks his sword, wielded with +incautious force; and against the extremity of a column which he has +struck, the blade flies to pieces, and sticks in the throat of its +owner; yet that blow has not power sufficient to {effect} his death. +Perseus stabs him with his Cyllenian[20] falchion, trembling, and vainly +extending his unarmed hands. + +But when Perseus saw his valor {likely} to yield to such numbers, he +said, "Since you yourselves force me to do it, I will seek assistance +from an enemy: turn away your faces, if any of my friends are here;" and +{then} he produced the head of the Gorgon. "{Go}, seek some one else," +said Thescelus, "for thy miracles to affect;" and, as he was preparing +to hurl his deadly javelin with his hand, he stood fast in that posture, +a statue of marble. Ampyx, being next him, made a pass with his sword at +the breast of Lyncidas, full of daring spirit, and, while making it, his +right hand became stiff, moving neither to one side nor the other. But +Nileus, who had falsely boasted that he was begotten by the +seven-mouthed Nile, and who had engraved on his shield its seven +channels, partly in silver, partly in gold, said, "Behold, Perseus, the +origin of my race; thou shalt carry to the silent shades a great +consolation for thy death, that thou wast killed by one so great." The +last part of his address was suppressed in the midst of the utterance; +and you would think his half-open mouth was attempting to speak, but it +gave no passage for his words. Eryx rebuked them,[21] and said, "Ye are +benumbed by the cowardice of your minds, not by the locks of the Gorgon; +rush on with me, and strike to the ground {this} youth that wields his +magic arms." He was about to rush on, {when} the earth arrested his +steps, and he remained an immovable stone, and an armed statue. But all +these met with the punishment they had deserved: there was one man, +however, Aconteus {by name}, a soldier of Perseus, for whom while he was +fighting, on beholding the Gorgon, he grew hard with stone rising upon +him. Astyages, thinking him still alive, struck him with his long sword; +the sword resounded with a shrill ringing. While Astyages was in +amazement, he took on himself the same nature: and the look of one in +surprise remained on his marble features. It is a tedious task to +recount the names of the men of the lower rank. Two hundred bodies were +{yet} remaining for the fight: two hundred bodies, on beholding the +Gorgon, grew stiff. + +Now at length Phineus repents of this unjust warfare. But what can he +do? He sees statues varying in form, and he recognizes his friends, and +demands help of them each, called by name; and not {yet} persuaded, he +touches the bodies next him; they are marble. He turns away {his eyes}; +and thus suppliant, and stretching forth his hands, that confessed {his +fault}, and his arms obliquely extended, he says, "Perseus, thou hast +conquered; remove the direful monster, and take away that stone-making +face of thy Medusa, whatever she may be; take it away, I pray. It is not +hatred, or the desire of a kingdom, that has urged me to war: for a wife +I wielded arms. Thy cause was the better in point of merit, mine in +point of time. I am not sorry to yield. Grant me nothing, most valiant +man, beyond this life; the rest be thine." Upon his saying such things, +and not daring to look upon him, whom he is entreating with his voice, +{Perseus} says, "What am I able to give thee, most cowardly Phineus, +and, a great boon to a craven, that will I give; lay aside thy fears; +thou shalt be hurt by no weapon. Moreover, I will give thee a monument +to last forever, and in the house of my father-in-law thou shalt always +be seen, that my wife may comfort herself with the form of her +betrothed." {Thus} he said, and he turned the daughter of Phorcys to +that side, towards which Phineus had turned himself with trembling face. +Then, even as he endeavored to turn away his eyes, his neck grew stiff, +and the moisture of his eyes hardened in stone. But yet his timid +features, and his suppliant countenance, and his hands hanging down, and +his guilty attitude, still remained. + +The descendant of Abas, together with his wife, enters the walls of his +native city; and as the defender and avenger of his innocent mother, he +attacks Proetus.[22] For, his brother being expelled by force of arms, +Proetus had taken possession of the citadel of Acrisius; but neither by +the help of arms, nor the citadel which he had unjustly seized, did he +prevail against the stern eyes of the snake-bearing monster. + + [Footnote 1: _Phineus._--Ver. 8. He was the brother of Cepheus, to + whom Andromeda had been betrothed. There was another person of the + same name, who entertained the Argonauts, and who is also + mentioned in the Metamorphoses.] + + [Footnote 2: _In the cushion._--Ver. 34. This was probably the + mattress or covering of the couch on which the ancients reclined + during meals. It was frequently stuffed with wool; but among the + poorer classes, with straw and dried weeds.] + + [Footnote 3: _An altar._--Ver. 36. This was either the altar + devoted to the worship of the Penates; or, more probably, perhaps, + in this instance, that erected for sacrifice to the Gods on the + occasion of the nuptials of Perseus and Andromeda.] + + [Footnote 4: _Gods of hospitality._--Ver. 45. Jupiter was + especially considered to be the avenger of a violation of the laws + of hospitality.] + + [Footnote 5: _Athis by name._--Ver. 47. Athis, or Atys, is here + described as of Indian birth, to distinguish him from the Phrygian + youth of the same name, beloved by Cybele, whose story is told by + Ovid in the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 6: _His falchion._--Ver. 69. The "Harpe" was a short, + crooked sword, or falchion: such as we call a "scimitar."] + + [Footnote 7: _Syene._--Ver. 74. This was a city on the confines of + AEthiopia, bordering upon Egypt. Ovid tells us in the Pontic + Epistles (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79), that "there, at the time of the + summer solstice, bodies as they stand, have no shadow."] + + [Footnote 8: _A huge bowl._--Ver. 82. Clarke calls "ingentem + cratera" "a swingeing bowl."] + + [Footnote 9: _Sperchius._--Ver. 86. This was probably a person, + and not the river of Thessaly, flowing into the Malian Gulf.] + + [Footnote 10: _Has declined the warfare._--Ver. 91. This is an + illustration of the danger of neutrality, when the necessity of + the times requires a man to adopt the side which he deems to be in + the right.] + + [Footnote 11: _Clings to the altars._--Ver. 103. In cases of + extreme danger, it was usual to fly to the temples of the Deities, + and to take refuge behind the altar or statue of the God, and even + to cling to it, if necessity required.] + + [Footnote 12: _A mournful dirge._--Ver. 118. Clarke translates + 'Casuque canit miserabile carmen;' 'and in his fall plays but a + dismal ditty.'] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyphian._--Ver. 124. Cinyps, or Cinyphus, was the + name of a river situate in the north of Africa.] + + [Footnote 14: _Nasamonian land._--Ver. 129. The Nasamones were a + people of Libya, near the Syrtes, or quicksands, who subsisted by + plundering the numerous wrecks on their coasts.] + + [Footnote 15: _Bactrian._--Ver. 135. Bactris was the chief city of + Bactria, a region bordering on the western confines of India.] + + [Footnote 16: _The Mendesian._--Ver. 144. Mendes was a city of + Egypt, near the mouth of the Nile, where Pan was worshipped, + according to Pliny. Celadon was a native of either this place, or + of the city of Myndes, in Syria.] + + [Footnote 17: _Now deceived._--Ver. 147. Because he had not + foreseen his own approaching fate.] + + [Footnote 18: _Bellona._--Ver. 155. She was the sister of Mars, + and was the Goddess of War.] + + [Footnote 19: _Chaonian._--Ver. 163. Chaonia was a mountainous + part of Epirus, so called from Chaon, who was accidentally killed, + while hunting, by Helenus, the son of Priam. It has been, however, + suggested that the reading ought to be 'Choanius;' as the Choanii + were a people bordering on Arabia; and very justly, for how should + the Chaonians and Nabathaeans, or Epirotes, and Arabians become + united in the same sentence, as meeting in a region so distant as + AEthiopia?] + + [Footnote 20: _Cyllenian._--Ver. 176. His falchion had been given + to him by Mercury, who was born on Mount Cyllene, in Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 21: _Eryx rebuked them._--Ver. 195. 'Increpat hos Eryx' + is translated by Clarke, 'Eryx rattles these blades.'] + + [Footnote 22: _Proetus._--Ver. 238. He was the brother of Acrisius, + the grandfather of Perseus.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The scene of this story is supposed by some to have been in AEthiopia, + but it is more probably on the coast of Africa. Josephus and Strabo + assert that this event happened near the city of Joppa, or Jaffa: + indeed, Josephus says that the marks of the chains with which + Andromeda was fastened, were remaining on the rock in his time. + Pomponius Mela says, that Cepheus, the father of Andromeda, was king + of Joppa, and that the memory of that prince and of his brother + Phineus was honored there with religious services. He says, too, that + the inhabitants used to show the bones of the monster which was to + have devoured Andromeda. Pliny tells us the same, and that Scaurus + carried these bones with him to Rome. He calls the monster 'a + Goddess,' 'Dea Cete.' Vossius believes that he means the God Dagon, + worshipped among the Syrians under the figure of a fish, or + sea-monster. Some authors have suggested that the story of the + creature which was to have devoured Andromeda, was a confused version + of that of the prophet Jonah. + + The alleged power of Perseus, to turn his enemies into stone, was + probably, a metaphorical mode of describing his heroism, and the + terror which everywhere followed the fame of his victory over the + Gorgons. This probably caused such consternation, that it was reported + that he petrified his enemies by showing them the head of Medusa. + Bochart supposes that the rocky nature of the island of Seriphus, + where Polydectes reigned, was the ground of the various stories of the + alleged metamorphoses into stone, effected by means of the Gorgon's + head. + + +FABLE II. [V.243-340] + + Polydectes continues his hatred against Perseus, and treats his + victories and triumphs over Medusa as mere fictions, on which Perseus + turns him into stone. Minerva leaves her brother, and goes to Mount + Helicon to visit the Muses, who show the Goddess the beauties of their + habitation, and entertain her with their adventure at the court of + Pyreneus, and the death of that prince. They also repeat to her the + song of the Pierides, who challenged them to sing. + +Yet, O Polydectes,[23] the ruler of little Seriphus, neither the valor +of the youth proved by so many toils, nor his sorrows have softened +thee; but thou obstinately dost exert an inexorable hatred, nor is there +any limit to thy unjust resentment. Thou also detractest from his +praises, and dost allege that the death of Medusa is {but} a fiction. +"We will give thee a proof of the truth," says Perseus; "have a regard +for your eyes, {all besides};" and he makes the face of the king +{become} stone, without blood, by means of the face of Medusa. + +Hitherto Tritonia had presented herself as a companion to her +brother,[24] begotten in the golden shower. Now, enwrapped in an +encircling cloud, she abandons Seriphus, Cythnus and Gyarus[25] being +left on the right. And where the way seems the shortest over the sea, +she makes for Thebes and Helicon, frequented by the virgin {Muses}; +having reached which mountain she stops, and thus addresses the learned +sisters: "The fame of the new fountain[26] has reached my ears, which +the hard hoof of the winged steed sprung from the blood of Medusa has +opened. That is the cause of my coming. I wished to see this wondrous +prodigy; I saw him spring from the blood of his mother." Urania[27] +replies, "Whatever, Goddess, is the cause of thy visiting these abodes, +thou art most acceptable to our feelings. However, the report is true, +and Pegasus is the originator of this spring;" and {then} she conducts +Pallas to the sacred streams. She, long admiring the waters produced by +the stroke of his foot, looks around upon the groves of the ancient +wood, and the caves and the grass studded with flowers innumerable; and +she pronounces the Mnemonian[28] maids happy both in their pursuits and +in their retreat; when one of the sisters {thus} addresses her: + +"O Tritonia, thou who wouldst have come to make one of our number, had +not thy valor inclined thee to greater deeds, thou sayest the truth, and +with justice thou dost approve both our pursuits and our retreat; and if +we are but safe, happy do we reckon our lot. But (to such a degree is no +denial borne by villany) all things affright our virgin minds, and the +dreadful Pyreneus is placed before our eyes; and not yet have I wholly +recovered my presence of mind. He, in his insolence, had taken the +Daulian and Phocean[29] land with his Thracian troops, and unjustly held +the government. We were making for the temple of Parnassus; he beheld us +going, and adoring our Divinities[30] in a feigned worship he said (for +he had recognized us), 'O Mnemonian maids, stop, and do not scruple, +I pray, under my roof to avoid the bad weather and the showers (for it +was raining); oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.' +Moved by his invitation and the weather, we assented to the man, and +entered the front part of his house. The rain had {now} ceased, and the +South Wind {now} subdued by the North, the black clouds were flying from +the cleared sky. It was our wish to depart. Pyreneus closed his house, +and prepared for violence, which we escaped by taking wing. He himself +stood aloft on the top {of his abode}, as though about to follow us, and +said 'Wherever there is a way for you, by the same road there will be +{one} for me.' And then, in his insanity, he threw himself from the +height of the summit of the tower, and fell upon his face, and with the +bones of his skull thus broken, he struck the ground stained with his +accursed blood." + +{Thus} spoke the Muse. Wings resounded through the air, and a voice of +some saluting them[31] came from the lofty boughs. The daughter of +Jupiter looked up, and asked whence tongues that speak so distinctly +made that noise, and thought that a human being had spoken. They were +birds; and magpies that imitate everything, lamenting their fate, they +stood perched on the boughs, nine in number. As the Goddess wondered, +thus did the Goddess {Urania} commence: "Lately, too, did these being +overcome in a dispute, increase the number of the birds. Pierus, rich in +the lands of Pella,[32] begot them; the Paeonian[33] Evippe[34] was their +mother. Nine times did she invoke the powerful Lucina, being nine times +in labor. This set of foolish sisters were proud of their number, and +came hither through so many cities of Haemonia, {and} through so many of +Achaia,[35] and engaged in a contest in words such as these: "Cease +imposing upon the vulgar with your empty melody. If you have any +confidence {in your skill}, ye Thespian Goddesses, contend with us; we +will not be outdone in voice or skill; and we are as many in number. +Either, if vanquished, withdraw from the spring formed by the steed of +Medusa, and the Hyantean Aganippe,[36] or we will retire from the +Emathian plains, as far as the snowy Paeonians. Let the Nymphs decide the +contest." It was, indeed, disgraceful to engage, but to yield seemed +{even} more disgraceful. The Nymphs that are chosen swear by the rivers, +and they sit on seats made out of the natural rock. Then, without +casting lots, she who had been the first to propose the contest, sings +the wars of the Gods above, and gives the Giants honor not their due, +and detracts from the actions of the great Divinities; and {sings} how +that Typhoeus, sent forth from the lowest realms of the earth, had struck +terror into the inhabitants of Heaven; and {how} they had all turned +their backs in flight, until the land of Egypt had received them in +their weariness, and the Nile, divided into its seven mouths. She tells, +how that Typhoeus had come there, too, and the Gods above had concealed +themselves under assumed shapes; and 'Jupiter,' she says, 'becomes the +leader of the flock, whence, even at the present day, the Libyan Ammon +is figured with horns. {Apollo}, the Delian {God}, lies concealed as a +crow, the son of Semele as a he-goat, the sister of Phoebus as a cat, +{Juno}, the daughter of Saturn, as a snow-white cow, Venus as a +fish,[37] {Mercury}, the Cyllenian {God}, beneath the wings of an +Ibis.'[38] + +"Thus far she had exerted her noisy mouth to {the sound of} the lyre; we +of Aonia[39] were {then} called upon; but perhaps thou hast not the +leisure, nor the time to lend an ear to our strains." Pallas says, "Do +not hesitate, and repeat your song to me in its order;" and she takes +her seat under the pleasant shade of the grove. The Muse {then} tells +her story. "We assigned the management of the contest to one {of our +number}. Calliope rises, and, having her long hair gathered up with ivy, +tunes with her thumb the sounding chords; and {then} sings these lines +in concert with the strings when struck." + + [Footnote 23: _Polydectes._--Ver. 242. Polydectes was king of the + little island of Seriphus, one of the Cyclades. His brother Dictys + had removed Perseus, with his mother Danae, to the kingdom of + Polydectes. The latter became smitten with love for Danae, though + he was about to marry Hippodamia. On this occasion he exacted a + promise from Perseus, of the head of the Gorgon Medusa. When + Perseus returned victorious, he found that his mother, with her + protector Dictys, had taken refuge at the altars of the Deities, + against the violence of Polydectes; on which Perseus changed him + into stone. The story of Perseus afforded abundant materials to + the ancient poets. AEschylus wrote a Tragedy called Polydectes, + Sophocles one called Danae, while Euripides composed two, called + respectively Danae and Dictys. Pherecydes also wrote on this + subject, and his work seems to have been a text book for + succeeding poets. Polygnotus painted the return of Perseus with + the head of Medusa, to the island of Seriphus.] + + [Footnote 24: _To her brother._--Ver. 250. As both Tritonia, or + Minerva, and Perseus had Jupiter for their father.] + + [Footnote 25: _Gyarus._--Ver. 252. Cythnus and Gyarus were two + islands of the Cyclades.] + + [Footnote 26: _The new fountain._--Ver. 256. This was Helicon, + which was produced by a blow from the hoof of Pegasus.] + + [Footnote 27: _Urania._--Ver. 260. One of the Muses, who presided + over Astronomy.] + + [Footnote 28: _Mnemonian._--Ver. 268. The Muses are called + 'Mnemonides,' from the Greek word +mnemon+ 'remembering,' or + 'mindful,' because they were said to be the daughters, by Jupiter, + of Mnemosyne, or Memory.] + + [Footnote 29: _Phocean._--Ver. 276. Daulis was a city of Phocis; + a district between Boeotia and AEtolia, in which the city of Delphi + and Mount Parnassus were situate.] + + [Footnote 30: _Our Divinities._--Ver. 279. 'Nostra veneratus + numina,' is translated by Clarke, 'and worshipping our + Goddessships.'] + + [Footnote 31: _Some saluting them._--Ver. 295. That is, crying out + +chaire, chaire+, the usual salutation among the Greeks, + equivalent to our 'How d'ye do?' From two lines of Persius, it + seems to have been a common thing to teach parrots and magpies to + repeat these words.] + + [Footnote 32: _Lands of Pella._--Ver. 302. Pella was a city of + Macedonia, in that part of it which was called Emathia. It was + famed for being the birthplace of Philip, and Alexander the + Great.] + + [Footnote 33: _Paeonian._--Ver. 303. Paeonia was a mountainous + region of Macedonia, adjacent to Emathia.] + + [Footnote 34: _Evippe._--Ver. 303. Evippe was the wife of Pierus, + and the mother of the Pierides.] + + [Footnote 35: _Achaia._--Ver. 306. The Achaia here mentioned was + the Haemonian, or Thessalian Achaia. The other parts of Thessaly + were Phthiotis and Pelasgiotis.] + + [Footnote 36: _Aganippe._--Ver. 312. Aganippe was the name of a + fountain in Boeotia, near Helicon, sacred to the Muses. It is + called Hyantean, from the ancient name of the inhabitants of the + country.] + + [Footnote 37: _Venus as a fish._--Ver. 331. The story of the + transformation of Venus into a fish, to escape the fury of the + Giants, is told, at length, in the second Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 38: _Wings of an Ibis._--Ver. 331. The Ibis was a bird + of Egypt, much resembling a crane, or stork. It was said to be of + peculiarly unclean habits, and to subsist upon serpents.] + + [Footnote 39: _We of Aonia._--Ver. 333. The Muses obtained the + name of Aonides from Aonia, a mountainous district of Boeotia.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + According to Plutarch, the adventure of the Muses with Pyreneus, and + of their asking wings of the Gods to save themselves, is a metaphor, + which shows that he, when reigning in Phocis, was no friend to + learning. As he had caused all the institutions in which it was taught + to be destroyed, it was currently reported, that he had offered + violence to the Muses, and that he lost his life in pursuing them. + Ovid is the only writer that mentions him by name. + + The challenge given by the Pierides to the Muses is not mentioned by + any writer before the time of Ovid. By way of explaining it, it is + said, that Pierus was a very bad poet, whose works were full of + stories injurious to the credit of the Gods. Hence, in time, it became + circulated, that his daughters, otherwise his works, were changed into + magpies, thereby meaning that they were full of idle narratives, + tiresome and unmeaning. It is not improbable that the story of + Typhoeus, who forces the Gods to conceal themselves in Egypt, under the + forms of various animals, was a poem which Pierus composed on the war + of the Gods with the Giants. + + +FABLE III. [V.341-384] + + One of the Muses repeats to Minerva the song of Calliope, in answer to + the Pierides; in which she describes the defeat of the Giant Typhoeus, + and Pluto viewing the mountains of Sicily, where Venus persuades her + son Cupid to pierce his heart with one of his arrows. + +"Ceres was the first to turn up the clods with the crooked plough; she +first gave corn and wholesome food to the earth; she first gave laws; +everything is the gift of Ceres. She is to be sung by me; I only wish +that I could utter verses worthy of the Goddess, {for} doubtless she is +a Goddess worthy of my song. The vast island of Trinacria[40] is heaped +up on the limbs of the Giant, and keeps down Typhoeus, that dared to hope +for the abodes of Heaven, placed beneath its heavy mass. He, indeed, +struggles, and attempts often to rise, but his right hand is placed +beneath the Ausonian Pelorus,[41] his left under thee, Pachynus;[42] his +legs are pressed down by Lilyboeum;[43] AEtna bears down his head; under +it Typhoeus, on his back, casts forth sand, and vomits flame from his +raging mouth; often does he struggle to throw off the load of earth, and +to roll away cities and huge mountains from his body. Then does the +earth tremble, and the King of the shades himself is in dread, lest it +may open, and the ground be parted with a wide chasm, and, the day being +let in, may affright the trembling ghosts. + +"Fearing this ruin, the Ruler had gone out from his dark abode; and, +carried in his chariot by black horses, he cautiously surveyed the +foundations of the Sicilian land. After it was sufficiently ascertained +that no place was insecure, and fear was laid aside, Erycina,[44] +sitting down upon her mountain, saw him wandering; and, embracing her +winged son, she said, Cupid, my son, my arms, my hands, and my might, +take up those darts by which thou conquerest all, and direct the swift +arrows against the breast of the God, to whom fell the last lot of the +triple kingdom.[45] Thou subduest the Gods above, and Jupiter himself; +thou {subduest} the conquered Deities of the deep, and him who rules +over the Deities of the deep. Why is Tartarus exempt? Why dost thou not +extend the Empire of thy mother and thine own? A third part of the world +is {now} at stake. And yet so great power is despised even in our own +heaven, and, together with myself, the influence of Love becomes but a +trifling matter. Dost thou not see how that Pallas, and Diana, who +throws the javelin, have renounced me? The daughter of Ceres, too, will +be a virgin, if we shall permit it, for she inclines to similar hopes. +But do thou join the Goddess to her uncle, if I have any interest with +thee in favor of our joint sway. + +"Venus {thus} spoke. He opened his quiver, and, by the direction of his +mother, set apart one out of his thousand arrows; but one, than which +there is not any more sharp or less unerring, or which is more true to +the bow. And he bent the flexible horn, by pressing his knee against it, +and struck Pluto in the breast with the barbed arrow." + + [Footnote 40: _Trinacria._--Ver. 347. Sicily was called Trinacris, + or Trinacria, from its three corners or promontories, which are + here named by the Poet.] + + [Footnote 41: _Pelorus._--Ver. 350. This cape, or promontory, now + called Capo di Faro, is on the east of Sicily, looking towards + Italy, whence its present epithet, 'Ausonian.' It was so named + from Pelorus, the pilot of Hannibal, who, suspecting him of + treachery, had put him to death, and buried him on that spot.] + + [Footnote 42: _Pachynus._--Ver. 351. This Cape, now Capo Passaro, + looks towards Greece, from the south of Sicily.] + + [Footnote 43: _Lilybaeum._--Ver. 351. Now called Capo Marsala. It + is on the west of Sicily, looking towards the African coast.] + + [Footnote 44: _Erycina._--Ver. 363. Venus is so called from Eryx, + the mountain of Sicily, on which her son Eryx, one of the early + Sicilian kings, erected a magnificent temple in her honor.] + + [Footnote 45: _The triple kingdom._--Ver. 368. In the partition of + the dominion of the universe the heavens fell to the lot of + Jupiter, the seas to that of Neptune; while the infernal regions, + or, as some say, the earth, were awarded to Pluto.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The ancients frequently accounted for natural phaenomena on fabulous + grounds: and whatever they found difficult to explain, from their + ignorance of the principles of natural philosophy, they immediately + attributed to the agency of a supernatural cause. AEtna was often seen + to emit flames, and the earth was subjected to violent shocks from the + forces of its internal fires when struggling for a vent. Instead of + looking for the source of these eruptions in the sulphur and + bituminous matter in which the mountain abounds, they fabled, that the + Gods, having vanquished the Giant Typhoeus, or, according to some + authors, Enceladus, threw Mount AEtna on his body; and that the + attempts he made to free himself from the superincumbent weight were + the cause of those fires and earthquakes. + + +FABLE IV. [V.385-461] + + Pluto surprises Proserpina in the fields of Henna, and carries her + away by force. The Nymph Cyane endeavors, in vain, to stop him in his + passage, and through grief and anguish, dissolves into a fountain. + Ceres goes everywhere in search of her daughter, and, in her journey, + turns the boy Stellio into a newt. + +"Not far from the walls of Henna[46] there is a lake of deep water, +Pergus by name; Cayster does not hear more songs of swans, in his +running streams, than that. A wood skirts the lake, surrounding it on +every side, and with its foliage, as though with an awning, keeps out +the rays of the sun. The boughs produce a coolness, the moist ground +flowers of Tyrian hue. {There} the spring is perpetual. In this grove, +while Proserpina is amusing herself, and is plucking either violets or +white lilies, and while, with childlike eagerness, she is filling her +baskets and her bosom, and is striving to outdo {her companions} of the +same age in gathering, almost at the same instant she is beheld, +beloved, and seized by Pluto;[47] in such great haste is love. The +Goddess, affrighted, with lamenting lips calls both her mother and her +companions,[48] but more frequently her mother;[49] and as she has torn +her garment from the upper edge, the collected flowers fall from her +loosened robes. So great, too, is the innocence of her childish years, +this loss excites the maiden's grief as well. The ravisher drives on his +chariot, and encourages his horses, called, each by his name, along +whose necks and manes he shakes the reins, dyed with swarthy rust. He is +borne through deep lakes, and the pools of the Palici,[50] smelling +strong of sulphur, {and} boiling fresh from out of the burst earth; and +where the Bacchiadae,[51] a race sprung from Corinth, with its two +seas,[52] built a city[53] between unequal harbors. + +"There is a stream in the middle, between Cyane and the Pisaean Arethusa, +which is confined within itself, being enclosed by mountain ridges at a +short distance {from each other}. Here was Cyane,[54] the most +celebrated among the Sicilian Nymphs, from whose name the pool also was +called, who stood up from out of the midst of the water, as far as the +higher part of her stomach, and recognized the God, and said, 'No +further shall you go. Thou mayst not be the son-in-law of Ceres against +her will. {The girl} should have been asked {of her mother}, not carried +away. But if I may be allowed to compare little matters with great ones, +Anapis[55] also loved me. Yet I married him, courted, and not frightened +{into it}, like her.' She {thus} said, and stretching her arms on +different sides, she stood in his way. The son of Saturn no longer +restrained his rage; and encouraging his terrible steeds, he threw his +royal sceptre, hurled with a strong arm, into the lowest depths of the +stream. The earth, {thus} struck, made a way down to Tartarus, and +received the descending chariot in the middle of the yawning space. But +Cyane, lamenting both the ravished Goddess, and the slighted privileges +of her spring, carries in her silent mind an inconsolable wound, and is +entirely dissolved into tears, and melts away into those waters, of +which she had been but lately the great guardian Divinity. You might see +her limbs soften, her bones become subjected to bending, her nails lay +aside their hardness: each, too, of the smaller extremities of the whole +of her body melts away; both her azure hair, her fingers, her legs, and +her feet; for easy is the change of those small members into a cold +stream. After that, her back, her shoulders, her side, and her breast +dissolve, vanishing into thin rivulets. Lastly, pure water, instead of +live blood, enters her corrupted veins, and nothing remains which you +can grasp {in your hand}. + +"In the mean time, throughout all lands and in every sea, the daughter +is sought in vain by her anxious mother. Aurora, coming with her ruddy +locks does not behold her taking any rest, neither does Hesperus. She, +with her two hands, sets light to some pines at the flaming AEtna, and +giving herself no rest, bears them through the frosty darkness. Again, +when the genial day has dulled the light of the stars, she seeks her +daughter from the rising of the sun to the setting thereof. Fatigued by +the labor, she has {now} contracted thirst, and no streams have washed +her mouth, when by chance she beholds a cottage covered with thatch, and +knocks at its humble door, upon which an old woman[56] comes out and +sees the Goddess, and gives her, asking for water, a sweet drink which +she has lately distilled[57] from parched pearled barley. While she is +drinking it {thus} presented, a boy[58] of impudent countenance and +bold, stands before the Goddess, and laughs, and calls her greedy. She +is offended; and a part being not yet quaffed, the Goddess sprinkles +him, as he is {thus} talking, with the barley mixed with the liquor. + +"His face contracts the stains, and he bears legs where just now he was +bearing arms; a tail is added to his changed limbs; and he is contracted +into a diminutive form, that no great power of doing injury may exist; +his size is less than {that of} a small lizard. He flies from the old +woman, astounded and weeping, and trying to touch the monstrosity; and +he seeks a lurking place, and has a name suited to his color, having his +body speckled with various spots." + + [Footnote 46: _Henna._--Ver. 385. Henna, or Enna, was a city so + exactly situated in the middle of Sicily that it was called the + navel of that island. The worship of Ceres there was so highly + esteemed, that ancient writers remarked, that you might easily + take the whole place for one vast temple of that Goddess, and all + the inhabitants for her priests. Proserpine is said by many + authors, besides Ovid, to have been carried away by Pluto in the + vicinity of Henna; though some writers say that it took place in + Attica, and others again in Asia, while the Hymn of Orpheus + mentions the western coast of Spain. Cicero describes this spot in + his Oration against Verres: his words are, 'It is said that + Libera, who is the Deity that we call Proserpine, was carried away + from the Grove of Enna. Enna, where these events took place to + which I now refer, is in a lofty and exposed situation; but on the + summit the ground presents a level surface, and there are springs + of everflowing water. The spot is entirely cut off and separated + from all [ordinary] means of approach. Around it are many lakes + and groves, and flowers in bloom at all seasons of the year; so + that the very spot seems to portray the rape of the damsel, with + which story, from our very infancy, we have been familiar. Close + by, there is a cavern with its face towards the north, of an + immense depth, from which they say that father Pluto, in his + chariot, suddenly emerged, and carrying off the maiden, bore her + away from that spot, and then, not far from Syracuse, descended + into the earth, from which place a lake suddenly arose; where, at + the present day, the inhabitants of Syracuse celebrate a yearly + festival.'] + + [Footnote 47: _Seized by Pluto._--Ver. 395. Pluto is here called + 'Dis.' This name was given to him as the God of the Earth, from + the bowels of which riches are dug up.] + + [Footnote 48: _Her companions._--Ver. 397. Pausanias, in his + Messeniaca, has preserved the names of the companions of Ceres, + having copied them from the works of Homer.] + + [Footnote 49: _Her mother._--Ver. 397. Homer, in his poem on the + subject, represents that Ceres heard the cries of her daughter, + when calling upon her mother for assistance. Ovid recounts this + tale much more at length in the fourth Book of the Fasti.] + + [Footnote 50: _The Palici._--Ver. 406. The Palici were two + brothers, sons of Jupiter and the Nymph Thalea, and, according to + some, received their name from the Greek words +palin hikesthai+, + 'to come again [to life].' Their mother, when pregnant, prayed the + earth to open, and to hide her from the vengeful wrath of Juno. + This was done; and when they had arrived at maturity, the Palici + burst from the ground in the island of Sicily. They were Deities + much venerated there, but their worship did not extend to any + other countries. We learn from Macrobius that the natives of + Sicily pointed out two small lakes, from which the brothers were + said to have emerged, and that the veneration attached to them was + such, that by their means they decided disputes, as they imagined + that perjurers would meet their death in these waters, while the + guiltless would be able to come forth from them unharmed. They + were fetid, sulphureous pools of water, probably affected by the + volcanic action of Mount AEtna.] + + [Footnote 51: _The Bacchiadae._--Ver. 407. Archias, one of the race + of the Bacchiadae, a powerful Corinthian family, being expelled + from Corinth, was said to have founded Syracuse, the capital of + Sicily. The family sprang either from Bacchius, a son of + Dionysus, or Bacchus, or from the fifth king of Corinth, who was + named Bacchis. The family was expelled from Corinth by Cypselus, + either on account of their luxury and extravagant mode of life, or + because they were supposed to aim at the sovereignty.] + + [Footnote 52: _With its two seas._--Ver. 407. Corinth is called + 'Bimaris' by the Latin poets, from its having the AEgean sea on one + side of it, and the Ionian sea on the other.] + + [Footnote 53: _Built a city._--Ver. 408. Syracuse had two harbors, + one of which was much larger than the other.] + + [Footnote 54: _Cyane._--Ver. 412. According to Claudian, Cyane was + one of the companions of Proserpine, when she was carried off by + Pluto.] + + [Footnote 55: _Anapis._--Ver. 417. This was a river of Sicily, + which, mingling with the waters of the fountain Cyane, falls into + the sea at Syracuse, opposite to the island of Ortygia. This + island, in which the fountain of Arethusa was situate, was + separated from the isle of Sicily by a narrow strait of the sea, + and communicating with the city of Syracuse by a bridge, was + considered as part of it.] + + [Footnote 56: _An old woman._--Ver. 449. Arnobius calls this old + woman here mentioned by the name of Baubo. Nicander, in his + Theriaca, calls her Metaneira. Antoninus Liberalis calls her + Misma, and Ovid, in the fourth Book of the Fasti, Melanina.] + + [Footnote 57: _Lately distilled._--Ver. 450. Orpheus, in his Hymn, + calls the drink given by the old woman to Ceres +kukeon+. + According to Arnobius, it was a mixed liquor, called by the Romans + 'cinnus;' made of parched pearled barley, honey, and + wine, with flowers and various herbs floating in it. Antoninus + Liberalis says, that Ceres drank it off, +athroos+, 'at one + draught.'] + + [Footnote 58: _A boy._--Ver. 451. According to Nicander, the boy + was the son of the old woman. If so, the Goddess made her but a + poor return for her hospitality.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of the rape of Proserpine has caused much inquiry among + writers, both ancient and modern, as to the facts on which it was + founded. Some have grounded it on principles of natural philosophy; + while others have supposed it to contain some portion of ancient + history, defaced and blemished in lapse of time. + + The antiquarian Pezeron is of opinion, that in the partition of the + world among the Titan kings, Pluto had the west for his share; and + that he carried a colony to the further end of Spain, where he caused + the gold and silver mines of that region to be worked. The situation + of his kingdom, which lay very low, comparatively with Greece, and + which the ancients believed to be covered with eternal darkness, gave + rise to the fable, that Pluto had got Hell for his share; and this + notion was much encouraged by the subterranean nature of the mines + which he caused to be worked. He thinks that the river Tartarus, so + famed in the realms of Pluto, was no other than the Tartessa, or + Guadalquivir of the present day, which runs through the centre of + Spain. Lethe, too, he thinks to have been the Guadalaviar, in the same + country. Pluto, he suggests, had heard of the beauty of Proserpine, + the daughter of Ceres, queen of Sicily, and carried her thence, which + gave rise to the tradition that she had been carried to the Infernal + Regions. + + Le Clerc, on the other hand, thinks that it was not Pluto that carried + away Proserpine, but Aidoneus, king of Epirus, or Orcus king of the + Molossians. Aidoneus is supposed to have wrought mines in his kingdom, + and, as the entrance into it was over a river called Acheron, that + prince has often been confounded with Pluto; Epirus too, which was + situate very low, may have been figuratively described as the Infernal + Regions; for which reason, the journeys of Theseus and Hercules into + Epirus may have been spoken of as descents into the Stygian abodes. + Le Clerc supposes that Ceres was reigning in Sicily at the time when + Aidoneus was king of Epirus, and that she took great care to instruct + her subjects in the art of tilling the ground and sowing corn, and + established laws for regulating civil government and the preservation + of private property; for which reasons she was afterward deemed to be + the Goddess of the Earth, and of Corn. Cicero and Diodorus Siculus + tell us that Ceres made her residence at Enna, or Henna, in Sicily, + which name, according to Bochart, signifies 'agreeable fountain.' + Cicero and Strabo agree with Ovid in telling us that Proserpine, the + only daughter of Ceres, whom other writers name Pherephata, was + walking in the adjacent meadows, and gathering flowers with her + companions; upon which, certain pirates seized her, and, placing her + in a chariot, carried her to the seaside, whence they embarked for + Epirus. As Pausanias tells us, it was immediately spread abroad, that + Aidoneus, or Pluto, as he was called, had done it, the act having been + really committed by others, according to his orders. As those who + carried her off concealed themselves in the caverns of Mount AEtna, + awaiting their opportunity to escape, it was afterwards fabled that + Pluto came out of the Infernal Regions at that place; as that + mountain, from its nature, was always deemed one of the outlets of + Hell. Upon this, Ceres went to Greece, in search of her daughter; and, + resting at Eleusis, in Attica, she heard that the ship in which her + daughter was carried away had sailed westward. On this, she complained + to Jupiter, one of the Titan kings, but could obtain no further + satisfaction than that her daughter should be permitted to visit her + occasionally, whereby, at length, her grief was mitigated. + + Banier does not agree with these suggestions of Pezeron and Le Clerc, + and thinks that Ceres is no other personage than the Isis of the + Egyptians, supposing that the story is founded on the following + circumstance:--Greece, he says, was afflicted with famine in the + reign of Erectheus, who was obliged to send to Egypt for corn, when + those who went for it brought back the worship of the Deity who + presided over agriculture. The evils which the Athenians had suffered + by the famine, and the dread of again incurring the same calamity, + made them willingly embrace the rites of a Goddess whom they believed + able to protect them from it. Triptolemus established her worship in + Eleusis, and there instituted the mysteries which he had brought over + from Egypt. These had been previously introduced into Sicily, which + was the reason why it was said that Ceres came from Sicily to Athens. + Her daughter was said to have been taken away, because corn and fruit + had not been produced in sufficient quantities, for some time, to + furnish food for the people. Pluto was said to have carried her to the + Infernal regions, because the grain and seeds at that time remained + buried, as it were, at the very center of the earth. Jupiter was said + to have decided the difference between Ceres and Pluto, because the + earth again became covered with crops. + + This appears to be an ingenious allegorical explanation of the story; + but it is not at all improbable that it may have been founded upon + actual facts, and that, having lost her daughter, and going to Attica + to seek her, Ceres taught Triptolemus the mysteries of Isis; and that, + in process of time, Ceres, having become enrolled among the Divinities + of Greece, her worship became confounded with that of Isis. + + It is very possible that the story of the transformation of Stellio + into a newt may have had no other foundation than the Poet's fancy. + + +FABLE V. +[V. 462-563] + + Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search for her daughter over the whole + earth, until the Nymph Arethusa acquaints her with the place of her + ravisher's abode. The Goddess makes her complaint to Jupiter, and + obtains his consent for her daughter's return to the upper world, + provided she has not eaten anything since her arrival in Pluto's + dominions. Ascalaphus, however, having informed that she has eaten + some seeds of a pomegranate, Ceres is disappointed, and Proserpine, in + her wrath, metamorphoses the informer into an owl. The Sirens have + wings given them by the Gods, to enable them to be more expeditious in + seeking for Proserpine. Jupiter, to console Ceres for her loss, + decides that her daughter shall remain six months each year with her + mother upon earth, and the other six with her husband, in the Infernal + Regions. + +"It were a tedious task[59] to relate through what lands and what seas +the Goddess wandered; for her search the world was too limited. She +returns to Sicily; and while, in her passage, she views all {places}, +she comes, too, to Cyane; she, had she not been transformed, would have +told her everything. But both mouth and tongue were wanting to her, +{thus} desirous to tell, and she had no means whereby to speak. Still, +she gave unmistakable tokens, and pointed out, on the top of the water, +the girdle[60] of Proserpine, well known to her parent, which by chance +had fallen off in that place into the sacred stream. + +"Soon as she recognized this, as if then, at last, she fully understood +that her daughter had been carried away[61] the Goddess tore her +unadorned hair, and struck her breast again and again with her hands. +Not as yet does she know where she is, yet she exclaims against all +countries, and calls them ungrateful, and not worthy of the gifts of +corn; {and} Trinacria before {all} others, in which she has found the +proofs of her loss. Wherefore, with vengeful hand, she there broke the +ploughs that were turning up the clods, and, in her anger, consigned to +a similar death both the husbandmen and the oxen that cultivated the +fields, and ordered the land to deny a return of what had been deposited +{therein}, and rendered the seed corrupted. The fertility of the soil, +famed over the wide world, lies in ruin, the corn dies in the early +blade, and sometimes excessive heat of the sun, sometimes excessive +showers, spoil it. Both the Constellations and the winds injure it, and +the greedy birds pick up the seed as it is sown; darnel, and thistles, +and unconquerable weeds, choke the crops of wheat. + +"Then the Alpheian Nymph[62] raised her head from out of the Elean +waters, and drew back her dripping hair from her forehead to her ears, +and said, "O thou mother of the virgin sought over the whole world, and +of the crops {as well}, cease {at length} thy boundless toil, and in thy +wrath be not angered with a region that is faithful to thee. This land +does not deserve it; and against its will it gave a path for {the +commission of} the outrage. Nor am I {now} a suppliant for {my own} +country; a stranger I am come hither. Pisa is my native place, and from +Elis do I derive my birth. As a stranger do I inhabit Sicily, but this +land is more pleasing to me than any other soil. I, Arethusa, now have +this for my abode, this for my habitation; which, do thou, most kindly +{Goddess}, preserve. Why I have been removed from my {native} place, and +have been carried to Ortygia, through the waters of seas so spacious, +a seasonable time will come for my telling thee, when thou shalt be +eased of thy cares, and {wilt be} of more cheerful aspect. The pervious +earth affords me a passage, and, carried beneath its lowest caverns, +here I lift my head {again}, and behold the stars which I have not been +used {to see}. While, then, I was running under the earth, along the +Stygian stream, thy Proserpine was there beheld by my eyes.[63] {She} +indeed {was} sad, and not as yet without alarm in her countenance, but +still {she is} a queen, and the most ennobled {female} in the world of +darkness; still, too, is she the powerful spouse of the Infernal King." + +"The mother, on hearing these words, stood amazed, as though she {had +been made} of stone, and for a long time was like one stupefied; and +when her intense bewilderment was dispelled by the weight of her grief, +she departed in her chariot into the aetherial air, and there, with her +countenance all clouded, she stood before Jupiter, much to his +discredit, with her hair dishevelled; and she said, "I have come, +Jupiter, as a suppliant to thee, both for my own offspring and for +thine. If thou hast no respect for the mother, {still} let the daughter +move her father; and I pray thee not to have the less regard for her, +because she was brought forth by my travail. Lo! my daughter, so long +sought for, has been found by me at last; if you call it finding[64] to +be more certain of one's loss; or if you call it finding, to know where +she is. I will endure {the fact}, that she has been carried off, if he +will only restore her. For, indeed, a daughter of thine is not deserving +of a ravisher for a husband, if now my own daughter is." Jupiter +replied, "Thy daughter is a pledge and charge, in common to me and thee; +but, should it please thee only to give right names to things, this deed +is not an injury, but it is {a mark of} affection, nor will he, as a +son-in-law, be any disgrace to us, if thou only, Goddess, shouldst give +thy consent. Although other {recommendations} were wanting, how great a +thing is it to be the brother of Jupiter! and besides, is it not because +other points are not wanting, and because he is not my inferior, except +by the accident {of his allotment of the Stygian abodes}? But if thy +eagerness is so great for their separation, let Proserpine return to +heaven; still upon this fixed condition, if she has touched no food +there with her lips; for thus has it been provided by the law of the +Destinies." + +"{Thus} he spoke; still Ceres is {now} resolved to fetch away her +daughter; but not so do the Fates permit. For the damsel had broke her +fast; and, while in her innocence she was walking about the +finely-cultivated garden, she had plucked a pomegranate[65] from the +bending tree, and had chewed in her mouth seven grains[66] taken from +the pale rind. Ascalaphus[67] alone, of all persons, had seen this, whom +Orphne, by no means the most obscure among the Nymphs of Avernus,[68] is +said once to have borne to her own Acheron within {his} dusky caves. He +beheld {this}, and cruelly prevented her return by his discovery. The +Queen of Erebus grieved, and changed the informer into an accursed bird, +and turned his head, sprinkled with the waters of Phlegethon,[69] into a +beak, and feathers, and great eyes. He, {thus} robbed of his own +{shape}, is clothed with tawny wings, his head becomes larger, his long +nails bend inwards, and with difficulty can he move the wings that +spring through his sluggish arms. He becomes an obscene bird, the +foreboder of approaching woe, a lazy owl, a direful omen to mortals. + +"But he, by his discovery, and his talkativeness, may seem to have +merited punishment. Whence have you, daughters of Acheloues,[70] feathers +and the feet of birds, since you have the faces of maidens? Is it +because, when Proserpine was gathering the flowers of spring, you were +mingled in the number of her companions? After you had sought her in +vain throughout the whole world, immediately, that the waters might be +sensible of your concern, you wished to be able, on the support of your +wings, to hover over the waves, and you found the Gods propitious, and +saw your limbs grow yellow with feathers suddenly formed. But lest the +sweetness of your voice, formed for charming the ear, and so great +endowments of speech, should lose the gift of a tongue, your virgin +countenance and your human voice {still} remained." + + [Footnote 59: _A tedious task._--Ver. 463. 'Dicere longa mora + est,' is rendered by Clarke, 'It is a tedious business to tell.'] + + [Footnote 60: _The girdle._--Ver. 470. The zone, or girdle, + a fastening round the loins, was much worn by both sexes among + the ancients. It was sometimes made of netted work, and the chief + use of it was for holding up the tunic, and keeping it from + dragging on the ground. Among the Romans, the Magister Equitum, or + 'Master of the Horse,' wore a girdle of red leather, embroidered + by the needle, and having its extremities joined by a gold buckle. + It also formed part of the cuirass of the warrior. The girdle was + used sometimes by men to hold money instead of a purse; and the + 'pera,' 'wallet,' or 'purse,' was generally fastened to the + girdle. As this article of dress was used to hold up the garments + for the sake of expedition, it was loosened when people were + supposed to be abstracted from the cares of the world, as in + performing sacrifice or attending at funeral rites. A girdle was + also worn by the young women, even when the tunic was not girt up; + and it was only discontinued by them on the day of marriage. To + that circumstance, allusion is made in the present instance, as a + proof of the violence that had been committed on Proserpine.] + + [Footnote 61: _Had been carried away._--Ver. 471. Clarke + translates 'tunc denique raptam Scisset,' 'knew that she had been + kidnapped.'] + + [Footnote 62: _Alpheian Nymph._--Ver. 487. Alpheus was a river of + Elis, in the northwestern part of Peloponnesus. Its present name + is 'Carbon.'] + + [Footnote 63: _Beheld by my eyes._--Ver. 505. Ovid here makes + Arethusa the discoverer to Ceres of the fate of her daughter. In + the Fourth Book of the Fasti, he represents the Sun as giving her + that information, in which he follows the account given by Homer. + Apollodorus describes the descent of Pluto as taking place at + Hermione, a town of Argolis, in Peloponnesus, and the people of + that place as informing Ceres of what had happened to her + daughter.] + + [Footnote 64: _If you call it finding._--Ver. 520. This remark of + the Goddess is very like that of the Irish sailor, who vowed that + a thing could not be said to be lost when one knows where it is; + and that his master's kettle was quite safe, for he knew it to be + at the bottom of the sea.] + + [Footnote 65: _Plucked a pomegranate._--Ver. 535. It was for this + reason that the Thesmophoriazusae, in the performance of the rites + of Ceres, were especially careful not to taste the pomegranate. + This fruit was most probably called 'malum,' or 'pomum punicum,' + or 'puniceum,' from the deep red or purple color of the inside, + and not as having been first introduced from Phoenicia.] + + [Footnote 66: _Seven grains._--Ver. 537. He says here 'seven,' but + in the Fourth Book of the Fasti, only 'three' grains.] + + [Footnote 67: _Ascalaphus._--Ver. 539. He was the son of Acheron, + by the Nymph Orphne, or Gorgyra, according to Apollodorus. The + latter author says, that for his unseasonable discovery, Ceres + placed a rock upon him; but that, having been liberated by + Hercules, she changed him into an owl, called +oton+. The Greek + name of a lizard being +askalabos+, Mellman thinks that the + transformation of the boy into a newt, or kind of lizard, which + has just been related by the Poet, may have possibly originated in + a confused version of the story of Ascalaphus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Avernus._--Ver. 540. Avernus was a lake of + Campania, near Baiae, of a fetid smell and gloomy aspect. Being + feigned to be the mouth, or threshold, of the Infernal Regions, + its name became generally used to signify Tartarus, or the + Infernal Regions. The name is said to have been derived from the + Greek word +aornos+, 'without birds,' or 'unfrequented by birds,' + as they could not endure the exhalations that were emitted by it.] + + [Footnote 69: _Phlegethon._--Ver. 544. This was a burning river of + the Infernal Regions; which received its name from the Greek word + +phlego+, 'to burn.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Acheloues._--Ver. 552. The Sirens were said to be + the daughters of the river Acheloues and of one of the Muses, + either Calliope, Melpomene, or Terpsichore.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Apollodorus says, that the terms of the treaty respecting Proserpine + were, that she should stay on earth nine months with Ceres, and three + with Pluto, in the Infernal Regions. Other writers divide the time + equally; six months to Ceres, and six to Pluto. They also tell us that + the story of Ascalaphus is founded on the fact, that he was one of the + courtiers of Pluto, who, having advised his master to carry away + Proserpine, did all that lay in his power to obstruct the endeavors of + Ceres, and hinder the restoration of her daughter, on which Proserpine + had him privately destroyed; to screen which deed the Fable was + invented; the pernicious counsels which he gave his master being + signified by the seeds of the pomegranate. It has also been suggested + that the story of his change into an owl was based on the circumstance + that he was the overseer of the mines of Pluto, in which he perished, + removed from the light of day. Perhaps he was there crushed to death + by the fall of a rock, which caused the poets to say that Proserpine + had covered him with a large stone, as Apollodorus informs us, who + also says that it was Ceres who inflicted the punishment upon him. The + name 'Ascalaphus' signifies, 'one that breaks stones,' and, very + probably, that name was only given him to denote his employment. Some + writers state that he was changed into a lizard, which the Greeks call + 'Ascalabos,' and, probably, the resemblance between the names gave + rise to this version of the story. + + Probably, the story of the Nymph Cyane reproaching Pluto with his + treatment of Proserpine, and being thereupon changed by him into a + fountain, has no other foundation than the propinquity of the place + where Pluto's emissaries embarked to a stream of that name near the + city of Syracuse; which was, perhaps, overflowing at that time, and + may have impeded their passage. + + Ovid, probably, feigned that the Sirens begged the Gods to change them + into birds, that they might seek for Proserpine, on the ground of some + existing tradition, that living on the coast of Italy, near the island + of Sicily, and having heard of the misfortune that had befallen her, + they ordered a ship with sails to be equipped to go in search of her. + Further reference to the Sirens will be made, on treating of the + adventures of Ulysses. + + +FABLE VI. [V.564-641] + + The Muse continues her song, in which Ceres, being satisfied with the + decision of Jupiter relative to her daughter, returns to Arethusa, to + learn the history of her adventures. The Nymph entertains the Goddess + with the Story of the passion of Alpheus, and his pursuit of her; to + avoid which, she implores the assistance of Diana, who changes her + into a fountain. + +"But Jupiter being the mediator between his brother and his disconsolate +sister, divides the rolling year equally {between them}. For {now}, the +Goddess, a common Divinity of two kingdoms, is so many months with her +mother, and just as many with her husband. Immediately the appearance of +both her mind and her countenance is changed; for the brow of the +Goddess, which, of late, might appear sad, even to Pluto, himself, is +full of gladness; as the Sun, which has lately been covered with watery +clouds, when he comes forth from the clouds, {now} dispersed. The genial +Ceres, {now} at ease on the recovery of her daughter, {thus} asks, 'What +was the cause of thy wanderings? Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred +spring?' The waters are silent, {and}, the Goddess raises her head from +the deep fountain; and, having dried her green tresses with her hand, +she relates the old amours of the stream of Elis.[71] + +"'I was,' says she, 'one of the Nymphs which exist in Achaia, nor did +any one more eagerly skim along the glades than myself, nor with more +industry set the nets. But though the reputation for beauty was never +sought by me, although, {too}, I was of robust make, {still} I had the +name of being beautiful. But my appearance, when so much commended, did +not please me; and I, like a country lass, blushed at those endowments +of person in which other females are wont to take a pride, and I deemed +it a crime to please. I remember, I was returning weary from the +Stymphalian[72] wood; the weather was hot, and my toil had redoubled the +intense heat. I found a stream gliding on without any eddies, without +any noise, {and} clear to the bottom; through which every pebble, at so +great a depth, might be counted, {and} which you could hardly suppose to +be in motion. The hoary willows[73] and poplars, nourished by the water, +furnished a shade, spontaneously produced, along the shelving banks. +I approached, and, at first, I dipped the soles of my feet, and then, as +far as the knee. Not content with that, I undressed, and I laid my soft +garments upon a bending willow; and, naked, I plunged into the waters. + +"'While I was striking them, and drawing them {towards me}, moving in a +thousand ways, and was sending forth my extended arms, I perceived a +most unusual murmuring noise beneath the middle of the stream; and, +alarmed, I stood on the edge of the nearer bank. 'Whither dost thou +hasten, Arethusa?' said Alpheus from his waves. 'Whither dost thou +hasten?' again he said to me, in a hollow tone. Just as I was, I fled +without my clothes; {for} the other side had my garments. So much the +more swiftly did he pursue, and become inflamed; and, because I was +naked, the more tempting to him did I appear. Thus was I running; thus +unrelentingly was he pursuing me; as the doves are wont to fly from the +hawk with trembling wings, and as the hawk is wont to pursue the +trembling doves, I held out in my course even as far as Orchomenus,[74] +and Psophis,[75] and Cyllene, and the Maenalian valleys, and cold +Erymanthus and Elis. Nor was he swifter than I, but unequal to {him} in +strength, I was unable, any longer, to keep up the chase; for he was +able to endure prolonged fatigue. However, I ran over fields {and} over +mountains covered with trees, rocks too, and crags, and where there was +no path. The sun was upon my back; I saw a long shadow advancing before +my feet, unless, perhaps, it was my fear that saw it. But, at all +events, I was alarmed at the sound of his feet, and his increased +hardness of breathing was {now} fanning the fillets of my hair. Wearied +with the exertion of my flight, I said, 'Give aid, Dictynna, to thy +armor-bearer, {or} I am overtaken; {I}, to whom thou hast so often given +thy bow to carry, and thy darts enclosed in a quiver.' The Goddess was +moved, and, taking one of the dense clouds, she threw it over me. The +river looked about for me, concealed in the darkness, and, in his +ignorance sought about the encircling cloud and twice, unconsciously did +he go around the place where the Goddess had concealed me, and twice did +he cry, 'Ho, Arethusa![76] Ho, Arethusa!' What, then, were my feelings +in my wretchedness? Were they not just those of the lamb, as it hears +the wolves howling around the high sheep-folds? Or of the hare, which, +lurking in the bush, beholds the hostile noses of the dogs, and dares +not make a single movement with her body? Yet he does not depart; for no +{further} does he trace any prints of my feet. He watches the cloud and +the spot. A cold perspiration takes possession of my limbs {thus} +besieged, and azure colored drops distil from all my body. Wherever I +move my foot, {there} flows a lake; drops trickle from my hair, and, in +less time than I take in acquainting thee with my fate, I was changed +into a stream. But still the river recognized the waters, the objects of +his love; and, having laid aside the shape of a mortal, which he had +assumed, he was changed into his own waters, that he might mingle with +me. {Thereupon}, the Delian Goddess cleaved the ground. Sinking, I was +carried through dark caverns to Ortygia,[77] which, being dear to me, +from the surname of my own Goddess, was the first to introduce me to the +upper air.'" + + [Footnote 71: _Stream of Elis._--Ver. 576. The Alpheus really rose + in Arcadia; but, as it ran through the territory of the Eleans, + and discharged itself into the sea, near Cyllene, the seaport of + that people, they worshipped it with divine honors.] + + [Footnote 72: _Stymphalian._--Ver. 585. Stymphalus was the name of + a city, mountain, and river of Arcadia, near the territory of + Elis.] + + [Footnote 73: _Hoary willows._--Ver. 590. The leaf of the willow + has a whitish hue, especially on one side of it.] + + [Footnote 74: _Orchomenus._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia, + in a marshy district, near to Mantinea. There was another place of + the same name, in Boeotia, between Elatea and Coronea, famous for a + splendid temple to the Graces, there erected.] + + [Footnote 75: _Psophis._--Ver. 607. This was a city of Arcadia + also, adjoining to the Elean territory, which received its name + from Psophis, the daughter of Lycaon, or of Eryx, according to + some writers. There were several other towns of the same name. + The other places here mentioned, with the exception of Elis, were + mountains of Arcadia.] + + [Footnote 76: _Ho, Arethusa!_--Ver. 625-6. Clarke thus translates + these lines:--'And twice called out Soho, Arethusa! Soho, + Arethusa! What thought had I then, poor soul!'] + + [Footnote 77: _To Ortygia._--Ver. 640. From the similarity of its + name to that of the Goddess Diana, who was called Ortygia, from + the Isle of Delos, where she was born.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Bochart tells us that the story of the fountain Arethusa and the river + Alpheus, her lover, who traversed so many countries in pursuit of her, + has no other foundation than an equivocal expression in the language + of the first inhabitants of Sicily. The Phoenicians, who went to settle + in that island, finding the fountain surrounded with willows, gave it + the name of 'Alphaga,' or 'the fountain of the willows.' Others, + again, gave it the name of 'Arith,' signifying 'a stream.' The Greeks, + arriving there in after ages, not understanding the signification of + these words, and remembering their own river Alpheus, in Elis, + imagined that since the river and the fountain had nearly the same + name, Alpheus had crossed the sea, to arrive in Sicily. + + This notion appearing, probably, to the poets not devoid of ingenuity, + they accordingly founded on it the romantic story of the passion of + the river God Alpheus for the Nymph Arethusa. Some of the ancient + historians appear, however, in their credulity, really to have + believed, at least, a part of the story, as they seriously tell us, + that the river Alpheus passes under the bed of the sea, and rises + again in Sicily, near the fountain of Arethusa. Even among the more + learned, this fable gained credit; for we find the oracle of Delphi + ordering Archias to conduct a colony of Corinthians to Syracuse, and + the priestess giving the following directions:--'Go into that island + where the river Alpheus mixes his waters with the fair Arethusa.' + + Pausanias avows, that he regards the story of Alpheus and Arethusa as + a mere fable; but, not daring to dispute a fact established by the + response of an oracle, he does not contradict the fact of the river + running through the sea, though he is at a loss to understand how it + can happen. + + +FABLE VII. [V.642-678] + + Ceres entrusts her chariot to Triptolemus, and orders him to go + everywhere, and cultivate the earth. He obeys her, and, at length, + arrives in Scythia, where Lyncus, designing to kill him, is changed + into a lynx. The Muse then finishes her song, on which the daughters + of Pierus are changed into magpies. + +"Thus far Arethusa. The fertile Goddess yoked[78] two dragons to her +chariot, and curbed their mouths with bridles; and was borne through the +mid air of heaven and of earth, and guided her light chariot to the +Tritonian citadel, to Triptolemus; and she ordered him to scatter the +seeds that were entrusted {to him} partly in the fallow ground, {and} +partly {in the ground} restored to cultivation after so long a time. Now +had the youth been borne on high over Europe and the lands of Asia,[79] +and he arrived at the coast of Scythia: Lyncus was the king there. He +entered the house of the king. Being asked whence he came, and the +occasion of his coming, and his name, and his country, he said, 'My +country is the famous Athens, my name is Triptolemus. I came neither in +a ship through the waves, nor on foot by land; the pervious sky made a +way for me. I bring the gifts of Ceres, which, scattered over the wide +fields, are to yield {you} the fruitful harvests, and wholesome food.' +The barbarian envies him; and that he himself may be {deemed} the author +of so great a benefit, he receives him with hospitality, and, when +overpowered with sleep, he attacks him with the sword. {But}, while +attempting to pierce his breast, Ceres made him a lynx; and again sent +the Mopsopian[80] youth to drive the sacred drawers of her chariot +through the air. + +"The greatest of us[81] had {now} finished her learned song. But the +Nymphs, with unanimous voice, pronounced that the Goddesses who inhabit +Helicon had proved the conquerors. Then the others, {thus} vanquished, +began to scatter their abuse: 'Since,' said she, 'it is a trifling +matter for you to have merited punishment by this contest, you add +abuse, too, to your fault, and endurance is not permitted us: we shall +proceed to punishment, and whither our resentment calls, we shall +follow.' The Emathian sisters smiled, and despised our threatening +language; and endeavoring to speak, and to menace with their insolent +hands amid great clamor, they beheld quills growing out of their nails, +and their arms covered with feathers. And they each see the face of the +other shooting out into a hard beak, and new birds being added to the +woods. And while they strive to beat their breasts elevated by the +motion of their arms, they hang poised in the air, {as} magpies, the +scandal of the groves. Even then their original talkativeness remains in +{them} as birds, and their jarring garrulity, and their enormous love of +chattering." + + [Footnote 78: _Goddess yoked._--Ver. 642. Clarke renders 'geminos + Dea fertilis angues curribus admovit,' 'the fertile Goddess + clapped two snakes to her chariot.'] + + [Footnote 79: _Lands of Asia._--Ver. 648. Asia Minor is here + meant; the other parts of Asia being included under the term + 'Scythicas oras.'] + + [Footnote 80: _Mopsopian._--Ver. 661. This very uneuphonious name + is derived from Mopsopus, one of the ancient kings of Attica. It + here means 'Athenian.'] + + [Footnote 81: _The greatest of us._--Ver. 662. Namely, Calliope, + who had commenced her song as the representative of the Muses, at + line 341.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Triptolemus reigned at Eleusis at the time when the mysteries of Ceres + were established there. As we are told by Philochorus, he went with a + ship, to carry corn into different countries, and introduced there the + worship of Ceres, whose priest he was. This is, doubtless, the key for + the explanation of the story, that Ceres nursed him on her own milk, + and purified him by fire. Some have supposed that the fable refers to + the epoch when agriculture was introduced into Greece: but it is much + more probable that it relates simply to the introduction there of the + mysterious worship of Ceres, which was probably imported from Egypt. + It is possible that, at the same period, the Greeks may have learned + some improved method of tilling the ground, acquired by their + intercourse with Egypt. + + Probably, the dangers which Triptolemus experienced in his voyages and + travels, gave rise to the story of Lyncus, whose cruelty caused him to + be changed into a lynx. Bochart and Le Clerc think that the fable of + Triptolemus being drawn by winged dragons, is based upon the equivocal + meaning of a Phoenician word, which signified either 'a winged dragon,' + or 'a ship fastened with iron nails or bolts.' Philochorus, however, + as cited by Eusebius, says that his ship was called a flying dragon, + from its carrying the figure of a dragon on its prow. We learn from a + fragment of Stobaeus, that Erectheus, when engaged in a war against the + Eleusinians, was told by the oracle that he would be victorious, if he + sacrificed his daughter Proserpine. This, perhaps, may have given + rise, or added somewhat, to the story of the rape of Proserpine by + Pluto. + + According to a fragment of Homer, cited by Pausanias, the names of the + first Greeks, who were initiated into the mysteries of Ceres, + were,--Celeus, Triptolemus, Eumolpus, and Diocles. Clement of + Alexandria calls them Baubon, Dysaulus, Eubuleues, Eumolpus, and + Triptolemus. Eumolpus being the Hierophant, or explainer of the + mysteries of Eleusis, made war against Erectheus, king of Athens. They + were both killed in battle, and it was thereupon agreed that the + posterity of Erectheus should be kings of Athens, and the descendants + of Eumolpus should, in future, retain the office of Hierophant. + + + + +BOOK THE SIXTH. + + +FABLE I. [VI.1-145] + + Arachne, vain-glorious of her ingenuity, challenges Minerva to a + contest of skill in her art. The Goddess accepts the challenge, and, + being enraged to see herself outdone, strikes her rival with her + shuttle; upon which, Arachne, in her distress, hangs herself. Minerva, + touched with compassion, transforms her into a spider. + +Tritonia had {meanwhile} lent an ear to such recitals as these, and she +approved of the songs of the Aonian maids, and their just resentment. +Then {thus she says} to herself: "To commend is but a trifling matter; +let us, too, deserve commendation, and let us not permit our divine +majesty to be slighted without {due} punishment." And {then} she turns +her mind to the fate of the Maeonian Arachne; who, as she had heard, did +not yield to her in the praises of the art of working in wool. She was +renowned not for the place {of her birth}, nor for the origin of her +family, but for her skill {alone}. Idmon, of Colophon,[1] her father, +used to dye the soaking wool in Phocaean[2] purple.[3] Her mother was +dead; but she, too, was of the lower rank, and of the same condition +with her husband. Yet {Arachne}, by her skill, had acquired a memorable +name throughout the cities of Lydia; although, born of a humble family, +she used to live in the little {town} of Hypaepae.[4] Often did the Nymphs +desert the vineyards of their own Tymolus, that they might look at her +admirable workmanship; {often} did the Nymphs of the {river} Pactolus[5] +forsake their streams. And not only did it give them pleasure to look at +the garments when made, but even, too, while they were being made, so +much grace was there in her working. Whether it was that she was rolling +the rough wool into its first balls, or whether she was unravelling the +work with her fingers, and was softening the fleeces worked over again +with long drawings out, equalling the mists {in their fineness}; or +whether she was moving the {smooth} round spindle with her nimble thumb, +or was embroidering with the needle, you might perceive that she had +been instructed by Pallas. + +This, however, she used to deny; and, being displeased with a mistress +so famed, she said, "Let her contend with me. There is nothing which, if +conquered, I should refuse {to endure}." Pallas personates an old woman; +she both places false gray hair on her temples, and supports as well her +infirm limbs by a staff. Then thus she begins to speak: "Old age has not +everything which we should avoid; experience comes from lengthened +years. Do not despise my advice; let the greatest fame for working wool +be sought by thee among mortals. {But} yield to the Goddess, and, rash +woman, ask pardon for thy speeches with suppliant voice. She will grant +pardon at my entreaty." {The other} beholds her with scowling {eyes}, +and leaves the threads she has begun; and scarcely restraining her hand, +and discovering her anger by her looks, with such words as these does +she reply to the disguised Pallas: "Thou comest {here} bereft of thy +understanding, and worn out with prolonged old age; and it is thy +misfortune to have lived too long. If thou hast any daughter-in-law, if +thou hast any daughter {of thy own}, let her listen to these remarks. +I have sufficient knowledge for myself in myself, and do not imagine +that thou hast availed anything by thy advice; my opinion is {still} the +same. Why does not she come herself? why does she decline this contest?" + +Then the Goddess says, "Lo! she is come;" and she casts aside the figure +of an old woman, and shows herself {as} Pallas. The Nymphs and the +Mygdonian[6] matrons venerate the Goddess. The virgin alone is not +daunted. But still she blushes, and a sudden flush marks her reluctant +features, and again it vanishes; {just} as the sky is wont to become +tinted with purple, when Aurora is first stirring, and after a short +time to grow white from the influence of the Sun. She persists in her +determination, and, from a desire for a foolish victory, she rushes upon +her own destruction. Nor, indeed, does the daughter of Jupiter decline +{it}, or advise her any further, nor does she now put off the contest. +There is no delay; they both take their stand in different places, and +stretch out two webs {on the loom} with a fine warp. The web is tied +around the beam; the sley separates the warp; the woof is inserted in +the middle with sharp shuttles, which the fingers hurry along, and being +drawn within the warp, the teeth notched in the moving sley strike it. +Both hasten on, and girding up their garments to their breasts, they +move their skilful arms, their eagerness beguiling their fatigue. There +both the purple is being woven, which is subjected to the Tyrian brazen +vessel,[7] and fine shades of minute difference; just as the rainbow, +with its mighty arch, is wont to tint a long tract of the sky by means +of the rays reflected by the shower: in which, though a thousand +different colors are shining, yet the very transition eludes the eyes +that look upon it; to such a degree is that which is adjacent the same; +and yet the extremes are different. There, too, the pliant gold is mixed +with the threads, and ancient subjects are represented on the webs. + +Pallas embroiders the rock of Mars[8] in {Athens}, the citadel of +Cecrops, and the old dispute about the name of the country. Twice six[9] +celestial Gods are sitting on lofty seats in august state, with Jupiter +in the midst. His own proper likeness distinguishes each of the Gods. +The form of Jupiter is that of a monarch. She makes the God of the sea +to be standing {there}, and to be striking the rugged rocks with his +long trident, and a wild {horse} to be springing forth[10] out of the +midst of the opening of the rock; by which pledge {of his favor} he lays +claim to the city. But to herself she gives the shield, she gives the +lance with its sharp point; she gives the helmet to her head, {and} her +breast is protected by the AEgis. She {there} represents, too, the earth +struck by her spear, producing a shoot of pale olive with its berries, +and the Gods admiring it. Victory is the end of her work. But that the +rival of her fame may learn from precedents what reward to expect for an +attempt so mad, she adds, in four {different} parts, four contests +bright in their coloring, and distinguished by diminutive figures. One +corner contains Thracian Rhodope and Haemus, now cold mountains, formerly +human bodies, who assumed to themselves the names of the supreme Gods. +Another part contains the wretched fate of the Pygmaean matron.[11] Her, +overcome in a contest, Juno commanded to be a crane, and to wage war +against her own people. She depicts, too, Antigone,[12] who once dared +to contend with the wife of the great Jupiter; {and} whom the royal Juno +changed into a bird; nor did Ilion protect her, or her father Laomedon, +from assuming wings, and {as} a white crane, from commending herself +with her chattering beak. The only corner that remains, represents the +bereft Cinyras;[13] and he, embracing the steps of a temple, {once} the +limbs of his own daughters, and lying upon the stone, appears to be +weeping. She surrounds the exterior borders with peaceful olive. That is +the close; and with her own tree she puts an end to the work. + +The Maeonian Nymph delineates Europa, deceived by the form of the bull; +and you would think it a real bull, and real sea. She herself seems to +be looking upon the land which she has left, and to be crying out to her +companions, and to be in dread of the touch of the dashing waters, and +to be drawing up her timid feet. She drew also Asterie,[14] seized by +the struggling eagle; and made Leda, reclining beneath the wings of the +swan. She added, how Jupiter, concealed under the form of a Satyr, +impregnated {Antiope},[15] the beauteous daughter of Nycteus, with a +twin offspring; {how} he was Amphitryon, when he beguiled thee, +Tirynthian[16] dame; how, turned to gold, he deceived Danae; {how}, +changed into fire, the daughter of Asopus;[17] {how}, as a shepherd, +Mnemosyne;[18] and as a speckled serpent, Deois.[19] She depicted thee +too, Neptune, changed into a fierce bull, with the virgin daughter[20] +of AEolus. Thou, seeming to be Enipeus,[21] didst beget the Aloidae; as a +ram, thou didst delude {Theophane}, the daughter of Bisaltis.[22] Thee +too the most bounteous mother of corn, with her yellow hair, +experienced[23] as a steed; thee, the mother[24] of the winged horse, +with her snaky locks, received as a bird; Melantho,[25] as a dolphin. To +all these did she give their own likeness, and the {real} appearance of +the {various} localities. There was Phoebus, under the form of a rustic; +and how, {besides}, he was wearing the wings of a hawk at one time, at +another the skin of a lion; how, too, as a shepherd, he deceived +Isse,[26] the daughter of Macareus. How Liber deceived Erigone,[27] in a +fictitious bunch of grapes; {and} how Saturn[28] begot the two-formed +Chiron, in {the form of} a horse. The extreme part of the web, being +enclosed in a fine border, had flowers interwoven with the twining ivy. + +Pallas could not blame that work, nor could Envy {censure} it. The +yellow-haired Virgin grieved at her success, and tore the web +embroidered with the criminal acts of the Gods of heaven. And as she was +holding her shuttle {made of boxwood} from Mount Cytorus, three or four +times did she strike the forehead of Arachne, the daughter of Idmon. The +unhappy creature could not endure it; and being of a high spirit, she +tied up her throat in a halter. Pallas, taking compassion, bore her up +as she hung; and thus she said: "Live on indeed, wicked one,[29] but +still hang; and let the same decree of punishment be pronounced against +thy race, and against thy latest posterity, that thou mayst not be free +from care in time to come." After that, as she departed, she sprinkled +her with the juices of an Hecatean herb;[30] and immediately her hair, +touched by the noxious drug, fell off, and together with it her nose and +ears. The head of herself, {now} small as well throughout her whole +body, becomes very small. Her slender fingers cleave to her sides as +legs; her belly takes possession of the rest {of her}; but out of this +she gives forth a thread; and {as} a spider, she works at her web as +formerly. + + [Footnote 1: _Colophon._--Ver. 8. Colophon was an opulent city of + Lydia, famous for an oracle of Apollo there.] + + [Footnote 2: _Phocaean._--Ver. 9. Phocaea was a city of AEolia, in + Ionia, on the shores of the Mediterranean, famous for its purple + dye.] + + [Footnote 3: _Purple._--Ver. 9. 'Murex' was a shell-fish, now + called 'the purple,' the juices of which were much used by the + ancients for dyeing a deep purple color. The most valuable kinds + were found near Tyre and Phocaea, mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 4: _Hypaepae._--Ver. 13. This was a little town of Lydia, + near the banks of the river Cayster. It was situate on the descent + of Mount Tymolus, or Tmolus, famed for its wines and saffron.] + + [Footnote 5: _Pactolus._--Ver. 16. This was a river of Lydia, + which was said to have sands of gold.] + + [Footnote 6: _Mygdonian._--Ver. 45. Mygdonia was a small territory + of Phrygia, bordering upon Lydia, and colonized by a people from + Thrace. Probably these persons had come from the neighboring + country, to see the exquisite works of Arachne. As the Poet tells + us, many were present when the Goddess discovered herself, and + professed their respect and veneration, while Arachne alone + remained unmoved.] + + [Footnote 7: _Brazen vessel._--Ver. 60. It seems that brazen + cauldrons were used for the purposes of dyeing, in preference to + those of iron.] + + [Footnote 8: _Rock of Mars._--Ver. 70. This was the spot called + Areiopagus, which was said to have received its name from the + trial there of Mars, when he was accused by Neptune of having + slain his son Halirrothius.] + + [Footnote 9: _Twice six._--Ver. 72. These were the 'Dii + consentes,' mentioned before, in the note to Book i., l. 172. They + are thus enumerated in an Elegiac couplet, more consistent with + the rules of prosody than the two lines there quoted:-- + + 'Vulcanus, Mars, Sol, Neptunus, Jupiter, Hermes, + Vesta, Diana, Ceres, Juno, Minerva, Venus.'] + + [Footnote 10: _To be springing forth._--Ver. 76-7. Clarke renders + 'facit--e vulnere saxi Exsiluisse ferum,' 'she makes a wild horse + bounce out of the opening in the rock.'] + + [Footnote 11: _Pygmaean matron._--Ver. 90. According to AElian, the + name of this queen of the Pigmies was Gerane, while other writers + call her Pygas. She was worshipped by her subjects as a Goddess, + which raised her to such a degree of conceit, that she despised + the worship of the Deities, especially of Juno and Diana, on which + in their indignation, they changed her into a crane, the most + active enemy of the Pygmies. These people were dwarfs, living + either in India, Arabia, or Thrace, and they were said not to + exceed a cubit in height.] + + [Footnote 12: _Antigone._--Ver. 93. She was the daughter of + Laomedon, king of Troy, and was remarkable for the extreme beauty + of her hair. Proud of this, she used to boast that she resembled + Juno; on which the Goddess, offended at her presumption, changed + her hair into serpents. In compassion, the Deities afterwards + transformed her into a stork.] + + [Footnote 13: _Cinyras._--Ver. 98. Cinyras had several daughters + (besides Myrrha), remarkable for their extreme beauty. Growing + insolent upon the strength of their good looks, and pretending to + surpass even Juno herself in beauty, they incurred the resentment + of that Goddess, who changed them into the steps of a temple, and + transformed their father into a stone, as he was embracing the + steps.] + + [Footnote 14: _Asterie._--Ver. 108. She was the daughter of Caeus, + the Titan, and of Phoebe, and was ravished by Jupiter under the + form of an eagle. She was the wife of Perses, and the mother of + Hecate. Flying from the wrath of Jupiter, she was first changed by + him into a quail; and afterwards into a stone.] + + [Footnote 15: _Antiope._--Ver. 110. Antiope was the daughter of + Nycteus, a king of Boeotia. Being seduced by Jupiter under the form + of a Satyr, she bore two sons, Zethus and Amphion. On being + insulted by Dirce, she was seized with madness, and was cured by + Phocus, whom she is said to have afterwards married.] + + [Footnote 16: _Tirynthian._--Ver. 112. Tirynthus was a city near + Argos, where Hercules was born and educated, and from which place + his mother, Alcmene, derived her present appellation.] + + [Footnote 17: _Daughter of Asopus._--Ver. 113. Jupiter changed + himself into fire, or, according to some, into an eagle, to seduce + AEgina, the daughter of Asopus, king of Boeotia. By her he was the + father of AEacus.] + + [Footnote 18: _Mnemosyne._--Ver. 114. This Nymph, as already + mentioned, became the mother of the Nine Muses, having been + seduced by Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 19: _Deois._--Ver. 114. Proserpine was called Deois, or + Deous +Deous kore+, from her mother Ceres, who was called +Deo+ by + the Greeks, from the verb +deo+, 'to find;' because as it was + said, when seeking for her daughter, the universal answer of those + who wished her success in her search, was, +deeis+, 'You will find + her.'] + + [Footnote 20: _Virgin daughter._--Ver. 116. This was Canace, or + Arne, the daughter of AEolus, whom Neptune seduced under the form + of a bull.] + + [Footnote 21: _Enipeus._--Ver. 116. Under the form of Enipeus, + a river of Thessaly, Neptune committed violence upon Iphimedeia, + the wife of the giant Aloeus, and by her was the father of the + giants Otus and Ephialtes.] + + [Footnote 22: _Bisaltis._--Ver. 117. Theophane was the daughter of + Bisaltis. Changing her into a sheep, and himself into a ram, + Neptune begot the Ram with the golden fleece, that bore Phryxus to + Colchis.] + + [Footnote 23: _Experienced._--Ver. 119. 'Te sensit,' repeated + twice in this line, Clarke translates, not in a very elegant + manner, 'had a bout with thee,' and 'had a touch from thee.' By + Neptune, Ceres became the mother of the horse Arion; or, according + to some, of a daughter, whose name it was not deemed lawful to + mention.] + + [Footnote 24: _Thee the mother._--Ver. 119. This was Medusa, who, + according to some, was the mother of the horse Pegasus, by + Neptune, though it is more generally said that it sprang from her + blood, when she was slain by Perseus.] + + [Footnote 25: _Melantho._--Ver. 120. Melantho was the daughter + either of Proteus, or of Deucalion, and was the mother of Delphus, + by Neptune.] + + [Footnote 26: _Isse._--Ver. 124. She was a native of either + Lesbos, or Euboea. Her father, Macareus, was the son of Jupiter and + Cyrene.] + + [Footnote 27: _Erigone._--Ver. 125. She was the daughter of + Icarus, and was placed among the Constellations.] + + [Footnote 28: _How Saturn._--Ver. 126. By Phillyra, Saturn was the + father of the Centaur Chiron. We may here remark, that Arachne was + not very complimentary to the Gods, in the choice of her subjects; + probably it was not her intention or wish to be so.] + + [Footnote 29: _Wicked one._--Ver. 136. Clarke translates + 'improba,' 'thou wicked jade.'] + + [Footnote 30: _An Hecatean Herb._--Ver. 139. This was aconite, or + wolfsbane, said to have been discovered by Hecate, the mother of + Medea. She was the first who sought after, and taught the + properties of poisonous herbs. Some accounts say, that the aconite + was produced from the foam of Cerberus, when dragged by Hercules + from the infernal regions.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The story of Arachne is most probably based upon the simple fact, that + she was the most skilful artist of her time, at working in silk and + wool. Pliny the Elder tells us, that Arachne, the daughter of Idmon, + a Lydian by birth, and of low extraction, invented the art of making + linen cloths and nets; which invention was also by some attributed to + Minerva. This competition, then, for the merit of the invention, is + the foundation of the challenge here described by the Poet. As, + however, Arachne is said to have hanged herself in despair, she + probably fell a prey to some cause of grief or discontent, the + particulars of which, in their simple form, have not come down to us. + Perhaps the similarity of her name and employment with those of the + spider, as known among the Greeks, gave rise to the story of her + alleged transformation; unless we should prefer to attribute the story + to the fact of the Hebrew word "arag," signifying to spin, and, in + some degree, resembling her name. + + In this story, Ovid takes the opportunity of touching upon several + fables, the subjects whereof he states to have been represented in the + works of Minerva and Arachne. He alludes, among other matters, to the + dispute between Neptune and Minerva, about giving a name to the city + of Athens. St. Augustine, on the authority of Varro, says, that + Cecrops, in building that city, found an olive tree and a fountain, + and that the oracle at Delphi, on being consulted, stating that both + Minerva and Neptune had a right to name the city, the Senate decided + in favor of the Goddess; and this circumstance, he says, gave rise to + the story. According to some writers, it was based on the fact, that + Cranaues changed the name of the city from Poseidonius, which it was + called after Neptune, to Athenae, after his own daughter Athena: and as + the Areiopagus sanctioned this change, it was fabled that Neptune had + been overcome by the judgment of the Gods. + + The Jesuit Tournemine suggests the following explanation of the + story:--He says, that the aborigines of Attica, being conquered by the + Pelasgians, learned from them the art of navigation, which they turned + to account by becoming pirates. Cecrops, bringing a colony from Sais, + in Egypt, tried to abolish this barbarous custom, and taught them a + more civilized mode of life; and, among other things, he showed them + how to till the earth, and to raise the olive, for the cultivation of + which he found the soil very favorable. He also introduced the worship + of Minerva, or Athena, as she was called, a Goddess highly honored at + Sais, and to whom the olive tree was dedicated. Her the Athenians + afterwards regarded as the patroness of their city, which they called + after her name. Athens becoming famous for its olives, and, + considerable profit arising from their cultivation, the new settlers + attempted to wean the natives from piracy, by calling their attention + to agricultural pursuits. To succeed in this, they composed a fable, + in which Neptune was said to be overcome by Minerva; who, even in the + judgment of the twelve greater deities, had found out something of + more utility than he. This fable Tournemine supposes to have been + composed in the ancient language of the country, which was the + Phrygian, mingled with many Phoenician words; and, as in those + languages the same word signifies either a ship or a horse, those who + afterwards interpreted the fable, took the word in the latter + signification, and spoke of a horse instead of a ship, which was + really the original emblem employed in the fiction. + + Vossius thinks that the fable originated in a dispute between the + sailors of Athens, who acknowledged Neptune for their chief, and the + people, who followed the Senate, governed by Minerva. The people + prevailed, and a life of civilization, marked by attention to the + pursuits of agriculture, was substituted for one of piracy; which gave + occasion for the saying, that Minerva had overcome Neptune. + + With reference to the intrigues and lustful actions attributed to the + various Deities by Arachne in the delineations on her embroidery, we + may here remark, by way of elucidating the origin of these stories in + general, that, in early times, when the earth was sunk in ignorance + and superstition, and might formed the only right in the heathen + world, where a king or petty chieftain demanded the daughter of a + neighbor in marriage, and met with a refusal, he immediately had + recourse to arms, to obtain her by force. Their standards and ships, + on these expeditions, carrying their ensigns, consisting of birds, + beasts, or fabulous monsters, gave occasion to those who described + their feats of prowess to say, that the ravisher had changed himself + into a bull, an eagle, or a lion, for the purpose of effecting his + object. The kings and potentates of those days, being frequently + called Jupiter, Apollo, Neptune, etc., and the priests of the Gods so + named often obtaining their ends by assuming the names of the + Divinities they served, we can account the more easily for the number + of intrigues and abominable actions, attended by changes and + transformations, which the poets and mythologists attribute to many of + the Deities. + + Palaephatus suggests a very ingenious method of accounting for these + stories; founded, however, it must be owned, on a very low estimate of + female virtue in those times. He says, that these fabulous narratives + originate in the figures of different animals which were engraved on + the coins of those times; and that, when money was given to buy over + or to procure the seduction of a female, it was afterward said that + the lover had himself taken the figure which was represented on the + coin, by means of which his object had been effected. + + Ovid, in common with many of the ancient historians, geographers, and + naturalists, mentions the Pygmies, of which, from the time of Homer + downwards, a nation was supposed to exist, in a state of continual + warfare with the Cranes. Aristotle, who believed in their existence, + placed them in AEthiopia; Pliny, Solinus, and Philostratus in India, + near the source of the Ganges; others again, in Scythia, on the banks + of the Danube. Some of the moderns have attempted to explain the + origin of this prevalent notion. Olaues Magnus thinks the Samoeids and + Laplanders to have been the Pygmies of Homer. Gesner and others fancy + that they have found their originals in Thuringia; while Albertus + Magnus supposed that the Pygmies were the monkeys, which are so + numerous in the interior of Africa, and which were taken for human + beings of diminutive stature. Vander Hart, who has written a most + ingenious treatise on the subject, suggests that the fable originated + in a war between two cities in Greece, Pagae and Gerania, the + similarity of whose names to those of the Pygmies and the Cranes, gave + occasion to their neighbors, the Corinthians, to confer on them those + nicknames. It is most probable, however, that the story was founded + upon the diminutive stature of some of the native tribes of the + interior of Africa. + + As to the fable of Pygas being changed into a crane, Banier suggests, + that the origin of it may be found in the work of Antoninus Liberalis, + quoting from the Theogony of Boeus. That poet, whose works are lost, + says, that among the Pygmies there was a very beautiful princess, + named Oenoe, who greatly oppressed her subjects. Having married + Nicodamas, she had by him a son, named Mopsus, whom her subjects + seized upon, to educate him in their own way. She accordingly raised + levies against her own subjects; and that circumstance, together with + the name of Gerane, which, according to AElian, she also bore, gave + rise to the fable, which said that she was changed into a crane; the + resemblance which it bore to 'geranos,' the Greek for 'a crane,' + suggesting the foundation of the story. + + +FABLE II. [VI.146-312] + + The Theban matrons, forming a solemn procession in honor of Latona, + Niobe esteems herself superior to the Goddess, and treats her and her + offspring with contempt; on which, Apollo and Diana, to avenge the + affront offered to their mother, destroy all the children of Niobe; + and she, herself, is changed into a statue. + +All Lydia is in an uproar, and the rumor of the fact goes through the +town of Phrygia, and fills the wide world with discourse {thereon}. +Before her own marriage Niobe had known her,[31] at the time, when still +single, she was inhabiting Maeonia and Sipylus.[32] And yet by the +punishment of her countrywoman, Arachne, she was not warned to yield to +the inhabitants of Heaven, and to use less boastful words. Many things +augmented her pride; but yet, neither the skill of her husband, nor the +descent of them both, nor the sovereignty of a mighty kingdom, pleased +her so much (although all of them did please her) as her own progeny; +and Niobe might have been pronounced the happiest of mothers, if she had +not so seemed to herself. + +For Manto, the daughter of Tiresias, foreknowing the future, urged by a +divine impulse, had proclaimed through the middle of the streets, "Ye +women of Ismenus, go all of you,[33] and give to Latona, and the two +children of Latona, the pious frankincense, together with prayers, and +wreathe your hair with laurel; by my mouth does Latona command {this}." +Obedience is paid; and all the Theban women adorn their temples with +leaves {of laurel}, as commanded, and offer frankincense on the sacred +fires, and words of supplication. Lo! Niobe comes, surrounded with a +crowd of attendants, conspicuous for the gold interwoven in her Phrygian +garments, and beautiful, so far as anger will allow; and tossing her +hair, hanging down on both shoulders, with her graceful head, she stands +still; and as she loftily casts around her haughty eyes, she says, "What +madness is this to prefer the inhabitants of Heaven, that you have +{only} heard of, to those who are seen? or why is Latona worshipped at +the altars, {and} my Godhead is still without its {due} frankincense? +Tantalus was my father, who alone was allowed to approach the tables of +the Gods above. The sister of the Pleiades[34] is my mother; the most +mighty Atlas is my grandsire, who bears the aethereal skies upon his +neck. Jupiter is my other grandsire; of him, too, I boast as my +father-in-law.[35] The Phrygian nations dread me; the palace of Cadmus +is subject to me as its mistress; and the walls that were formed by the +strings of my husband's {lyre}, together with their people, are governed +by me and my husband; to whatever part of the house I turn my eyes, +immense wealth is seen. To this is added a face worthy of a Goddess. Add +to this my seven daughters,[36] and as many sons, and, at a future day, +sons-in-law and daughters-in-law. Now inquire what ground my pride has +{for its existence}; and presume to prefer Latona the Titaness, the +daughter of some obscure Caeus, to whom, when in travail,[37] the great +earth once refused a little spot, to myself. Neither by heaven, nor by +earth, nor by water, was your Goddess received; she was banished the +world, till Delos, pitying the wanderer, said, "Thou dost roam a +stranger on the land, I in the waves;" and gave her an unstable place +{of rest}. She was made the mother of two children, that is {but} the +seventh part of my issue. I am fortunate, and who shall deny it? and +fortunate I shall remain; who, too, can doubt of that? Plenty has made +me secure; I am too great for Fortune possibly to hurt; and, though she +should take away many things from me, {even then} much more will she +leave me: my {many} blessings have now risen superior to apprehensions. +Suppose it possible for some part of this multitude of my children to be +taken away {from me}; still, thus stripped, I shall not be reduced to +two, the number of Latona; an amount, by the number of which, how far, +{I pray}, is she removed from one that is childless? Go from the +sacrifice; hasten away from the sacrifice, and remove the laurel from +your hair!" + +They remove it, and the sacrifice they leave unperformed; and what they +can do, they adore the Divinity in gentle murmurs. The Goddess was +indignant; and on the highest top of {Mount} Cynthus, she spoke to her +two children in such words as these: "Behold! I, your mother, proud of +having borne you, and who shall yield to no one of the Goddesses, except +to Juno {alone}, am called in question whether I am a Goddess, and, for +all future ages, I am driven from the altars devoted {to me}, unless you +give me aid. Nor is this my only grief; the daughter of Tantalus has +added abusive language to her shocking deeds, and has dared to postpone +you to her own children, and (what {I wish} may fall upon herself), she +has called me childless; and the profane {wretch} has discovered a +tongue like her father's."[38] To this relation Latona was going to add +entreaties, when Phoebus said, "Cease thy complaints, 'tis prolonging the +delay of her punishment." Phoebe said the same; and, by a speedy descent +through the air, they arrived, covered with clouds, at the citadel of +Cadmus. + +There was near the walls a plain, level, and extending far and wide, +trampled continually by horses, where multitudes of wheels and hard +hoofs had softened the clods placed beneath them. There, part of the +seven sons of Amphion are mounting upon their spirited steeds, and press +their backs, red with the Tyrian dye, and wield the reins heavy with +gold; of these, Ismenus, who had formerly been the first burden of his +mother, while he is guiding the steps of the horses in a perfect circle, +and is curbing their foaming mouths, cries aloud, "Ah, wretched me!" +and, pierced through the middle of his breast, bears a dart {therein}; +and the reins dropping from his dying hand, by degrees he falls on his +side, over {the horse's} shoulder. The next {to him}, Sipylus, on +hearing the sound of a quiver in the air, gives rein[39] {to his horse}; +as when the pilot, sensible of the storm {approaching}, flies on seeing +a cloud, and unfurls the hanging sails on every side, that the light +breeze may by no means escape them. He gives rein, {I said}; while thus +giving it, the unerring dart overtakes him, and an arrow sticks +quivering in the top of his neck, and the bare steel protrudes from his +throat. He, as he is bending forward, rolls over the neck, {now} let +loose, and {over} the mane, and stains the ground with his warm blood. +The unhappy Phaedimus, and Tantalus, the heir to the name of his +grandsire, when they had put an end to their wonted exercise {of +riding}, had turned to the youthful exercises of the palaestra, glowing +with oil;[40] and now had they brought[41] breast to breast, struggling +in a close grapple, when an arrow, sped onward from the stretched bow, +pierced them both, just as they were united together. At the same +instant they groaned aloud, and together they laid their limbs on the +ground, writhing with pain; together as they lay, for the last time, +they rolled their eyeballs, and together they breathed forth their life. + +Alphenor sees this, and, beating his torn breast, flies to them, to lift +up their cold limbs in his embrace, and falls in this affectionate duty. +For the Delian God pierces the inner part of his midriff with the fatal +steel. Soon as it is pulled out, a part of his lungs is dragged forth on +the barbs, and his blood is poured forth, with his life, into the air; +but no single wound reaches the unshaven Damasicthon. He is struck where +the leg commences, and where the sinewy ham makes the space between the +joints soft; and while he is trying with his hand to draw out the fatal +weapon, another arrow is driven through his neck, up to the feathers. +The blood drives this out, and itself starting forth, springs up on +high, and, piercing the air, spouts forth afar. The last {of them}, +Ilioneus, had raised his unavailing arms in prayer, and had said, +"O, all ye Gods, in common, (not knowing that all were not to be +addressed) spare me!" The {God}, the bearer of the bow, was moved, when +now his arrow could not be recalled; yet he died with the slightest +wound {of all}, his heart not being struck deep by the arrow. + +The report of this calamity, and the grief of the people, and the tears +of her family, made the mother acquainted with a calamity so sudden, +wondering that it could have happened, and enraged that the Gods above +had dared this, {and} that they enjoyed a privilege so great. For +Amphion the father, thrusting his sword through his breast, dying, had +ended his grief together with his life. Alas! how different is this +Niobe from that Niobe who had lately driven the people from the altars +of Latona, and, with lofty head, had directed her steps through the +midst of the city, envied by her own people, but now to be pitied even +by an enemy! She falls down upon the cold bodies, and with no +distinction she distributes her last kisses among all her sons. Raising +her livid arms from these towards heaven, she says, "Glut thyself, cruel +Latona, with my sorrow; glut thyself, and satiate thy breast with my +mourning; satiate, too, thy relentless heart with seven deaths. I have +received my death-blow;[42] exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But +why victorious? More remains to me, in my misery, than to thee, in thy +happiness. Even after so many deaths, I am the conqueror." {Thus} she +spoke; {when} the string twanged from the bent bow, which affrighted all +but Niobe alone; she {became} bold by her misfortunes. + +The sisters were standing in black array, with their hair dishevelled, +before the biers[43] of their brothers. One of these, drawing out the +weapon sticking in her entrails, about to die, swooned away, with her +face placed upon her brother. Another, endeavoring to console her +wretched parent, was suddenly silent, and was doubled together with an +invisible wound; and did not close her mouth, until after the breath had +departed. Another, vainly flying, falls down; another dies upon her +sister; another lies hid; another you might see trembling. And {now} six +being put to death, and having received different wounds, the last +{only} remains; her mother covering her with all her body, {and} with +all her garments, cries, "Leave me but one, and that the youngest; the +youngest only do I ask out of so many, and {that but} one." And while +she was entreating, she, for whom she was entreating, was slain. +Childless, she sat down among her dead sons and daughters and husband, +and became hardened by her woes. The breeze moves no hair {of hers}; in +her features is a color without blood; her eyes stand unmoved in her sad +cheeks; in her form there is no {appearance} of life. Her tongue itself, +too, congeals within, together with her hardened palate, and the veins +cease to be able to be moved. Her neck can neither be bent, nor can her +arms give any motion, nor her feet move. Within her entrails, too, it is +stone. + +Still did she weep on; and, enveloped in a hurricane of mighty wind, she +was borne away to her native land. There, fixed on the top of a +mountain,[44] she dissolves; and even yet does the marble distil tears. + + [Footnote 31: _Had known her._--Ver. 148. This was the more + likely, as Tantalus, the father of Niobe, was king of both Phrygia + and Lydia.] + + [Footnote 32: _Sipylus._--Ver. 149. This was the name of both a + city and a mountain of Lydia.] + + [Footnote 33: _Go all of you._--Ver. 159. Clarke renders the words + 'Ismenides, ite frequentes,' 'Go, ye Theban ladies in general.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Sister of the Pleiades._--Ver. 174. Taygete, one of + the Pleiades, was the mother of Niobe.] + + [Footnote 35: _As my father-in-law._--Ver. 176. Because Jupiter + was the father of her husband, Amphion.] + + [Footnote 36: _Seven daughters._--Ver. 182. Tzetzes enumerates + fourteen daughters of Niobe, and gives their names.] + + [Footnote 37: _When in travail._--Ver. 187. She alludes to the + occasion on which Latona fled from the serpent Python, which Juno, + in her jealousy, had sent against her; and when Delos, which had + hitherto been a floating island, became immovable, for the + convenience of Latona, in labor with Apollo and Diana. That island + was said to have received its name from the Greek, +delos+, + 'manifest,' or 'appearing,' from having risen to the surface of + the sea on that occasion.] + + [Footnote 38: _Like her father's._--Ver. 213. Latona alludes to + one of the crimes of Tantalus, the father of Niobe, who was + accused of having indiscreetly divulged the secrets of the Gods.] + + [Footnote 39: _Gives rein._--Ver. 230. This was done with the + intention of making his escape.] + + [Footnote 40: _Glowing with oil._--Ver. 241. Clarke renders this + line, 'Were gone to the juvenile work of neat wrestling.' It would + be hard to say what 'neat' wrestling is. He seems not to have + known, that the 'Palaestra' was called 'nitida,' as shining with + the oil which the wrestlers used for making their limbs supple, + and the more difficult for their antagonist to grasp. Juvenal + gives the epithet 'ceromaticum' to the neck of the athlete, or + wrestler, which word means 'rubbed with wrestler's oil.'] + + [Footnote 41: _Now had they brought._--Ver. 243-4. Clarke thus + translates 'Et jam contulerant arcto luctantia nexu Pectora + pectoribus;' 'And now they had clapped breast to breast, + struggling in a close hug.'] + + [Footnote 42: _I have received my death-blow._--Ver. 283. + 'Efferor' literally means, 'I am carried out.' 'Effero' was the + term used to signify the carrying of the body out of the city + walls, for the purposes of burial.] + + [Footnote 43: _Before the biers._--Ver. 289. The body of the + deceased person was in ancient times laid out on a bed of the + ordinary kind, with a pillow for supporting the head and back; + among the Romans, it was placed in the vestibule of the house, + with its feet towards the door, and was dressed in the best robe + which the deceased had worn when alive. Among the better classes, + the body was borne to the place of burial, or the funeral pile, on + a couch, which was called 'feretrum,' or 'capulus.' This was + sometimes made of ivory, and covered with gold and purple.] + + [Footnote 44: _Top of a mountain._--Ver. 311. This was Mount + Sipylus, in Boeotia, which, as we learn from Pausanias, had on its + summit a rock, which, at a distance, strongly resembled a female + in an attitude of sorrow. This resemblance is said to exist even + at the present day.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + All the ancient historians agree with Diodorus Siculus and + Apollodorus, that Niobe was the daughter of Tantalus, and the sister + of Pelops; but she must not be confounded with a second Niobe, who was + the daughter of Phoroneus, and the first mortal (Homer tells us) with + whom Jupiter fell in love. Homer says that she was the mother of + twelve children, six sons and six daughters. Herodotus says, that she + had but two sons and three daughters. Diodorus Siculus makes her the + mother of fourteen children, seven of each sex. Apollodorus, on the + authority of Hesiod, says, that she had ten sons and as many + daughters; but gives the names of fourteen only. The story of the + destruction of her children is most likely based upon truth, and bears + reference to a historical fact. The plague, which ravaged the city of + Thebes, destroyed all the children of Niobe; and contagious distempers + being attributed to the excessive heat of the sun, it was fabled that + Apollo had killed them with his arrows; while women, who died of the + plague, were said to owe their death to the anger of Diana. Thus, + Homer says, that Laodamia and the mother of Andromache were killed by + Diana. Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie, the wife of + Cyzicus, on the death of her mother, killed by the same Goddess; so + the Scholiast on Pindar (Pythia, ode iii.) says, on the authority of + Pherecydes, that Apollo sent Diana to kill Coronis and several other + women. Eustathius distinctly asserts, that the poets attributed the + deaths of men, who died of the plague, to Apollo; and those of women, + dying a similar death, to Diana. + + This supposition is based upon rational and just grounds; since many + contagious distempers may be clearly traced to the exhalations of the + earth, acted on by the intense heat of the sun. Homer, most probably, + means this, when he says that the plague came upon the Grecian camp, + on the God, in his anger, discharging his arrows against it; or, in + other words, when the extreme heat of his rays had caused a corruption + of the atmosphere. It may be here observed, that arrows were the + symbol of Apollo, when angry, and the harp when he was propitious. + Diogenes Laertius tells us, that, during the prevalence of the plague, + it was the custom to place branches of laurel on the doors of the + houses, in the hope that the God, being reminded of Daphne, would + spare the places which thereby claimed his protection. + + Ovid says, that the sons of Niobe were killed while managing their + horses; but Pausanias tells us that they died on Mount Cithaeron, while + engaged in hunting, and that her daughters died at Thebes. Homer says, + that her children remained nine days without burial, because the Gods + changed the Thebans into stones, and that the offended Divinities + themselves performed the funeral rites on the tenth day; the meaning + probably, is, that, they dying of the plague, no one ventured to bury + them, and all seemed insensible to the sorrows of Niobe, as each + consulted his own safety. Ismenus, her eldest son, not being able to + endure the pain of his malady, is said to have thrown himself into a + river of Boeotia, which, from that circumstance, received his name. + After the death of her husband and children, Niobe is said to have + retired to Mount Sipylus, in Lydia, where she died. Here, as Pausanias + informs us, was a rock, resembling, at a distance, a woman overwhelmed + with grief; though according to the same author, who had visited it, + the resemblance could not be traced on approaching it. On this ground, + Ovid relates, that she was borne on a whirlwind to the top of a Lydian + mountain, where she was changed into a rock. + + Pausanias tells us, that Meliboea, or Chloris, and Amycle, two of her + daughters, appeased Diana, who preserved their lives; or that, in + other words, they recovered from the plague; though he inclines to + credit the version of Homer, who says that all of her children died by + the hands of Apollo and Diana. Meliboea received the surname of + Chloris, from the paleness which ensued on her alarm at the sudden + death of her sisters. + + +FABLE III. [VI.313-381] + + Latona, fatigued with the burden of her two children, during a long + journey, and parched with thirst, goes to drink at a pond, near which + some countrymen are at work. These clowns, in a brutal manner, not + only hinder her from drinking, but trouble the water to make it muddy; + on which, the Goddess, to punish their brutality, transforms them into + frogs. + +But then, all, both women and men, dread the wrath of the divinity, +{thus} manifested, and with more zeal {than ever} all venerate with +{divine} worship the great godhead of the Deity who produced the twins; +and, as {commonly} happens, from a recent fact they recur to the +narration of former events. + +One of them says, "Some countrymen of old, in the fields of fertile +Lycia, {once} insulted the Goddess, {but} not with impunity. The thing, +indeed, is but little known, through the obscure station of the +individuals, still it is wonderful. I have seen upon the spot, the pool +and the lake noted for the miracle. For my father being now advanced in +years, and incapable of travel, ordered me to bring thence some choice +oxen, and on my setting out, had given me a guide of that nation: with +whom, while I was traversing the pastures, behold! an ancient altar, +black with the ashes of sacrifices, was standing in the middle of a +lake, surrounded with quivering reeds. My guide stood still, and said in +a timid whisper, 'Be propitious to me;' and with a like whisper, I said, +'Be propitious.' However, I asked him whether it was an altar of the +Naiads, or of Faunus, or of some native God; when the stranger answered +me in such words; 'Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this +altar. She calls this her own, whom once the royal Juno banished from +the world; whom the wandering Delos, at the time when it was swimming as +a light island, hardly received at her entreaties. There Latona, leaning +against a palm, together with the tree of Pallas, brought forth twins, +in spite of their stepmother {Juno}. Hence, too, the newly delivered +{Goddess} is said to have fled from Juno, and in her bosom to have +carried the two divinities, her children. And now the Goddess, wearied +with her prolonged toil, being parched with the heat of the season, +contracted thirst in the country of Lycia, which bred the Chimaera[45] +when the intense sun was scorching the fields; the craving children, +too, had exhausted her suckling breasts. By chance she beheld a lake[46] +of fine water, in the bottom of a valley; some countrymen were there, +gathering bushy osiers, together with bulrushes, and sedge natural to +fenny spots. The Titaness approached, and bending her knee, she pressed +the ground, that she might take up the cool water to drink; the company +of rustics forbade it. The Goddess thus addressed them, as they forbade +her: 'Why do you deny me water? The use of water is common {to all}. +Nature has made neither sun, nor air, nor the running stream, the +property of any one. To her public bounty have I come, which yet I +humbly beg of you to grant me. I was not intending to bathe my limbs +here, and my wearied joints, but to relieve my thirst. My mouth, as I +speak, lacks moisture, and my jaws are parched, and scarce is there a +passage for my voice therein; a draught of water will be nectar to me, +and I shall own, that, together with it, I have received my life {at +your hands}. In {that} water you will be giving me life. Let these, too, +move you, who hold out their little arms from my bosom'; and by chance +the children were holding out their arms. + +"What person might not these kindly words of the Goddess have been able +to influence? Still, they persist in hindering {the Goddess thus} +entreating them; and moreover add threats and abusive language, if she +does not retire to a distance. Nor is this enough. They likewise muddy +the lake itself {with} their feet and hands; and they raise the soft mud +from the very bottom of the water, by spitefully jumping to and fro. +Resentment removes her thirst. For now no longer does the daughter of +Caeus supplicate the unworthy {wretches}, nor does she any longer endure +to utter words below {the majesty of} a Goddess; and raising her hands +to heaven, she says, 'For ever may you live in that pool.' The wish of +the Goddess comes to pass. They delight to go beneath the water, and +sometimes to plunge the whole of their limbs in the deep pool; now to +raise their heads, and now to swim on the top of the water; oft to sit +on the bank of the pool, {and} often to leap back again into the cold +stream. And even now do they exercise their offensive tongues in strife: +and banishing {all} shame, although they are beneath the water, {still} +beneath the water,[47] do they try to keep up their abuse. Their voice, +too, is now hoarse, and their bloated necks swell out; and their very +abuse dilates their extended jaws. Their backs are united to their +heads: their necks seem as though cut off; their backbone is green; +their belly, the greatest part of their body, is white; and {as} +new-made frogs, they leap about in the muddy stream." + + [Footnote 45: _The Chimaera._--Ver. 339. The Chimaera, according to + the poets, was a monster having the head of a lion, the body of a + goat, and the tail of a dragon. It seems, however, that it was + nothing more than a volcanic mountain of Lycia, in Asia Minor, + whence there were occasional eruptions of flame. The top of it was + frequented by lions; the middle afforded plentiful pasture for + goats; and towards the bottom, being rocky, and full of caverns, + it was infested by vast numbers of serpents, that harbored there.] + + [Footnote 46: _Beheld a lake._--Ver. 343. Probus, in his + Commentary on the Second Book of the Georgics, says that the name + of the spring was Mela, and that of the shepherd who so churlishly + repulsed Latona, was Neocles. Antoninus Liberalis says, that the + name of the stream was Melites, and that Latona required the water + for the purpose of bathing her children. He further tells us, that + on being repulsed, she carried her children to the river Xanthus, + and returning thence, hurled stones at the peasants, and changed + them into frogs.] + + [Footnote 47: _Beneath the water._--Ver. 376. Some commentators + are so fanciful as to say, that the repetition of the words 'sub + aqua,' in the line 'Quamvis sint sub aqua, sub aqua, maledicere + tentant,' not inelegantly [non ineleganter] expresses the croaking + noise of the frogs. A man's fancy must, indeed, be exuberant to + find any such resemblance; more so, indeed, than that of + Aristophanes, who makes his frogs say, by way of chorus, + 'brekekekekex koaex koaex.' Possibly, however, that might have been + the Attic dialect among frogs.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This story may possibly be based upon some current tradition of Latona + having been subjected to such cruel treatment from some country + clowns; or, which is more probable, it may have been originally + invented as a satire on the rude manners and uncouth conduct of the + peasantry of ancient times. The story may also have been framed, to + account, in a poetical manner, for the origin of frogs. + + +FABLE IV. [VI.382-411] + + The Satyr Marsyas, having challenged Apollo to a trial of skill on the + flute, the God overcomes him, and then flays him alive for his + presumption. The tears that are shed on the occasion of his death + produce the river that bears his name. + +When thus one, who, it is uncertain, had related the destruction of +{these} men of the Lycian race, another remembers {that of} the +Satyr;[48] whom, overcome {in playing} on the Tritonian reed, the son of +Latona visited with punishment. "Why," said he, "art thou tearing me +from myself? Alas! I {now} repent; alas," cried he, "the flute is not of +so much value!" As he shrieked aloud, his skin was stript[49] off from +the surface of his limbs, nor was he aught but {one entire} wound. Blood +is flowing on every side; the nerves, exposed, appear, and the quivering +veins throb without any skin. You might have numbered his palpitating +bowels, and the transparent lungs within his breast. The inhabitants of +the country, the Fauns, Deities of the woods, and his brothers the +Satyrs, and Olympus,[50] even then renowned, and the Nymphs lamented +him; and whoever {besides} on those mountains was feeding the +wool-bearing flocks, and the horned herds. + +The fruitful earth was moistened, and being moistened received the +falling tears, and drank them up in her lowest veins, which, when she +had turned into a stream, she sent forth into the vacant air. And then, +as the clearest river in Phrygia, running towards the rapid sea within +steep banks, it bears the name of Marsyas. + +From narratives such as these the people return at once to the present +events, and mourn Amphion extinct together with {all} his race. The +mother is {an object} of hatred. Yet {her brother} Pelops is said alone +to have mourned for her as well; and after he had drawn his clothes from +his shoulder towards his breast, he discovered the ivory on his left +shoulder. This shoulder, at the time of his birth, was of the same color +with the right one, and {was} formed of flesh. They say that the Gods +afterwards joined his limbs cut asunder by the hands of his father; and +the rest of them being found, that part which is midway between the +throat and the top of the arm, was wanting. Ivory was inserted there, in +the place of the part that did not appear; and so by that means Pelops +was made entire. + + [Footnote 48: _The Satyr._--Ver. 382. Herodotus tells this story + of the Satyr Marsyas, under the name of Silenus. Fulgentius + informs us, that in paintings, Marsyas was represented with the + tail of a pig.] + + [Footnote 49: _His skin was stript._--Ver. 387. Apollo fastened + him to a pine-tree, or, according to Pliny the Elder, + a plane-tree, which was to be seen even in his day. The skin was + afterwards suspended by Apollo in the city of Celenae. Hyginus + says, that Apollo hewed Marsyas to pieces. The description here of + the flaying is, perhaps, very natural; but it is all the more + disgusting for being so. A commentator justly says, that it might + suit a Roman, whose eyes were familiar with bloodshed, much better + than the taste of the reader of modern times.] + + [Footnote 50: _Olympus._--Ver. 393. He was a Satyr, the brother + and pupil of Marsyas. Pausanias describes a picture, painted by + Polygnotus, in which Olympus was represented as sitting by + Marsyas, clad as a youth, and learning to play on the flute. + Euripides, in the Iphigenia in Aulis (l. 576) says that Olympus + discovered some new measures for the 'tibia,' or flute. From + Hyginus we learn, that Apollo delivered to him the body of Marsyas + for burial.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Marsyas was the son of Hyagnis, the inventor of a peculiar kind of + flute, and of the Phrygian measure. Livy and Quintus Curtius tell us, + that the story of Apollo and Marsyas is an allegory; and that the + river Marsyas gave rise to it. They say that the river, falling from a + precipice, in the neighborhood of the town of Celenae, in Phrygia, made + a very stunning and unpleasant noise; but that the smoothness of its + course afterwards gave occasion for the saying, that the vengeance of + Apollo had rendered it more tractable. + + It is, however, not improbable that the story may have been based on + historical facts. Having learned from his father, Hyagnis, the art of + playing on the flute, and, proud of his skill, at a time when the + musical art was yet in its infancy, Marsyas may have been rash enough + to challenge either a priest of Apollo, or some prince who bore that + name, and, for his presumption, to have received the punishment + described by Ovid. Herodotus certainly credited the story; for he says + that the skin of the unfortunate musician was to be seen, in his time, + in the town of Celenae. Strabo, Pausanias, and Aulus Gellius also + believe its truth. Suidas tells us, that Marsyas, mortified at his + defeat, threw himself into the river that runs near Celenae, which, + from that time, bore his name. Strabo says, that Marsyas had stolen + the flute from Minerva, which proved so fatal to him, and had thereby + drawn upon himself the indignation of that Divinity. Ovid, in the + Sixth Book of the Fasti, and Pausanias, quoting from Apollodorus, tell + us, that Minerva, having observed, by seeing herself in the river + Meander, that, when she played on the flute, her cheeks were swelled + out in an unseemly manner, threw aside the flute in her disgust, and + Marsyas finding it, learned to play on it so skilfully, that he + challenged Apollo to a trial of proficiency. Hyginus, in his 165th + Fable, says that Marsyas was the son of Oeagrius, and not Hyagnis; + perhaps, however, this is a corrupt reading. + + +FABLE V. [VI.412-586] + + Tereus, king of Thrace, having married Progne, the daughter of + Pandion, king of Athens, falls in love with her sister Philomela, whom + he ravishes, and then, having cut out her tongue, he shuts her up in a + strong place in a forest, to prevent a discovery. The unfortunate + Philomela finds means to acquaint her sister with her misfortunes; + for, weaving her story on a piece of cloth, she sends it to Progne by + the hands of one of her keepers. + +The neighboring princes met together; and the cities that were near, +entreated their kings to go to console {Pelops, namely}, Argos and +Sparta, and the Pelopean Mycenae, and Calydon,[51] not yet odious to the +stern Diana, and fierce Orchomeneus, and Corinth famous for its +brass,[52] and fertile Messene, and Patrae, and humble Cleonae,[53] and +the Neleian Pylos, and Troezen not yet named from Pittheus;[54] and other +cities which are enclosed by the Isthmus between the two seas, and those +which, situated beyond, are seen from the Isthmus between the two seas. +Who could have believed it? You, Athens, alone omitted it. A war +prevented this act of humanity; and barbarous troops[55] brought +{thither} by sea, were alarming the Mopsopian walls. The Thracian Tereus +had routed these by his auxiliary forces, and by his conquest had +acquired an illustrious name. Him, powerful both in riches and men, and, +as it happened, deriving his descent from the mighty Gradivus, Pandion +united to himself, by the marriage of {his daughter} Progne. + +Neither Juno, the guardian of marriage rites, nor yet Hymeneus, nor the +Graces,[56] attended those nuptials. {On that occasion}, the Furies +brandished torches, snatched from the funeral pile. The Furies prepared +the nuptial couch, and the ill-boding owl hovered over the abode, and +sat on the roof of the bridal chamber. With these omens were Progne and +Tereus wedded; with these omens were they made parents. Thrace, indeed, +congratulated them, and they themselves returned thanks to the Gods, and +they commanded the day, upon which the daughter of Pandion was given to +the renowned prince, and that upon which Itys was born, to be considered +as festivals. So much does our true interest lie concealed {from us}. +Now Titan had drawn the seasons of the repeated year through five +autumns, when Progne, in gentle accents, said to her husband, "If I have +any influence {with thee}, either send me to see my sister, or let my +sister come hither. Thou shalt promise thy father-in-law that she shall +return in a short time. As good as a mighty God {wilt thou be} to me, if +thou shalt allow me to see my sister." + +He {thereupon} ordered ships to be launched;[57] and with sails and oars +he entered the Cecropian harbor, and landed upon the shores of the +Piraeus.[58] As soon as ever an opportunity was given of {addressing} his +father-in-law, and right hand was joined to right hand, with evil omen +their discourse began. He had commenced to relate the occasion of his +coming, {and} the request of his wife, and to promise a speedy return +for {Philomela, if} sent. {When} lo! Philomela comes, richly adorned in +costly apparel; richer {by far} in her charms; such as we hear {of} the +Naiads and Dryads {as they} haunt the middle of the forests, if you were +only to give them the like ornaments and dress. Tereus was inflamed upon +seeing the virgin, no otherwise than if one were to put fire beneath the +whitening ears of corn, or were to burn leaves and {dry} grass laid up +in stacks. Her beauty, indeed, is worthy {of love}; but inbred lust, as +well, urges him on, and the people in those regions are {naturally} much +inclined to lustfulness. He burns, both by his own frailty and that of +his nation. He has a desire to corrupt the care of her attendants, and +the fidelity of her nurse, and {besides}, to tempt herself with large +presents, and to spend his whole kingdom {in so doing}; or else, to +seize her, and, when seized, to secure her by a cruel war. And there is +nothing which, being seized by an unbridled passion, he may not dare; +nor does his breast contain the internal flame. And now he ill bears +with delay; and with eager mouth returns to {urge} the request of +Progne, and under it he pleads his own wishes; passion makes him +eloquent. As oft as he presses beyond what is becoming, he pretends +that Progne has thus desired. He adds tears as well, as though she had +enjoined them too. O ye Gods above, how much of dark night do the +breasts of mortals contain! Through his very attempt at villany, Tereus +is thought to be affectionate, and from his crime does he gather praise. + +And how is it, too, that Philomela desires the same thing? and fondly +embracing the shoulders of her father with her arms, she begs, even by +her own safety (and against it too), that she may visit her sister. +Tereus views her, and, while viewing her, is embracing her beforehand in +imagination; and, as he beholds her kisses, and her arms around {her +father's} neck, he receives them all as incentives, and fuel, and the +food of his furious passion; and, as often as she embraces her father, +he could wish to be {that} father, and, even then, he would have been +not the less impious. The father is overcome by the entreaties of them +both. She rejoices, and returns thanks to her parent, and, to her +misfortune, deems that the success of both, which will be the cause of +sorrow to them both. Now but little of his toil was remaining for +Phoebus, and his steeds were beating with their feet the descending track +of Olympus; a regal banquet was set on the tables, and wine in golden +{vessels}; after this, their bodies were given up to gentle sleep. But +the Odrysian king,[59] though he was withdrawn, still burned for her; +and, recalling her form, her movements, her hands, fancies that which he +has not yet seen, to be such as he wishes; and he himself feeds his own +flames, his anxiety preventing sleep. + +It was {now} day; and Pandion, grasping the right hand of his +son-in-law, about to depart, with tears bursting forth, recommended his +companion {to his care}. "I commit her, my dear son-in-law, to thee, +because reasons, grounded on affection, have compelled me, and both {my +daughters} have desired it, and thou as well, Tereus, hast wished it; +and I entreat thee, begging by thy honor, by thy breast {thus} allied to +us, {and} by the Gods above, to protect her with the love of a father; +and do send back to me, as soon as possible, this sweet comfort of my +anxious old age, {for} all delay will be tedious to me, and do thou, +too, Philomela, if thou hast any affection for me, return as soon as +possible: 'tis enough that thy sister is so far away." {Thus} did he +enjoin, and at the same time he gave kisses to his daughter, and his +affectionate tears fell amid his instructions. He {then} demanded the +right hands of them both, as a pledge of their fidelity, and joined them +together when given, and bade them, with mindful lips, to salute for him +his absent daughter and grandson, and with difficulty[60] uttered the +last farewell, his mouth being filled with sobs; and he shuddered at the +presages of his own mind. But as soon as Philomela was put on board of +the painted ship, and the sea was urged by the oars, and the land was +left behind, he exclaimed, "I have gained my point; the object of my +desires is borne along with me." The barbarian exults, too, and with +difficulty defers his joy in his intention, and turns not his eyes +anywhere away from her. No otherwise than when the ravenous bird of +Jupiter, with crooked talons, has placed a hare in his lofty nest; there +is no escape for the captive; the plunderer keeps his eye on his prey. +And now the voyage is ended, and now they have gone forth from the +wearied ship, upon his own shore; when the king drags the daughter of +Pandion into a lofty dwelling, concealed in an ancient wood, and there +he shuts her up, pale and trembling, and dreading everything, and now +with tears inquiring where her sister is; and confessing his baseness, +he masters by force her a maiden, and but one, while she often vainly +calls on her father, often on her sister, and on the great Gods above +all. She trembles like a frightened lamb, which, wounded, being snatched +from the mouth of a hoary wolf, does not as yet seem to itself in +safety; and as a dove, its feathers soaked with its own blood, still +trembles, and dreads the ravening talons wherein it has been {lately} +held. {But} soon, when consciousness returned, tearing her dishevelled +hair like one mourning, and beating her arms in lamentation, stretching +out her hands, she said, "Oh, barbarous {wretch}, for thy dreadful +deeds; oh, cruel {monster}! have neither the requests of my father, with +his affectionate tears, moved thee, nor a regard for my sister, nor my +virgin state, nor the laws of marriage? Thou hast confounded all. I am +become the supplanter of my sister; thou, the husband of both of us. +This punishment was not my due. Why dost thou not take away this life, +that no villany, perfidious {wretch}, may remain {unperpetrated} by +thee? and would that thou hadst done it before thy criminal embraces! +{then} I might have had a shade void of {all} crime. Yet, if the Gods +above behold these things, if the majesty of the Gods be anything; if, +with myself, all things are not come to ruin; one time or other thou +shalt give me satisfaction. I myself, having cast shame aside, will +declare thy deeds. If opportunity is granted me, I will come among the +people; if I shall be kept imprisoned in the woods, I will fill the +woods, and will move the conscious rocks. Let Heaven hear these things, +and the Gods, if there are any in it." + +After the wrath of the cruel tyrant was aroused by such words, and his +fear was not less than it, urged on by either cause, he drew the sword, +with which he was girt, from the sheath, and seizing her by the hair, +her arms being bent behind her back, he compelled her to submit to +chains. Philomela was preparing her throat, and, on seeing the sword, +had conceived hopes of her death. He cut away, with his cruel weapon, +her tongue seized with pincers, while giving vent to her indignation, +and constantly calling on the name of her father, and struggling to +speak. The extreme root of the tongue {still} quivers. {The tongue} +itself lies, and faintly murmurs, quivering upon the black earth; and as +the tail of a mangled snake is wont to writhe about, {so} does it throb, +and, as it dies, seeks the feet of its owner. It is said, too, that +often after this crime (I could hardly dare believe it) he satisfied his +lust upon her mutilated body. + +He has the effrontery, after such deeds, to return to Progne, who, on +seeing her husband, inquires for her sister; but he heaves feigned +sighs, and tells a fictitious story of her death; and his tears procure +him credit. Progne tears from her shoulders her robes, shining with +broad gold, and puts on black garments, and erects an honorary +sepulchre, and offers expiation to an imaginary shade; and laments the +death of a sister not thus to be lamented. + +The God {Apollo}, the year being completed, had run through the twice +six signs {of the Zodiac}. What can Philomela do? A guard prevents her +flight; the walls of the house are hard, built of solid stone: her +speechless mouth is deprived of the means of discovering the crime. But +in grief there is extreme ingenuity, and inventive skill arises in +misfortunes. She skilfully suspends the warp in a web of Barbarian +design,[61] and interweaves purple marks with white, as a mode of +discovering the villany {of Tereus}; and delivers it, when finished, to +one {of her attendants}, and begs her, by signs, to carry it to her +mistress. As desired, she carries it to Progne, and does not know what +she is delivering in it. The wife of the savage tyrant unfolds the web, +and reads the mournful tale[62] of her sister, and (wondrous that she +can be so!) she is silent. 'Tis grief that stops her utterance, and +words sufficiently indignant fail her tongue, in want of them; nor is +there room for weeping. But she rushes onward, about to confound both +right and wrong, and is wholly {occupied} in the contrivance of revenge. + + [Footnote 51: _Calydon._--Ver. 415. This was a city of AEtolia, + which derived its name from Calydon, the son of Endymion. Diana, + being incensed against Oeneus, its king, because he omitted her + when offering the first fruits to the other Deities, sent an + immense boar to ravage its fields, which was slain by Meleager. + Ovid recounts these circumstances in the eighth book of the + Metamorphoses. Argos, Sparta, and Mycenae, are also included in one + line, by Homer, as having been under the particular tutelage of + Juno.] + + [Footnote 52: _Famous for its brass._--Ver. 416. According to some + writers, the Corinthian brass became famous after the fall of + Corinth, when it was taken and burnt by the Consul Mummius. On + that occasion, they say, that from the immense number of statues + melted in the conflagration, a stream of metal poured through the + streets, consisting of melted gold, silver, and copper; in which, + of course, the latter would be predominant. If that was the ground + on which the Corinthian brass was so much commended, Ovid is here + guilty of an anachronism.] + + [Footnote 53: _Cleonae._--Ver. 417. This was a little town, situate + between Argos and Corinth. It is called 'humilis,' not from its + situation, but from the small number of its inhabitants. Patrae was + a city of Achaia.] + + [Footnote 54: _Pittheus._--Ver. 418. He was the uncle of Theseus; + and was (after the time here mentioned) the king of Troezen, in + Peloponnesus.] + + [Footnote 55: _Barbarous troops._--Ver. 423. Some suggest that it + is here meant that Attica was invaded by the Amazons at this time; + and they rely on a passage of Justin in support of the position. + The story is, however, very improbable.] + + [Footnote 56: _The Graces._--Ver. 429. The Graces, who were the + attendants of Venus, were three in number, Aglaia, Thalia, and + Euphrosyne.] + + [Footnote 57: _To be launched._--Ver. 445. The ships were launched + into the sea by means of rollers placed beneath them, from which + circumstance they were said 'deduci,' 'to be led down.'] + + [Footnote 58: _Shores of the Piraeus._--Ver. 446. The Piraeus was + the arsenal and the harbor of the Athenians, and owed its + magnificence to the vast conceptions of Themistocles.] + + [Footnote 59: _The Odrysian king._--Ver. 490. Tereus is thus + called, from the Odrysae, a people of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 60: _With difficulty._--Ver. 510. Clarke translates + 'vix,' 'with much ado.'] + + [Footnote 61: _Barbarian design._--Ver. 576. Probably of a + Phrygian design.] + + [Footnote 62: _The mournful tale._--Ver. 582. This line is + translated by Clarke, 'And reads the miserable ditty of her + sister.'] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The gravest authors among the ancients, such as Strabo and Pausanias, + speaking of this tragical story, agree that the narrative, divested of + its poetical ornaments, is strictly conformable to truth; though, of + course, the sequel bears evident marks of embellishment either by the + fancy of the Poet, or the superstition of the vulgar. + + +FABLE VI. [VI.587-676] + + Progne delivers her sister Philomela from captivity, and brings her to + the court of Tereus, where she revolves in her mind her different + projects of revenge. Her son Itys, in the meantime, comes into her + apartment, and is murdered by his mother and aunt. Progne afterwards + serves him up at a feast, which she prepares for her husband; on + which, being obliged to fly from the fury of the enraged king, she is + changed into a swallow, Philomela into a nightingale, and Tereus + himself into a lapwing. + +It is {now} the time[63] when the Sithonian[64] matrons are wont to +celebrate the triennial festival of Bacchus. Night is conscious of their +rites; by night Rhodope resounds with the tinklings of the shrill +cymbal. By night the queen goes out of her house, and is arrayed +according to the rites of the God, and carries the arms of the frantic +solemnity. Her head is covered with vine leaves; from her left side hang +down the skins of a deer;[65] upon her shoulder rests a light spear. +{Then} the terrible Progne rushing through the woods, a multitude of her +followers attending her, and agitated by the fury of her resentment, +pretends, Bacchus, that it is {inspired} by thee. + +She comes at length to the lonely dwelling, and howls aloud, and cries +"Evoe!" and breaks open the gates, and seizes her sister, and puts upon +her, {so} seized, the badges of Bacchus, and conceals her countenance +under the foliage of ivy; and dragging her along, full of amazement, +leads her within her threshold. When Philomela perceives that she has +arrived at that accursed house,[66] the wretched woman shudders, and +paleness spreads over her whole face. Progne having {now} got a +{fitting} place {for so doing}, takes away the symbols of the rites,[67] +and unveils the blushing face of her wretched sister; and holds her in +her embraces. But she, on the other hand, cannot endure to lift up her +eyes; seeming to herself the supplanter of her sister, and fixing her +looks on the ground, her hand is in the place of voice to her, as she +desires to swear and to call the Gods to witness that this disgrace has +been brought upon her by violence. Progne burns {with rage}, and +contains not her anger; and checking the grief of her sister, she says, +"We must not act in this matter with tears, but with the sword, {and +even} with anything, if {such} thou hast, that can possibly outdo the +sword. I have, sister, prepared myself for every crime! Either, when I +shall have set fire to the royal palace with torches, I will throw the +artful Tereus into the midst of the flames, or with the steel will I cut +away his tongue or his eyes, or the members that have deprived thee of +thy chastity, or by a thousand wounds will I expel his guilty soul {from +his body}. Something tremendous am I prepared for; what it is, I am +still in doubt." + +While Progne was uttering such expressions, Itys came to his mother. By +him she was put in mind of what she might do; and looking at him with +vengeful eyes, she said, "Ah! how like thou art to thy father!" And +saying no more, she prepared for a horrible deed, and burned with silent +rage. Yet when her son came to her, and saluted his mother and drew her +neck {towards him} with his little arms, and added kisses mingled with +childish endearments, the mother, in truth, was moved, and her anger +abated, and her eyes, in spite of her, became wet with tears {thus} +forced {from her}. But soon as she found the mother {in her} shrinking +from excess of affection, from him again did she turn towards the +features of her sister; and looking at them both by turns, she said, +"Why does the one employ endearments, {while} the other is silent with +her tongue torn from her? Why does she not call her sister, whom he +calls mother? Consider to what kind of husband thou art married, +daughter of Pandion. Thou dost grow degenerate. Tenderness in the wife +of Tereus is criminality." No {more} delay {is there}; she drags Itys +along, just as the tigress of the banks of the Ganges {does} the +suckling offspring of the hind, through the shady forests. And when they +are come to a remote part of the lofty house, Progne strikes[68] him +with the sword, extending his hands, and as he beholds his fate, crying +now "Alas!" and now "My mother!" and clinging to her neck, where his +breast joins his side; nor does she turn away her face. Even one wound +{alone} is sufficient for his death; Philomela cuts his throat with the +sword; and they mangle his limbs, still quivering and retaining somewhat +of life. Part of them boils,[69] in the hollow cauldrons; part hisses on +spits; the inmost recesses stream with gore. His wife sets Tereus, in +his unconsciousness, before this banquet; and falsely pretending rites +after the manner of her country, at which it is allowed one man only to +be present, she removes his attendants and servants. Tereus himself, +sitting aloft on the throne of his forefathers, eats and heaps his own +entrails into his own stomach. And so great is the blindness of his +mind, {that} he says, "Send for Itys." Progne is unable to conceal her +cruel joy; and now, desirous to be the discoverer of her having murdered +him, she says, "Thou hast within {thee}, that for which thou art +asking." He looks around, and inquires where he is; as he inquires, and +calls him again, Philomela springs forth, just as she is, with her hair +disordered by the infernal murder, and throws the bloody head of Itys in +the face of his father; nor at any time has she more longed to be able +to speak, and to testify her joy by words such as are deserved. + +The Thracian pushes from him the table with a loud cry, and summons the +Viperous sisters[70] from the Stygian valley; and at one moment he +desires, if he {only} can, by opening his breast to discharge thence the +horrid repast, and the half-digested entrails. And then he weeps, and +pronounces himself the wretched sepulchre of his own son; and then he +follows the daughters of Pandion with his drawn sword. You would have +thought the bodies of the Cecropian[71] Nymphs were supported by wings; +{and} they were supported by wings. The one of them makes for the woods, +the other takes her place beneath the roofs {of houses}. Nor {even} as +yet have the marks of murder withdrawn from her breast; and her feathers +are {still} stained with blood. He, made swift by his grief, and his +desire for revenge, is turned into a bird, upon whose head stands a +crested {plume}; a prolonged bill projects in place of the long spear. +The name of the bird is 'epops' [{lapwing}]; its face appears to be +armed. This affliction dispatched Pandion to the shades of Tartarus +before his day, and the late period of protracted old age. + + [Footnote 63: _Now the time._--Ver. 587. This was the festival of + Bacchus, before mentioned as being celebrated every three years, + in memory of his Indian expedition.] + + [Footnote 64: _Sithonian._--Ver. 588. Sithonia was a region of + Thrace, which lay between Mount Haemus and the Euxine sea. The + word, however, is often used to signify the whole of Thrace.] + + [Footnote 65: _Skins of a deer._--Ver. 593. These were the + 'nebrides,' or skins of fawns and deer, which the Bacchanals wore + when celebrating the orgies. The lance mentioned here was, no + doubt, the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 66: _That accursed house._--Ver. 601. Clarke translates + this line, 'As soon as Philomela perceived she had got into the + wicked rogue's house.'] + + [Footnote 67: _Symbols of the rites._--Ver. 603. These were the + ivy, the deer-skins, and the thyrsus.] + + [Footnote 68: _Progne strikes._--Ver. 641. 'Ense ferit Progne' is + translated by Clarke, 'Progne strikes with the sword poor Itys.'] + + [Footnote 69: _Part of them boils._--Ver. 645-6. Clarke gives this + comical translation: 'Then part of them bounces about in hollow + kettles; part hisses upon spits; the parlor runs down with gore.'] + + [Footnote 70: _Viperous sisters._--Ver. 662. Tereus invokes the + Furies, who are thus called from having their hair wreathed with + serpents. Clarke translates, 'ingenti clamore,' in line 661, 'with + a huge cry.'] + + [Footnote 71: _Cecropian._--Ver. 667. The Cecropian or Athenian + Nymphs are Progne and Philomela, the daughters of Pandion, king of + Athens.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + By the symbolical changes of Philomela, Progne, and Tereus, those who + framed this termination of the story intended to depict the different + characters of the persons whose actions are there represented. As the + lapwing delights in filth and impurity, the ancients thereby portrayed + the unscrupulous character of Tereus; and, as the flight of that bird + is but slow, it shows that he was not able to overtake his wife and + her sister. The nightingale, concealed in the woods and thickets, + seems there to be concealing her misfortunes and sorrows; and the + swallow, which frequents the abodes of man, shows the restlessness of + Progne, who seeks in vain for her son, whom, in her frantic fit, she + has so barbarously murdered. + + Anacreon and Apollodorus, however, reverse the story, saying that + Philomela was changed into a swallow, and Progne into a nightingale. + This event is said by some writers to have happened not in Thrace, but + at Daulis, a town of Phocis, where Tereus is supposed to have gone to + settle. Pausanias tells us, that the tomb of Tereus was to be seen + near Athens, so that it is probable that he died at a distance from + Thrace, his native country. Homer alludes to the story of Philomela in + somewhat different terms; speaking of the grounds of the grief of + Penelope, he says, that 'she made her complaints to be heard like the + inconsolable Philomela, the daughter of Pandarus, always hidden among + the leaves and branches of trees. When the Spring arrives, she makes + her voice echo through the woods, and laments her dear Itylus, whom + she killed by an unhappy mistake; varying, in her continued plaints, + the mournful melody of her notes.' By this, Homer seems to have known + nothing of Tereus or of Progne, and to have followed a tradition, + which was to the following effect:--Pandarus had three daughters, + AEdon, Mecrope, and Cleothera. AEdon, the eldest, was married to Zethus, + the brother of Amphion, by whom she had one son, who was named Itylus. + Envying the more numerous family of Niobe, her sister-in-law, she + resolved to despatch the eldest of her nephews; and, as her son was + brought up with his cousin, and was his bedfellow, she bade him change + his place in the bed, on the night on which she intended to commit the + crime. Itylus forgot her commands, and consequently his mother killed + him by mistake for her nephew. + + +FABLE VII. [VI.677-721] + + Boreas, not obtaining the consent of Erectheus, king of Athens, for + the marriage of his daughter, Orithyia, takes that princess in his + arms, and carries her away into Thrace. By her he has two sons, Calais + and Zethes, who have wings, like their father, and afterwards embark + with Jason in search of the Golden Fleece. + +Erectheus[72] received the sceptre of {that} country, and the government +of the state; it is a matter of doubt whether he was more powerful +through his justice, or by his mighty arms. He had, indeed, begotten +four sons, and as many of the female sex: but the beauty of two {of +them} was equal. Of these, Cephalus,[73] the son of AEolus, was blessed +with thee, Procris, for his wife; Tereus and the Thracians were an +obstacle to Boreas; and long was {that} God without his much-loved +Orithyia, while he was entreating, and choosing rather to use prayers +than force. But when nothing was effected by blandishments, terrible +with that rage which is his wont, and but too natural with that wind, he +said, "And {this is} deservedly {done}; for why did I relinquish my own +weapons, my violence, my strength, my anger, and my threatening spirit, +and turn to prayers, the employment of which ill becomes me? Violence is +suitable for me; by violence do I dispel the lowering clouds, by +violence do I arouse the seas, and overthrow the knotted oaks, and +harden the snow, and beat the earth with hail. I too, when I have met +with my brothers in the open air (for that is {peculiarly} my field), +struggle with efforts so great, that the intermediate sky thunders again +with our onset, and fires flash, struck forth from the hollow clouds. +I too, when I have descended into the hollow recesses of the earth, and +in my rage have placed my back against its lowest depths, disturb the +shades below, and the whole globe with earthquakes. By these means +should I have sought this alliance; and Erectheus ought not to have been +entreated {to be} my father-in-law, but made so by force." + +Boreas, having said these words, or some not less high-sounding than +these, shakes his wings, by the motion of which all the earth is fanned, +and the wide sea becomes ruffled; and the lover, drawing his dusty +mantle over the high tops {of mountains}, sweeps the ground, and, wrapt +in darkness, embraces with his tawny wings Orithyia, as she trembles +with fear. As she flies, his flame, being agitated, burns more fiercely. +Nor does the ravisher check the reins of his airy course, before he +reaches the people and the walls of the Ciconians.[74] There, too, is +the Actaean damsel made the wife of the cold sovereign, and {afterwards} +a mother, bringing forth twins at a birth, who have the wings of their +father, the rest {like} their mother. Yet they say that these {wings} +were not produced together with their bodies; and while their long +beard, with its yellow hair, was away, the boys Calais and Zethes were +without feathers. {But} soon after, at once wings began to enclose both +their sides, after the manner of birds, and at once their cheeks {began} +to grow yellow {with down}. When, therefore, the boyish season of youth +was passed, they sought,[75] with the Minyae, along the sea {before} +unmoved,[76] in the first ship {that existed}, the fleece that glittered +with shining hair {of gold}. + + [Footnote 72: _Erectheus._--Ver. 677. This personage really was + king of Athens before Pandion, the father of Progne and Philomela, + and not after him, as Ovid here states; at least, such is the + account given by Pausanias and Eusebius: the order of succession + being Actaeus, Cecrops, Cranaues, Amphictyon, Erecthonius, Pandion, + Erectheus, Cecrops II., Pandion II., AEgeus, Theseus.] + + [Footnote 73: _Cephalus._--Ver. 681. He was the son of Deioneus, + and the grandson of AEolus. According to some writers, he was the + son of Mercury; in and the Art of Love (Book iii. l. 725) he is + called 'Cyllenia proles.' Strabo says that he was the son-in-law + of Deioneus. His story is related at length in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._--Ver. 710. The Cicones were a + people of Thrace, living near Mount Ismarus, and the Bistonian + lake.] + + [Footnote 75: _They sought._--Ver. 720. This was the fleece of the + ram that carried Phryxus along the Hellespont to Colchis, which is + mentioned again in the next Book.] + + [Footnote 76: _Before unmoved._--Ver. 721. This passage may mean + that that part of the sea had not been navigated before; though + many of the poets assert that the Argo was the first ship that was + ever built. It is more probable that it was the first vessel that + was ever fitted out as a ship of war.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Plato tells us that the story of the rape of Orithyia is but an + allegory, which signifies that, by accident, she was blown by the wind + into the sea, where she was drowned. Apollodorus and Pausanias, + however, assert that this story is based on historical facts, and that + Boreas, king of Thrace, seized Orithyia, the daughter of Erectheus, + king of Athens, and sister of Procris, as she was passing the river + Ilissus, and carried her into his dominions, where she became the + mother of twins, Calais and Zethes. In the Argonautic expedition, + these chiefs delivered Phineus, the king of Bithynia, from the + persecution of the Harpies, which were in the habit of snatching away + the victuals served up at his table. + + + + +BOOK THE SEVENTH. + + +FABLE I. [VII.1-158] + + Jason, after having met with various adventures, arrives with the + Argonauts in Colchis, and demands the Golden Fleece. Medea falls in + love with Jason, and by the power of her enchantments preserves him + from the dangers he has to encounter in obtaining it. He obtains the + prize, and carrying off Medea, returns in triumph to Thessaly. + +And now the Minyae[1] were ploughing the sea in the Pagasaean ship;[2] and +Phineus prolonging a needy old age under perpetual night, had been +visited, and the youthful sons of the North wind had driven the birds +with the faces of virgins from {before} the mouth of the distressed old +man;[3] and having suffered many things under the famous Jason, had +reached at length the rapid waters of the muddy Phasis. + +And while they go to the king, and ask the fleece that once belonged to +Phryxus, and conditions are offered them, dreadful for the number of +mighty labors; in the meantime, the daughter of AEetes[4] conceives a +violent flame; and having long struggled {against it}, after she is +unable to conquer her frenzy by reason, she says: "In vain, Medea, dost +thou resist; some God, who, I know not, is opposing thee. It is a wonder +too, if it is not this, or at least something like this, which is called +'love.' For why do the commands of my father appear too rigid for me? +and yet too rigid they are. Why am I in dread, lest he whom I have seen +{but} so lately, should perish? What is the cause of alarm so great? +Banish the flames conceived in thy virgin breast, if thou canst, unhappy +{creature}. If I could, I would be more rational. But a new power draws +me on, against my will; and Cupid persuades one thing, reason another. +I see which is the more proper {course}, and I approve of it, {while} I +follow the wrong one. Why, royal maiden, art thou burning for a +stranger, and why coveting the nuptial ties of a strange country? This +land, too, may give thee something which thou mayst love. Whether he +shall live, or whether die, is in {the disposal of} the Gods. Yet he may +survive; and that I may pray for, even without love. For what {fault} +has Jason committed? Whom, but one of hard heart, would not the +{youthful} age of Jason affect? his descent too, and his valor? Whom, +though these other points were wanting, would not his beauty move? at +least, he has moved my breast. But unless I shall give him aid, he will +be breathed upon by the mouths of the bulls; and will engage with his +own {kindred} crops, an enemy sprung from the earth; or he will be given +as a cruel prey to the ravenous dragon. If I allow this, then I will +confess that I was born of a tigress; then, {too}, that I carry steel +and stone in my heart. Why do I not as well behold him perish? Why not, +too, profane my eyes by seeing it? Why do I not stimulate the bulls +against him, and the fierce sons of the earth, and the never-sleeping +dragon? May the Gods award better things. And yet these things are not +to be prayed for, but must be effected by myself. Shall I {then} betray +the kingdom of my father? and by my aid shall some stranger, I know not +who, be saved; that being delivered by my means, he may spread his sails +to the winds without me, and be the husband of another; and I, Medea, be +left for punishment? If he can do this, and if he is capable of +preferring another to me, let him perish in his ingratitude. But not +such is his countenance, not such that nobleness of soul, that +gracefulness of person, that I should fear treachery, and forgetfulness +of what I deserve. Besides, he shall first pledge his faith, and I will +oblige the Gods to be witnesses of our compact. What then dost thou +dread, {thus} secure? Haste {then},[5] and banish {all} delay. Jason +will ever be indebted to thee for his preservation; thee will he unite +to himself in the rites of marriage, and throughout the Pelasgian +cities[6] thou wilt be celebrated by crowds of matrons, as the preserver +{of their sons}. And shall I then, borne away by the winds, leave my +sister[7] and my brother,[8] and my father, and my Gods, and my native +soil? My father is cruel, forsooth; my country, too, is barbarous;[9] my +brother is still {but} an infant; the wishes of my sister are in my +favor. The greatest of the Gods is in possession of me. I shall not be +relinquishing anything great; I shall be pursuing what is great; the +credit of saving the youth of Greece,[10] acquaintance with a better +country, and cities, whose fame is flourishing even here, and the +politeness and the arts of their inhabitants; and the son of AEson, whom +I could be ready to take in exchange for {all} the things that the whole +world contains; with whom for my husband I shall both be deemed dear to +the Gods, and shall reach the stars with my head. Why say that I know +not what mountains[11] are reported to arise in the midst of the waves, +and that Charybdis, an enemy to ships, one while sucks in the sea, at +another discharges it; and how that Scylla, begirt with furious dogs, is +said to bark in the Sicilian deep? Yet holding him whom I love, and +clinging to the bosom of Jason, I shall be borne over the wide seas; +embracing him, naught will I dread; or if I fear anything, for my +husband alone will I fear. And dost thou, Medea, call this a marriage, +and dost thou give a plausible name to thy criminality? Do but consider +how great an offence thou art meditating, and, while {still} thou mayst, +fly from guilt." + +{Thus} she said, and before her eyes stood Virtue, Affection, and +Modesty; and now Cupid turned his vanquished back. She was going to the +ancient altars of Hecate,[12] the daughter of Perses, which a shady +grove and the recesses of a wood concealed. And now she was resolved, +and her passion being checked, had subsided; when she beheld the son of +AEson, and the extinguished flame revived. Her cheeks were covered with +blushes, and her whole face was suffused with a glow. As a spark is wont +to derive nourishment from the winds, which, but small when it lay +concealed beneath the ashes cast over it, {is wont} to increase, and +aroused, to rise again to its original strength, so her love, now +declining, which you would suppose was now growing languid, when she +beheld the youth, was rekindled with the appearance of him before her +eyes. And by chance, on that day, the son of AEson was more beauteous +than usual. You might forgive her loving him. She gazes; and keeps her +eyes fixed upon his countenance, as though but now seen for the first +time; and in her frenzy she thinks she does not behold the face of a +mortal; nor does she turn away from him. But when the stranger began to +speak, and seized her right hand, and begged her assistance with a +humble voice, and promised her marriage; she said, with tears running +down, "I see what I ought to do; and it will not be ignorance of the +truth, but love that beguiles me. By my agency thou shalt be saved; when +saved, grant what thou hast promised." + +He swears by the rites of the Goddess of the triple form, and the Deity +which is in that grove, and by the sire[13] of his future father-in-law, +who beholds all things, and by his own adventures, and by dangers so +great. Being believed {by her}, he immediately received some enchanted +herbs, and thoroughly learned the use of them, and went away rejoicing +to his abode. The next morning had {now} dispersed the twinkling stars, +{when} the people repaired to the sacred field of Mavors, and ranged +themselves on the hills. In the midst of the assembly sat the king +himself, arrayed in purple, and distinguished by a sceptre of ivory. +Behold! the brazen-footed bulls breathe forth flames[14] from their +adamantine nostrils; and the grass touched by the vapors is on fire. And +as the forges filled {with fire} are wont to roar, or when flints[15] +dissolved in an earthen furnace receive intense heat by the sprinkling +of flowing water; so do their breasts rolling forth the flames enclosed +within, and their scorched throats, resound. Yet the son of AEson goes +forth to meet them. The fierce {bulls} turn their terrible features, and +their horns pointed with iron, towards his face as he advances, and with +cloven hoofs they spurn the dusty ground, and fill the place with +lowings, that send forth clouds of smoke. The Minyae are frozen with +horror. He comes up, and feels not the flames breathed forth by them, so +great is the power of the incantations. He even strokes their hanging +dewlaps with a bold right hand, and, subjected to the yoke, he obliges +them to draw the heavy weight of a plough, and to turn up with the share +the plain {till now} unused to it.[16] + +The Colchians are astonished; the Minyae fill {the air} with their +shouts, and give him {fresh} courage. Then in a brazen helmet he takes +the dragon's teeth,[17] and strews them over the ploughed up fields. The +ground, impregnated beforehand with a potent drug, softens the seed; and +the teeth that were sown grow up, and become new bodies. And as the +infant receives the human form in the womb of the mother, and is there +formed in all its parts, and comes not forth into the common air until +at maturity, so when the figure of man is ripened in the bowels of the +pregnant earth, it arises in the fruitful plain; and, what is still more +surprising, it brandishes arms produced at the same time. When the +Pelasgians saw them preparing to hurl their spears with sharp points at +the head of the Haemonian youth, they lowered their countenances and +their courage, {quailing} with fear. She, too, became alarmed, who had +rendered him secure; and when she saw the youth, being but one, attacked +by so many enemies, she turned pale, and suddenly chilled {with fear}, +sat down without blood {in her cheeks}. And, lest the herbs that had +been given by her, should avail him but little, she repeats an auxiliary +charm, and summons {to her aid} her secret arts. He, hurling a heavy +stone into the midst of his enemies, turns the warfare, now averted from +himself, upon themselves. The Earth-born brothers perish by mutual +wounds, and fall in civil fight. The Greeks congratulate him, and caress +the conqueror, and cling to him in hearty embraces. And thou too, +barbarian maiden, wouldst fain have embraced him; 'twas modesty that +opposed the design; otherwise thou wouldst have embraced him; but regard +for thy reputation restrained thee from doing so. What thou mayst do, +{thou dost do}; thou rejoicest with a silent affection, and thou givest +thanks to thy charms, and to the Gods, the authors of them. + +It {still} remains to lay asleep with herbs the watchful dragon, who, +distinguished by his crest and his three tongues, and terrible with his +hooked teeth, is the keeper of the Golden Fleece. After he has sprinkled +him with herbs of Lethaean juice,[18] and has thrice repeated words that +cause placid slumbers, which {would even calm} the boisterous ocean, +{and} which would stop the rapid rivers, sleep creeps upon the eyes that +were strangers to it, and the hero, the son of AEson, gains the gold; and +proud of the spoil and bearing with him the giver of the prize as a +second spoil, he arrives victorious, with his wife, at the port of +Iolcos.[19] + + [Footnote 1: _The Minyae._--Ver. 1. The Argonauts. The Minyae were a + people of Thessaly, so called from Minyas, the son of Orchomenus.] + + [Footnote 2: _Pagasaean ship._--Ver. 1. Pagasae was a seaport of + Thessaly, at the foot of Mount Pelion, where the ship Argo was + built.] + + [Footnote 3: _Distressed old man._--Ver. 4. Clarke translates + 'miseri senis ore,' 'from the mouth of the miserable old fellow.'] + + [Footnote 4: _Daughter of AEetes._--Ver. 9. Medea was the daughter + of AEetes, the king of Colchis. Juno, favoring Jason, had persuaded + Venus to inspire Medea with love for him.] + + [Footnote 5: _Haste then._--Ver. 47. Clarke translates + 'accingere,' more literally than elegantly, 'buckle to.'] + + [Footnote 6: _Pelasgian cities._--Ver. 49. Pelasgia was properly + that part of Greece which was afterwards called Thessaly. The + province of Pelasgiotis, in Thessaly, afterwards retained its + name, which was derived from the Pelasgi, an early people of + Greece. Pliny informs us that Peloponnesus at first had the names + of 'Apia' and 'Pelasgia.' Some suppose that the Pelasgi derived + their name from Pelasgus, the son of Jupiter; while other writers + assert that they were so called from +pelargoi+, 'storks,' from + their wandering habits. The name is frequently used, as in the + present instance, to signify the whole of the Greeks.] + + [Footnote 7: _My sister._--Ver. 51. Her sister was Chalciope, who + had married Phryxus, after his arrival in Colchis. Her children + being found by Jason, in the isle of Dia, they came with him to + Colchis, and presented him to their mother, who afterwards + commended him to the care of Medea.] + + [Footnote 8: _And my brother._--Ver. 51. Her brother was Absyrtus, + whose tragical death is afterwards mentioned.] + + [Footnote 9: _Is barbarous._--Ver. 53. It was certainly 'barbara' + in the eyes of a Greek; but the argument sounds rather oddly in + the mouth of Medea, herself a native of the country.] + + [Footnote 10: _The youth of Greece._--Ver. 56. These were the + Argonauts, who were selected from the most noble youths of + Greece.] + + [Footnote 11: _What mountains._--Ver. 63. These were the Cyanean + rocks, or Symplegades, at the mouth of the Euxine sea.] + + [Footnote 12: _Hecate._--Ver. 74. Ancient writers seem to have + been much divided in opinion who Hecate was. Ovid here follows the + account which made her to be the daughter of Perses, who, + according to Diodorus Siculus, was the son of Phoebus, and the + brother of AEetes. Marrying her uncle AEetes, she is said to have + been the mother of Circe, Medea, and Absyrtus. By some writers she + is confounded with the Moon and with Proserpine; as identical with + the Moon, she has the epithets 'Triceps' and 'Triformis,' often + given to her by the poets, because the Moon sometimes is full, + sometimes disappears, and often shows but part of her disk.] + + [Footnote 13: _And by the sire._--Ver. 96. Allusion is made to the + Sun, who was said to be the father of AEetes, the destined + father-in-law of Jason.] + + [Footnote 14: _Breathe forth flames._--Ver. 104. The name of the + God of fire is here used to signify that element. Apollodorus + says, that Medea gave Jason a drug (+pharmakon+) to rub over + himself and his armor.] + + [Footnote 15: _Or when flints._--Ver. 107. It is difficult to + determine whether 'silices' here means 'flint-stones,' or + 'lime-stone;' probably the latter, from the mention of water + sprinkled over them. If the meaning is 'flint-stones,' the passage + may refer to the manufacture of glass, with the art of making + which the ancients were perfectly acquainted.] + + [Footnote 16: _Unused to it._--Ver. 119. Because, being sacred to + Mars, it was not permitted to be ploughed.] + + [Footnote 17: _Dragon's teeth._--Ver. 122. These were a portion of + the teeth of the dragon slain by Cadmus, which Mars and Minerva + had sent to AEetes.] + + [Footnote 18: _Lethaean juice._--Ver. 152. Lethe was a river of the + infernal regions, whose waters were said to produce sleep and + forgetfulness.] + + [Footnote 19: _Port of Iolcos._--Ver. 158. Iolcos was a city of + Thessaly, of which country Jason was a native.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + To understand this story, one of the most famous in the early history + of Greece, we must go back to the origin of it, and examine the + fictions which the poets have mingled with the history of the + expedition of the Argonauts, one of the most remarkable events of the + fabulous ages. + + Athamas, the son of AEolus, grandson of Hellen, and great-grandson of + Deucalion, having married Ino, the daughter of Cadmus, was obliged to + divorce her, on account of the madness with which she was attacked. He + afterwards married Nephele, by whom he had a son and daughter, Phryxus + and Helle; but on his taking his first wife again, she brought him two + sons, Learchus and Melicerta. Ino, hating the children of Nephele, + sought to destroy them. Phryxus being informed thereof, ordered a ship + to be privately prepared; and taking his father's treasures, sailed + with his sister Helle, to seek a retreat in the court of AEetes, his + kinsman. Helle died on the voyage, but Phryxus arrived in Colchis, + where he dedicated the prow of his ship to Neptune, or Jupiter. He + there married Chalciope, by whom he had four sons, Argos, Phrontes, + Molas, and Cylindus. Some years after, AEetes caused him to be + assassinated; and his sons fleeing to the court of their grandfather, + Athamas, were shipwrecked on an island, where they remained until + found there by Jason, who took them back to their mother. Having + mourned them as dead, she was transported with joy on finding them, + and used every exertion to aid Jason in promoting his addresses to + Medea. AEetes having seized the treasures of Athamas on the death of + Phryxus, the Greeks prepared an expedition to recover them, and to + avenge his death. Pelias, who had driven his brother AEson from the + throne of Iolcos, desiring to procure the absence of his son Jason, + took this opportunity of engaging him in an enterprise, which promised + both glory, profit, and a large amount of personal exertion. The + uneasiness which Pelias felt was caused by the prediction of an + oracle, that he should be killed by a prince of the family of AEolus, + and which warned him to beware of a person who should have but one + shoe. Just at that period, Jason, returning from the school of Chiron, + lost one of his shoes in crossing a river. On this, his uncle was + desirous to destroy him; but not daring to do so publicly, he induced + him to embark with the Argonauts, expecting that he would perish in an + undertaking of so perilous a nature. Many young nobles of Greece + repaired to the court of Iolcos, and joined in the undertaking, when + they chose Jason for their leader, and embarked in a ship, the name of + which was Argo, and from which the adventurers received the name of + Argonauts. + + Diodorus Siculus says, that the ship was so named from its swiftness; + while others say, that it was so called from Argus, the name of its + builder, or from the Argives, or Greeks, on board of it. Bochart, + however, supposes, that the name is derived from the Phoenician word + 'arco,' which signifies 'long,' and suggests, that before that time + the Greeks sailed in vessels of a rounder form, Jason being the first + who sailed in a ship built in the form of a galley. After many + adventures, on arriving at the Isle of Lemnos, they found that the + women had killed their husbands in a fit of jealousy, on which the + Argonauts took wives from their number, and Jason received for his + companion Hypsipyle, the daughter of Thoas. Putting to sea again, they + were driven on the coast of Bithynia, where they delivered Phineus, + its king, from the persecution of the Harpies, who were in the habit + of snatching away the victuals from his table. These monsters, of + hideous form, with crooked beaks and talons, huge wings, and the faces + of women, the Argonauts, and especially Calais and Zethes, pursued as + far as the islands called Strophades, in the Ionian sea, where Iris + appearing to them, enjoined them to pursue the Harpies no further, + promising that Phineus should no longer be persecuted by them. To + explain this story, some suppose that the Harpies were the daughters + of Phineus, who by their dissipation and extravagance, had ruined him + in his old age, which occasioned the saying, that they snatched the + victuals out of his mouth. Le Clerc thinks, that the Harpies were vast + swarms of grasshoppers, which ravaged all Paphlagonia, and caused a + famine in the dominions of Phineus; the word 'arbati,' whence the term + 'Harpy' is derived, signifying 'a grasshopper;' and that the North + wind blowing them into the Ionian sea, it gave rise to the saying, + that the sons of Boreas pursued them so far. Diodorus Siculus does not + mention the Harpies, though he speaks of the arrival of the Argonauts + at the court of Phineus. + + After some other adventures, the Argonauts arrived at Colchis. AEetes, + or AEeta, the king, having been forewarned by an oracle, that a + stranger should deprive him of his crown and life, had established a + custom of sacrificing all strangers found in his dominions. His + daughter Medea, falling in love with Jason, promised him her + assistance in preserving them from the dangers to which they were + exposed, on the condition of his marrying her. Having engaged to do + so, she conducted him by night to the royal palace, and gave him a + false key, by means whereof he found the royal treasures, and carrying + them off, embarked with Medea and his companions. By way of explaining + the miraculous portion of the story, we may, perhaps, not err in + supposing, that the account of it was originally written in the + Phoenician language; and through not understanding it, the Greeks + invented the fiction of the Fleece, the Dragon, and the Fiery Bulls. + Bochart and Le Clerc have observed, that the Syriac word 'gaza,' + signifies either 'a treasure,' or 'a fleece.' 'Saur,' which means 'a + wall,' also means 'a bull;' and in the same language the same word, + 'nachas,' signifies both 'brass,' 'iron,' and 'a dragon.' Hence, + instead of the simple narrative, that Jason, by the aid of Medea, + carried away the treasures which AEetes kept within walls, with bolts, + or locks of metal, and which Phryxus had carried to Colchis in a ship + with the figure of a ram at the prow, it was published, and circulated + by the ignorant, that the Gods, to save Phryxus from his stepmother, + sent him a sheep with a golden fleece, which bore him to Colchis; that + its fleece became the object of the ambition of the leading men of + Greece; and that whoever wished to bear it away was obliged to contend + with bulls and dragons. Some historians, by way of interpreting the + story, affirm, that the keeper of the treasures was named 'Draco,' or + 'Dragon,' and that the garrison of the stronghold of AEetes was brought + from the 'Tauric' Chersonesus. They say also, that the fleece was the + skin of the sheep which Phryxus had sacrificed to Neptune, which he + had caused to be gilt. It is not, however, very likely, that an object + so trifling could have excited the avarice of the Greeks, and caused + them to undertake an expedition accompanied with so many dangers. The + dragon's teeth most probably bear reference to some foreign troops + which Jason, in the same way as Cadmus had done, found means to + alienate from AEetes, and to bring over to his own side. Homer makes + but very slight allusion to the adventures of the Argonauts. + + +FABLE II. [VII.159-349] + + Jason, after his return home, requests Medea to restore his father + AEson to youth, which she performs; then, going to the court of Pelias, + she avenges the injuries which he had done to the family of Jason, by + making him the victim of the credulity of his own daughters, who, in + compliance with her pretended regard for them, stab him to death. + Medea, having executed her design, makes her escape in her chariot. + +The Haemonian mothers and aged fathers bring presents, for receiving +their sons {safe home}; and frankincense dissolves, piled on the flames, +and the devoted victim falls, having its horns gilded. But AEson is not +among those congratulating, being now near death, and worn out with the +years of old age; when thus the son of AEson {addresses Medea}: "O wife, +to whom I confess that I owe my safety, although thou hast granted me +everything, and the sum of thy favors exceeds {all} belief; {still}, if +{thy enchantments} can effect this (and what can enchantments not +effect?), take away from my own years, and, when taken, add them to +{those of} my father." + +And {thus saying}, he could not check his tears. She was moved with the +affection of the petitioner; and {her father}, AEetes, left behind, +recurred to her mind, unlike {that of Jason}; yet she did not confess +any such feelings. "What a piece of wickedness, husband," said she, "has +escaped thy affectionate lips! Can I, then, seem capable of transferring +to any one a portion of thy life? May Hecate not allow of this; nor dost +thou ask what is reasonable; but, Jason, I will endeavor to grant thee a +favor {still} greater than that which thou art asking. By my arts we +will endeavor to bring back the long years of my father-in-law, and not +by means of thy years; if the Goddess of the triple form[20] do but +assist, and propitiously aid {so} vast an undertaking." Three nights +were {now} wanting that the horns {of the Moon} might meet entirely, and +might form a {perfect} orb. After the Moon shone in her full, and looked +down upon the Earth, with her disk complete, {Medea} went forth from the +house, clothed in garments flowing loose, with bare feet,[21] and having +her unadorned hair hanging over her shoulders, and unattended, directed +her wandering steps through the still silence of midnight. Sound sleep +has {now} relaxed {the nerves of both} men, and birds, and beasts; the +hedges and the motionless foliage are still, without any noise, the dewy +air is still; the stars alone are twinkling; towards which, holding up +her arms, three times she turns herself about, three times she +besprinkles her hair with water taken from the stream; with three yells +she opens her mouth, and, her knee bending upon the hard ground, she +says, "O Night, most faithful to these my mysteries, and ye golden +Stars, who, with the Moon, succeed the fires of the day, and thou, +three-faced Hecate,[22] who comest conscious of my design, and ye charms +and arts of the enchanters, and thou, too, Earth, that dost furnish the +enchanters with powerful herbs; ye breezes, too, and winds, mountains, +rivers, and lakes, and all ye Deities of the groves, and all ye Gods of +night, attend here; through whose aid, whenever I will, the rivers run +back from their astonished banks to their sources, {and} by my charms I +calm the troubled sea, and rouse it when calm; I disperse the clouds, +and I bring clouds {upon the Earth}; I both allay the winds, and I raise +them; and I break the jaws of serpents with my words and my spells; +I move, too, the solid rocks, and the oaks torn up with their own +{native} earth, and the forests {as well}. I command the mountains, too, +to quake, and the Earth to groan, and the ghosts to come forth from +their tombs. Thee, too, O Moon, do I draw down, although the +Temesaean[23] brass relieves thy pangs. By my spells, also, the chariot +of my grandsire is rendered pale; Aurora, too, is pale through my +enchantments. For me did ye blunt the flames of the bulls, and with the +curving plough you pressed the necks that never before bore the yoke. +You raised a cruel warfare for those born of the dragon among +themselves, and you lulled to sleep the keeper {of the golden fleece}, +that had never known sleep; and {thus}, deceiving the guardian, you sent +the treasure into the Grecian cities. Now there is need of juices, by +means of which, old age, being renewed, may return to the bloom {of +life}, and may receive back again its early years; and {this} ye will +give me; for not in vain did the stars {just now} sparkle; nor yet in +vain is the chariot come, drawn by the necks of winged dragons." + +A chariot sent down from heaven was come; which, soon as she had +mounted, and had stroked the harnessed necks of the dragons, and had +shaken the light reins with her hands, she was borne aloft, and looked +down upon Thessalian Tempe below her, and guided her dragons towards the +chalky regions;[24] and observed the herbs which Ossa, and which the +lofty Pelion bore, Othrys, too, and Pindus, and Olympus {still} greater +than Pindus; and part she tore up by the root gently worked, part she +cut down with the bend of a brazen sickle.[25] Many a herb, too, that +grew on the banks of Apidanus[26] pleased her; many, too, {on the banks} +of Amphrysus; nor, Enipeus, didst thou escape. The Peneian waters, and +the Spercheian as well, contributed something, and the rushy shores of +Boebe.[27] She plucks, too, enlivening herbs by the Euboean Anthedon,[28] +not yet commonly known by the change of the body of Glaucus.[29] And now +the ninth day,[30] and the ninth night had seen her visiting all the +fields in her chariot, and upon the wings of the dragons, when she +returned; nor had the dragons been fed, but with the odors {of the +plants}: and yet they cast the skin of old age full of years. On her +arrival she stood without the threshold and the gates, and was canopied +by the heavens alone, and avoided the contact of her husband, and +erected two altars of turf; on the right hand, one to Hecate, but on the +left side one to Youth.[31] After she had hung them round with vervain +and forest boughs, throwing up the earth from two trenches not far off, +she performed the rites, and plunged a knife into the throat of a black +ram, and besprinkled the wide trenches with blood. Then pouring thereon +goblets[32] of flowing wine, and pouring brazen goblets of warm milk; +she at the same time utters words, and calls upon the Deities of the +earth, and entreats the king of the shades[33] below, together with his +ravished wife, that they will not hasten to deprive the aged limbs of +life. When she had rendered them propitious both by prayers and +prolonged mutterings, she commanded the exhausted body of AEson to be +brought out to the altars, and stretched it cast into a deep sleep by +her charms, {and} resembling one dead, upon the herbs laid beneath him. + +She orders the son of AEson to go far thence, and the attendants, too, to +go afar; and warns them to withdraw their profane eyes from her +mysteries. At her order, they retire. Medea, with dishevelled hair, goes +round the blazing altars like a worshipper of Bacchus, and dips her +torches, split into many parts, in the trench, black with blood, and +lights them, {thus} dipt, at the two altars. And thrice does she[34] +purify the aged man with flames, thrice with water, and thrice with +sulphur. In the meantime the potent mixture[35] is boiling and heaving +in the brazen cauldron, placed {on the flames}, and whitens with +swelling froth. There she boils roots cut up in the Haemonian valleys, +and seeds and flowers and acrid juices. She adds stones fetched from the +most distant East, and sand, which the ebbing tide of the ocean has +washed. She adds, too, hoar-frost gathered at night by the light of the +moon, and the ill-boding wings of a screech owl,[36] together with its +flesh; and the entrails of an ambiguous wolf, that was wont to change +its appearance of a wild beast into {that of} a man. Nor is there +wanting there the thin scaly slough of the Cinyphian water-snake,[37] +and the liver of the long-lived stag;[38] to which, besides, she adds +the bill and head of a crow that had sustained {an existence of} nine +ages. When, with these and a thousand other things without a name, the +barbarian {princess} has completed the medicine prepared for the mortal +{body}, with a branch of the peaceful olive long since dried up, she +stirs them all up, and blends the lowest {ingredients} with the highest. +Behold! the old branch, turned about in the heated cauldron, at first +becomes green; and after no long time assumes foliage, and is suddenly +loaded with heavy olives. Besides, wherever the fire throws the froth +from out of the hollow cauldron, and the boiling drops fall upon the +earth, the ground becomes green, and flowers and soft grass spring up. + +Soon as Medea sees this, she opens the throat[39] of the old man with a +drawn sword; and allowing the former blood to escape, replenishes {his +veins} with juices. Soon as AEson has drunk them in, either received in +his mouth or in his wound, his beard and his hair[40] laying aside their +hoariness, assume a black hue. His leanness flies, being expelled; his +paleness and squalor are gone. His hollow veins are supplied with +additional blood, and his limbs become instinct with vigor. AEson is +astonished, and calls to recollection that he was such four times ten +years before. + +Liber had beheld from on high the miraculous operations of so great a +prodigy; and taught {thereby} that youthful years can be restored to his +nurses,[41] he requests this present from the daughter of AEetes.[42] + +And that her arts[43] may not cease, the Phasian feigns a counterfeited +quarrel with her husband, and flies as a suppliant to the threshold of +Pelias[44] and (as he himself is oppressed with old age) his daughters +receive her; whom, after a short time, the crafty Colchian engages to +herself by the appearance of a pretended friendship. And while among the +greatest of her merits, she relates that the infirmities of AEson have +been removed, and is dwelling upon that part {of the story}, a hope is +suggested to the damsels, the daughters of Pelias, that by the like art +their parent may become young again; and this they request {of her}, and +repeatedly entreat her to name her own price. For a short time she is +silent, and appears to be hesitating, and keeps their mind in suspense, +as they ask, with an affected gravity. + +Afterwards, when she has promised them, she says, "That there may be the +greater confidence in this my skill, the leader of the flock among your +sheep, which is the most advanced in age, shall become a lamb by this +preparation." Immediately, a fleecy {ram}, enfeebled by innumerable +years, is brought, with his horns bending around his hollow temples; +whose withered throat, when she has cut with the Haemonian knife, and +stained the steel with its scanty blood, the enchantress plunges the +limbs of the sheep, and her potent juices together, into the hollow +copper. The limbs of his body are lessened, and he puts off his horns, +and his years together with his horns; and in the midst of the kettle a +low bleating is heard. And without any delay, while they are wondering +at the bleating, a lamb springs forth, and gambols in its course, and +seeks the suckling dugs. The daughters of Pelias are amazed; and after +her promises have obtained her credit, then, indeed, they urge her still +more strongly. Phoebus had thrice taken the yoke off his horses sinking +in the Iberian sea;[45] and upon the fourth night the radiant stars were +twinkling, when the deceitful daughter of AEetes set pure water upon a +blazing fire, and herbs without any virtue. And now sleep like to death, +their bodies being relaxed, had seized the king, and the guards together +with their king, which her charms and the influence of her enchanting +tongue had caused. The daughters {of the king}, {as} ordered, had +entered the threshold, together with the Colchian, and had surrounded +the bed; "Why do you hesitate now, in your indolence? Unsheathe your +swords," says she, "and exhaust the ancient gore, that I may replenish +his empty veins with youthful blood. The life and the age of your father +is now in your power. If you have any affection and cherish not vain +hopes, perform your duty to your father, and drive away old age with +your weapons, and, thrusting in the steel, let out his corrupted blood." + +Upon this exhortation, as each of them is affectionate, she becomes +especially undutiful, and that she may not be wicked, she commits +wickedness. Yet not one is able to look upon her own blow; and they +turn away their eyes, and turning away their faces, they deal chance +blows with their cruel right hands. He, streaming with gore, yet raises +his limbs on his elbows, and, half-mangled, attempts to rise from the +couch; and in the midst of so many swords stretching forth his pale +arms, he says, "What are you doing, my daughters? What arms you against +the life of your parent?" Their courage and their hands fail {them}. As +he is about to say more, the Colchian severs his throat, together with +his words, and plunges him, {thus} mangled, in the boiling cauldron. + + [Footnote 20: _Of the triple form._--Ver. 177. Hecate, the Goddess + of enchantment.] + + [Footnote 21: _With bare feet._--Ver. 183. To have the feet bare + was esteemed requisite for the due performance of magic rites, + though sometimes on such occasions, and probably in the present + instance, only one foot was left unshod. In times of drought, + according to Tertullian, a procession and ceremonial, called + 'nudipedalia,' were resorted to, with a view to propitiate the + Gods by this token of grief and humiliation.] + + [Footnote 22: _Three-faced Hecate._--Ver. 194. Though Hecate and + the Moon are here mentioned as distinct, they are frequently + considered to have been the same Deity, with different attributes. + The three heads with which Hecate was represented were those of a + horse, a dog, and a pig, or sometimes, in the place of the latter, + a human head.] + + [Footnote 23: _Temesaean._--Ver. 207. Temesa was a town of the + Brutii, on the coast of Etruria, famous for its copper mines. It + was also sometimes called Tempsa. There was also another Temesa, + a city of Cyprus, also famous for its copper.] + + [Footnote 24: _Chalky regions._--Ver. 223. Such was the + characteristic of the mountainous country of Thessaly, where she + now alighted.] + + [Footnote 25: _Brazen sickle._--Ver. 227. We learn from Macrobius + and Caelius Rhodiginus that copper was preferred to iron in cutting + herbs for the purposes of enchantment, in exorcising spirits, and + in aiding the moon in eclipses against the supposed charms of the + witches, because it was supposed to be a purer metal.] + + [Footnote 26: _Apidanus._--Ver. 228. This and Amphrysus were + rivers of Thessaly.] + + [Footnote 27: _Shores of Boebe._--Ver. 231. Strabo makes mention of + lake Boebeis, near the town of Boebe, in Thessaly. It was not far + from the mouth of the river Peneus.] + + [Footnote 28: _Anthedon._--Ver. 232. This was a town of Boeotia, + opposite to Euboea, being situated on the Euripus, now called the + straits of Negropont.] + + [Footnote 29: _Glaucus._--Ver. 233. He was a fisherman, who was + changed into a sea God, on tasting a certain herb. His story is + related at the end of the 13th Book.] + + [Footnote 30: _Ninth day._--Ver. 234. The numbers three and nine + seem to have been deemed of especial virtue in incantations.] + + [Footnote 31: _One to youth._--Ver. 241. This goddess was also + called Hebe, from the Greek word signifying youth. She was the + daughter of Juno, and the wife of Hercules. She was also the + cup-bearer of the Gods, until she was supplanted by Ganymede.] + + [Footnote 32: _Goblets._--Ver. 246. 'Carchesia.' The 'carchesium' + was a kind of drinking cup, used by the Greeks from very early + times. It was slightly contracted in the middle, and its two + handles extended from the top to the bottom. It was employed in + the worship of the Deities, and was used for libations of blood, + wine, milk, and honey. Macrobius says that it was only used by the + Greeks. Virgil makes mention of it as used to hold wine.] + + [Footnote 33: _King of the shades._--Ver. 249. Pluto and + Proserpine. Clarke translates this line and the next, 'And prays + to the king of shades with his kidnapped wife, that they would not + be too forward to deprive the limbs of the old gentleman of + life.'] + + [Footnote 34: _Thrice does she._--Ver. 261. Clarke thus renders + this and the two following lines: 'And purifies the old gentleman + three times with flame, three times with water, and three times + with sulphur. In the meantime the strong medicine boils, and + bounces about in a brazen kettle set on the fire.'] + + [Footnote 35: _The potent mixture._--Ver. 262. This reminds us of + the line of Shakespeare in Macbeth, 'Make the hell-broth thick and + slab.'] + + [Footnote 36: _A screech owl._--Ver. 269. 'Strigis.' The 'strix' + is supposed to have been the screech owl, and was a favorite bird + with the enchanters, who were supposed to have the power of + assuming that form. From the description given of the 'striges' in + the Sixth Book of the Fasti, it would almost appear that the + qualities of the vampyre bat were attributed to them.] + + [Footnote 37: _Water snake._--Ver. 272. The 'chelydrus' was a + venomous water-snake of a powerful and offensive smell. The + Delphin Commentator seems to think that a kind of turtle is here + meant.] + + [Footnote 38: _Long-lived stag._--Ver. 273. The stag was said to + live four times, and the crow nine times, as long as man.] + + [Footnote 39: _Opened the throat._--Ver. 285-6. Clarke translates + the words 'quod simul ac vidit, stricto Medea recludit Ense senis + jugulum,' 'which as soon as Medea saw, she opens the throat of the + old gentleman with a drawn sword.'] + + [Footnote 40: _And his hair._--Ver. 288. Medea is thought by some + writers not only to have discovered a dye for giving a dark color + to grey hair, but to have found out the invigorating properties of + the warm bath.] + + [Footnote 41: _To his nurses._--Ver. 295. These (in Book iii. + l. 314.) he calls by the name of Nyseides; but in the Fifth Book + of the Fasti they are styled Hyades, and are placed in the number + of the Constellations. A commentator on Homer, quoting from + Pherecydes, calls them 'Dodonides.'] + + [Footnote 42: _Daughter of AEetes._--Ver. 296. The reading in most + of the MSS. here is Tetheia, or 'Thetide;' but Burmann has + replaced it by AEetide, 'the daughter of AEetes.' It has been justly + remarked, why should Bacchus apply to Tethys to have the age of + the Nymphs, who had nursed him, renewed, when he had just beheld + Medea, and not Tethys, do it in favor of AEson?] + + [Footnote 43: _That her arts._--Ver. 297. 'Neve doli cessent' is + translated by Clarke, 'and that her tricks might not cease.'] + + [Footnote 44: _Pelias._--Ver. 298. He was the brother of AEson, and + had dethroned him, and usurped his kingdom.] + + [Footnote 45: _The Iberian sea._--Ver. 324. The Atlantic, or + Western Ocean, is thus called from Iberia, the ancient name of + Spain; which country, perhaps, was so called from the river + Iberus, or Ebro, flowing through it.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The authors who have endeavored to explain the true meaning and origin + of the story of the restitution of AEson to youth, are much divided in + their opinions concerning it. Some think it refers to the mystery of + reviving the decrepit and aged by the transfusion of youthful blood. + It is, however, not improbable, that Medea obtained the reputation of + being a sorceress, only because she had been taught by her mother the + virtues of various plants: and that she administered a potion to AEson, + which furnished him with new spirits and strength. + + The daughters of Pelias being desirous to obtain the same favor of + Medea for their father, she, to revenge the evils which he had brought + upon her husband and his family, may possibly have mixed some venomous + herbs in his drink, which immediately killed him. + + +FABLE III. [VII.350-401] + + Medea, after having killed Pelias, goes through several countries to + Corinth, where, finding that Jason, in her absence, has married the + daughter of king Creon, she sets fire to the palace, whereby the + princess and her father are consumed. She then murders the two + children which she had by Jason, before his face, and takes to flight. + +And unless she had mounted into the air with winged dragons, she would +not have been exempt from punishment; she flies aloft, over both shady +Pelion, the lofty habitation[46] of the son of Phillyra, and over +Othrys, and the places noted for the fate of the ancient Cerambus.[47] +He, by the aid of Nymphs, being lifted on wings into the air, when the +ponderous earth was covered by the sea pouring over it, not being +overwhelmed, escaped the flood of Deucalion. On the left side, she +leaves the AEolian Pitane,[48] and the image of the long Dragon[49] made +out of stone, and the wood of Ida,[50] in which Bacchus hid a stolen +bullock beneath the appearance of a fictitious stag; {the spot} too, +where the father of Corythus[51] lies buried beneath a little sand, and +the fields which Maera[52] alarmed by her unusual barking. + +The city, too, of Eurypylus,[53] in which the Coan matrons[54] wore +horns, at the time when the herd of Hercules[55] departed {thence}; +Phoebean Rhodes[56] also, and the Ialysian Telchines,[57] whose eyes[58] +corrupting all things by the very looking upon them, Jupiter utterly +hating, thrust beneath the waves of his brother. She passed, too, over +the Cartheian walls of ancient Cea,[59] where her father Alcidamas[60] +was destined to wonder that a gentle dove could arise from the body of +his daughter. + +After that, she beholds the lakes of Hyrie,[61] and Cycneian Tempe,[62] +which the swan that had suddenly become such, frequented. For there +Phyllius, at the request of the boy, had given him birds, and a fierce +lion tamed; being ordered, too, to subdue a bull, he had subdued him; +and being angry at his despising his love so often, he denied him, +{when} begging the bull as his last reward. The other, indignant, said, +"Thou shalt wish that thou hadst given it;" and {then} leaped from a +high rock. All imagined he had fallen; but, transformed into a swan, he +hovered in the air on snow-white wings. But his mother, Hyrie, not +knowing that he was saved, dissolved in tears, and formed a lake +{called} after her own name. + +Adjacent to these {places} is Pleuron;[63] in which Combe,[64] the +daughter of Ophis, escaped the wounds of her sons with trembling wings. +After that, she sees the fields of Calaurea,[65] sacred to Latona, +conscious of the transformation of their king, together with his wife, +into birds. Cyllene is on the right hand, on which Menephron[66] was +{one day} to lie with his mother, after the manner of savage beasts. Far +hence she beholds Cephisus,[67] lamenting the fate of his grandson, +changed by Apollo into a bloated sea-calf; and the house of Eumelus,[68] +lamenting his son in the air. + +At length, borne on the wings of her dragons, she reached the Pirenian +Ephyre.[69] Here, those of ancient times promulgated that in the early +ages mortal bodies were produced from mushrooms springing from rain. But +after the new-made bride was consumed, through the Colchian drugs, and +both seas beheld the king's house on fire, her wicked sword was bathed +in the blood of her sons; and the mother, having {thus} barbarously +revenged herself, fled from the arms of Jason. Being borne hence by her +Titanian dragons,[70] she entered the city of Pallas, which saw thee, +most righteous Phineus,[71] and thee, aged Periphas,[72] flying +together, and the granddaughter of Polypemon[73] resting upon new-formed +wings. + + [Footnote 46: _Lofty habitation._--Ver. 352. The mountains of + Thessaly are so called, because Chiron, the son of the Nymph + Phillyra, lived there.] + + [Footnote 47: _Cerambus._--Ver. 353. Antoninus Liberalis, quoting + from Nicander, calls him Terambus, and says that he lived at the + foot of Mount Pelion; he incurred the resentment of the Nymphs, + who changed him into a scarabaeus, or winged beetle. Flying to the + heights of Parnassus, at the time of the flood of Deucalion, he + thereby made his escape. Some writers say that he was changed into + a bird.] + + [Footnote 48: _Pitane._--Ver. 357. This was a town of AEtolia, in + Asia Minor, near the mouth of the river Caicus.] + + [Footnote 49: _The long dragon._--Ver. 358. He alludes, most + probably, to the story of the Lesbian changed into a dragon or + serpent, which is mentioned in the Eleventh book, line 58.] + + [Footnote 50: _Wood of Ida._--Ver. 359. This was the grove of Ida, + in Phrygia. It is supposed that he refers to the story of + Thyoneus, the son of Bacchus, who, having stolen an ox from some + Phrygian shepherds, was pursued by them; on which Bacchus, to + screen his son, changed the ox into a stag, and invested Thyoneus + with the garb of a hunter.] + + [Footnote 51: _Father of Corythus._--Ver. 361. Paris was the + father of Corythus, by Oenone. He was said to have been buried at + Cebrena, a little town of Phrygia, near Troy.] + + [Footnote 52: _Maera._--Ver. 362. This was the name of the dog of + Icarius, the father of Erigone, who discovered the murder of his + master by the shepherds of Attica, and was made a Constellation, + under the name of the Dog-star. As, however, the flight of Medea + was now far distant from Attica, it is more likely that the Poet + refers to the transformation of some female, named Maera, into a + dog, whose story has not come down to us; indeed, Lactantius + expresses this as his opinion. Burmann thinks that it refers to + the transformation of Hecuba, mentioned in the 13th book, line + 406; and that 'Maera' is a corruption for some other name of + Hecuba.] + + [Footnote 53: _Eurypylus._--Ver. 363. He was a former king of the + Isle of Cos, in the AEgean Sea, and was much famed for his skill as + an augur.] + + [Footnote 54: _The Coan matrons._--Ver. 363. Lactantius says that + the women of Cos, extolling their own beauty as superior to that + of Venus, incurred the resentment of that Goddess, and were + changed by her into cows. Another version of the story is, that + these women, being offended at Hercules for driving the oxen of + AEgeon through their island, were very abusive, on which Juno + transformed them into cows: to this latter version reference is + made in the present passage.] + + [Footnote 55: _Hercules._--Ver. 364. He besieged and took the + chief city of the island, which was also called Cos; and having + slain Eurypylus, carried off his daughter Chalciope.] + + [Footnote 56: _Phoebean Rhodes._--Ver. 365. The island of Rhodes, + in the Mediterranean, off the coast of Asia Minor, was sacred to + the Sun, and was said never to be deserted by his rays.] + + [Footnote 57: _Ialysian Telchines._--Ver. 365. Ialysus was one of + the three most ancient cities of Rhodes, and was said to have been + founded by Ialysus, whose parent was the Sun. The Telchines, or + Thelchines, were a race supposed to have migrated thither from + Crete. They were persons of great artistic skill, on which account + they may, possibly, have obtained the character of being + magicians; such was the belief of Strabo.] + + [Footnote 58: _Whose eyes._--Ver. 366. The evil eye was supposed + by the ancients not only to have certain fascinating powers, but + to be able to destroy the beauty of any object on which it was + turned.] + + [Footnote 59: _Cea._--Ver. 368. This island, now Zia, is in the + AEgean sea, near Euboea. Carthaea was a city there, the ruins of + which are still in existence.] + + [Footnote 60: _Alcidamas._--Ver. 369. Antoninus Liberalis says, + that Alcidamas lived not at Carthaea, but at Iuelis, another city in + the Isle of Cea.] + + [Footnote 61: _Lakes of Hyrie._--Ver. 371. Hyrie was the mother of + Cycnus; and pining away with grief on the transformation of her + son, she was changed into a lake, called by her name.] + + [Footnote 62: _Cycneian Tempe._--Ver. 371. This was not Thessalian + Tempe, but a valley of Teumesia, or Teumesus, a mountain of + Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 63: _Pleuron._--Ver. 382. This was a city of AEtolia, + near Mount Curius. It was far distant from Boeotia and Lake Hyrie. + Some commentators, therefore, suggest that the reading should be + Brauron, a village of Attica, near the confines of Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 64: _Combe._--Ver. 383. She was the mother of the + Curetes of AEtolia, who, perhaps, received that name from Mount + Curius. There was another Combe, the daughter of Asopus, who + discovered the use of brazen arms, and was called Chalcis, from + that circumstance. She was said to have borne a hundred daughters + to her husband.] + + [Footnote 65: _Calaurea._--Ver. 384. This was an island between + Crete and the Peloponnesus, in the Saronic gulf, which was sacred + to Apollo. Latona resided there, having given Delos to Neptune in + exchange for it. Demosthenes died there.] + + [Footnote 66: _Menephron._--Ver. 386. Hyginus says, that he + committed incest both with his mother Blias, and with Cyllene, his + daughter.] + + [Footnote 67: _Cephisus._--Ver. 388. The river Cephisus, in + Boeotia, had a daughter, Praxithea. She was the wife of Erectheus, + and bore him eight sons, the fate of one of whom is perhaps here + referred to.] + + [Footnote 68: _Eumelus._--Ver. 390. He was the king of Patrae, on + the sea-coast of Achaia. Triptolemus visited him with his winged + chariot; on which, Antheas, the son of Eumelus, ascended it while + his father was sleeping, and falling from it, he was killed. He + is, probably, here referred to; and the reading should be 'natum,' + and not 'natam.' Some writers, however, suppose that his daughter + was changed into a bird.] + + [Footnote 69: _Pirenian Ephyre._--Ver. 391. Corinth was so called + from Ephyre, the daughter of Neptune, who was said to have lived + there. Its inhabitants were fabled to have sprung from mushrooms.] + + [Footnote 70: _Titanian dragons._--Ver. 398. Her dragons are so + called, either because, as Pindar says, they had sprung from the + blood of the Titans, or because, according to the Greek tradition, + the chariot and winged dragons had been sent to Medea by the Sun, + one of whose names was Titan.] + + [Footnote 71: _Phineus._--Ver. 399. Any further particulars of the + person here named are unknown. Some commentators suggest 'Phini,' + and that some female of the name of Phinis is alluded to, making + the adjective 'justissime' of the feminine gender.] + + [Footnote 72: _Periphas._--Ver. 400. He was a very ancient king of + Attica, before the time of Cecrops, and was said to have been + changed into an eagle by Jupiter, while his wife was transformed + into an osprey.] + + [Footnote 73: _Polypemon._--Ver. 401. This was a name of the + robber Procrustes, who was slain by Theseus. Halcyone, the + daughter of his son Scyron, having been guilty of incontinence, + was thrown into the sea by her father, on which she was changed + into a kingfisher, which bore her name.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Jason being reconciled to the children of Pelias, gave the crown to + his son Acastus. Becoming tired of Medea, he married Glauce, or + Creuesa, the daughter of Creon, king of Corinth. Medea, hastening to + that place, left her two sons in the temple of Juno, and set fire to + Creon's palace, where he and his daughter were consumed to ashes, + after which she killed her own children. Euripides, in his tragedy of + Medea, makes a chorus of Corinthian women say, that the Corinthians + themselves committed the murder, and that the Gods sent a plague on + the city, as a punishment for the deed. Pausanias also says, that the + tomb of Medea's children, whom the Corinthians stoned to death, was + still to be seen in his time; and that the Corinthians offered + sacrifices there every year, to appease their ghosts, as the oracle + had commanded them. + + Apollodorus relates this story in a different manner. He says, that + Medea sent her rival a crown, dipped in a sort of gum of a combustible + nature; and that when Glauce had put it on her head, it began to burn + so furiously, that the young princess perished in the greatest misery. + Medea afterwards retired to Thebes, where Hercules engaged to give her + assistance against Jason, which promise, however, he failed to + perform. Going thence to Athens, she married AEgeus. + + The story of her winged dragons may, perhaps, be based on the fact, + that her ship was called 'the Dragon.' In recounting the particulars + of her flight, Ovid makes allusion to several stories by the way, the + most of which are entirely unknown to us. With regard to these + fictions, it may not be out of place to remark here, as affording a + key to many of them, that where a person escaped from any imminent + danger, it was published that he had been changed into a bird. If, to + avoid pursuit, a person hid himself in a cave, he was said to be + transformed into a serpent; and if he burst into tears, from excess of + grief, he was reported to have changed into a fountain; while, if a + damsel lost herself in a wood, she became a Nymph, or a Dryad. The + resemblance of names, also, gave rise to several fictions: thus, + Alopis was changed into a fox; Cygnus into a swan; Coronis into a + crow; and Cerambus into a horned beetle. As some few of the stories + here alluded to by Ovid, refer to historical events, it may be + remarked, that the account of the women of Cos being changed into + cows, is thought by some to have been founded on the cruel act of the + companions of Hercules, who sacrificed some of them to the Gods of the + country. The inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes were said to have been + changed into rocks, because they perished in an inundation, which laid + a part of that island under water, and particularly the town of + Ialysus. The fruitfulness of the daughter of Alcidamas occasioned it + to be said, that she was changed into a dove. The rage of Maera is + shown by her transformation into a bitch; and Arne was changed into a + daw, because, having sold her country, her avarice was well depicted + under the symbol of that bird, which, according to the popular + opinion, is fond of money. Phillyra, the mother of the Centaur Chiron, + was said to be changed into a linden-tree, probably because she + happened to bear the name of that tree, which in the Greek language is + called +philura+. + + +FABLE IV. [VII.402-468] + + Hercules chains the dog Cerberus, the guardian of the gates of the + Infernal Regions. Theseus, after his exploits at Corinth, arrives at + Athens, where Medea prepares a cup of poison for him. The king, + however, recognizing his son, just as he is about to drink, snatches + away the cup from him, while Medea flies in her chariot. AEgeus then + makes a festival, to celebrate the arrival and preservation of + Theseus. In the mean time, Minos, the king of Crete, solicits several + princes to assist him in a war against Athens, to revenge the death of + his son Androgeus, who had been murdered there. + +AEgeus, to be blamed for this deed alone, shelters her; and hospitality +is not enough, he also joins her {to himself} by the ties of marriage. +And now was Theseus, his son, arrived, unknown to his father, who, by +his valor, had established peace in the Isthmus between the two seas. +For his destruction Medea mingles the wolfsbane, which she once brought +with her from the shores of Scythia. This, they say, sprang from the +teeth of the Echidnean dog. There is a gloomy cave,[74] with a dark +entrance, {wherein} there is a descending path, along which the +Tirynthian hero dragged away Cerberus resisting, and turning his eyes +sideways from the day and the shining rays {of the Sun}, in chains +formed of adamant; he, filled with furious rage, filled the air with +triple barkings at the same moment, and sprinkled the verdant fields +with white foam. This, they suppose, grew solid, and, receiving the +nourishment of a fruitful and productive soil, acquired the power of +being noxious. Because, full of life, it springs up on the hard rock, +the rustics call it aconite.[75] + +This, by the contrivance of his wife, the father AEgeus himself presented +to his son,[76] as though to an enemy. Theseus had received the +presented cup with unsuspecting right hand, when his father perceived +upon the ivory hilt of his sword the tokens of his race,[77] and struck +the guilty {draught} from his mouth. She escaped death, having raised +clouds by her enchantments. + +But the father, although he rejoices at his son's being safe, astonished +that so great a wickedness can be committed with so narrow an escape +from death, heats the altars with fires, and loads the Gods with gifts; +and the axes strike the muscular necks of the oxen having their horns +bound with wreaths. No day is said {ever} to have shone upon the people +of Erectheus more famous than that--the senators and the common people +keep up the festivity; songs, too, they sing, wine inspiring wit. "Thee, +greatest Theseus," said they, "Marathon[78] admired for {shedding} the +blood of the Cretan bull; and that the husbandman ploughs Cromyon[79] in +safety from the boar, is thy procurement and thy work. By thy means the +country of Epidaurus saw the club-bearing son of Vulcan[80] fall; {and} +the banks of the river Cephisus[81] saw the cruel Procrustes {fall by +thee}. Eleusis, sacred to Ceres, beheld the death of Cercyon.[82] +Sinnis[83] fell too, who barbarously used his great powers; who was able +to bend {huge} beams, and used to pull pine trees from aloft to the +earth, destined to scatter {human} bodies far and wide. The road to +Alcathoe,[84] the Lelegeian city, is now open in safety, Scyron[85] +being laid low {in death}: {and} the earth denies a resting-place, the +water, {too}, denies a resting-place to the bones of the robber +scattered piecemeal; these, long tossed about, length of time is +reported to have hardened into rocks. To {these} rocks the name of +Scyron adheres. If we should reckon up thy glorious deeds, and thy +years, thy actions would exceed thy years {in number}. For thee, bravest +{hero}, we make public vows: in thy honor do we quaff the draughts of +wine." The palace rings with the acclamations of the populace, and the +prayers of those applauding; and there is no place sorrowing throughout +the whole city. + +And yet (so surely is the pleasure of no one unalloyed, and some anxiety +is {ever} interposing amid joyous circumstances), AEgeus does not have +his joy undisturbed, on receiving back his son. Minos prepares for war; +who, though he is strong in soldiers, strong in shipping, is still +strongest of all in the resentment of a parent, and, with retributive +arms, avenges the death of {his son} Androgeus. Yet, before the war, he +obtains auxiliary forces, and crosses the sea with a swift fleet, in +which he is accounted strong. On the one side, he joins Anaphe[86] to +himself; and the realms of Astypale; Anaphe by treaty, the realms of +Astypale by conquest; on the other side, the low Myconos, and the chalky +lands of Cimolus,[87] and the flourishing Cythnos, Scyros, and the level +Seriphos;[88] Paros, too, abounding in marble, and {the island} wherein +the treacherous Sithonian[89] betrayed the citadel, on receiving the +gold, which, in her covetousness, she had demanded. She was changed into +a bird, which even now has a passion for gold, the jackdaw {namely}, +black-footed, and covered with black feathers. + + [Footnote 74: _A gloomy cave._--Ver. 409. This cavern was called + Acherusia. It was situate in the country of the Mariandyni, near + the city of Heraclea, in Pontus, and was said to be the entrance + of the Infernal Regions. Cerberus was said to have been dragged + from Tartarus by Hercules, through this cave, which circumstance + was supposed to account for the quantity of aconite, or wolfsbane, + that grew there.] + + [Footnote 75: _Call it aconite._--Ver. 419. From the Greek + +akone+, 'a whetstone.'] + + [Footnote 76: _Presented to his son._--Ver. 420. Medea was anxious + to secure the succession to the throne of Athens to her son Medus, + and was therefore desirous to remove Theseus out of the way.] + + [Footnote 77: _Tokens of his race._--Ver. 423. AEgeus, leaving + AEthra at Troezen, in a state of pregnancy, charged her, if she bore + a son, to rear him, but to tell no one whose son he was. He placed + his own sword and shoes under a large stone, and directed her to + send his son to him when he was able to lift the stone, and to + take them from under it; and he then returned to Athens, where he + married Medea. When Theseus had grown to the proper age, his + mother led him to the stone under which his father had deposited + his sword and shoes, which he raised with ease, and took them out. + It was, probably, by means of this sword that AEgeus recognized his + son in the manner mentioned in the text.] + + [Footnote 78: _Marathon._--Ver. 434. This was a town of Attica, + adjoining a plain of the same name, where the Athenians, under the + command of Miltiades, overthrew the Persians with immense + slaughter. The bull which Theseus slew there was presented by + Neptune to Minos. Being brought into Attica by Hercules, it laid + waste that territory until it was slain by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 79: _Cromyon._--Ver. 435. This was a village of the + Corinthian territory, which was infested by a wild boar of + enormous size, that slew both men and animals. It was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 80: _Vulcan._--Ver. 437. By Antilia, Vulcan was the + father of Periphetes, a robber who infested Epidaurus, in the + Peloponnesus. He was so formidable with his club, that he was + called Corynetas, from +korune+, the Greek for 'a club.'] + + [Footnote 81: _Cephisus._--Ver. 438. Procrustes was a robber of + such extreme cruelty that he used to stretch out, or lop off, the + extremities of his captives, according as they were shorter or + longer than his bedstead. He infested the neighborhood of Eleusis, + in Attica, which was watered by the Cephisus. He was put to death + by Theseus.] + + [Footnote 82: _Cercyon._--Ver. 439. It was his custom to challenge + travellers to wrestle, and to kill them, if they declined the + contest, or were beaten in it. Theseus accepted his challenge; and + having overcome him, put him to death. Eleusis was especially + dedicated to Ceres; there the famous Eleusinian mysteries of that + Goddess were held.] + + [Footnote 83: _Sinnis._--Ver. 440. He was a robber of Attica, to + whom reference is made in the Ibis, line 409.] + + [Footnote 84: _Alcathoe._--Ver. 443. Megara, or Alcathoe, which + was founded by Lelex, was almost destroyed by Minos, and was + rebuilt by Alcathoues, the son of Pelops. He, flying from his + father, on being accused of the murder of his brother Chrysippus, + retired to the city of Megara, where, having slain a lion which + was then laying waste that territory, he was held in the highest + veneration by the inhabitants.] + + [Footnote 85: _Scyron._--Ver. 443. This robber haunted the rocks + in the neighborhood of Megara, and used to insist on those who + became his guests washing his feet. This being done upon the + rocks, Scyron used to kick the strangers into the sea while so + occupied, where a tortoise lay ready to devour the bodies. Theseus + killed him, and threw his body down the same rocks, which derived + their name of Saronic, or Scyronic, from this robber.] + + [Footnote 86: _Anaphe._--Ver. 461. This, and the other islands + here named, were near the isle of Crete, and perhaps in those + times were subject to the sway of Minos.] + + [Footnote 87: _Cimolus._--Ver. 463. Pliny the Elder tells us, that + this island was famous for producing a clay which seems to have + had much the properties of soap. It was of a grayish white color, + and was also employed for medicinal purposes.] + + [Footnote 88: _Seriphos._--Ver. 464. Commentators are at a loss to + know why Seriphos should here have the epithet 'plana,' 'level,' + inasmuch as it was a very craggy island. It is probably a corrupt + reading.] + + [Footnote 89: _Sithonian._--Ver. 466. This was Arne, whose story + is referred to in the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + If it is the fact, as many antiquarians suppose, that much of the + Grecian mythology was derived from that of the Egyptians, there can be + but little doubt that their system of the Elysian Fields and the + Infernal Regions was derived from the Egyptian notions on the future + state of man. The story too, of Cerberus is, perhaps, based upon the + custom of the Egyptians, who kept dogs to guard the fields or caverns + in which they kept their mummies. + + It is, however, very possible that the story of Cerberus may have been + founded upon a fact, or what was believed to be such. There was a + serpent which haunted the cavern of Taenarus, in Laconia, and ravaged + the districts adjacent to that promontory. This cave, being generally + considered to be one of the avenues to the kingdom of Pluto, the poets + thence derived the notion that this serpent was the guardian of its + portals. Pausanias observes, that Homer was the first who said that + Cerberus was a dog; though, in reality, he was a serpent, whose name + in the Greek language signified 'one that devours flesh.' The story + that Cerberus, with his foam, poisoned the herbs that grew in + Thessaly, and that the aconite and other poisonous plants were ever + after common there, is probably based on the simple fact, that those + herbs were found in great quantities in that region. + + Women, using these herbs in their pretended enchantments, gave ground + for the stories of the witches of Thessaly, and of their ability to + bring the moon down to the earth by their spells and incantations; + which latter notion was probably based on the circumstance, that these + women used to invoke the Night and the Moon as witnesses of their + magical operations. + + +FABLE V. [VII.469-613] + + Minos, having engaged several powers in his interest, and having been + refused by others, goes to the island of AEgina, where AEacus reigns, + to endeavor to secure an alliance with that prince; but without + success. Upon his departure, Cephalus arrives, as ambassador, from + Athens, and obtains succors from the king; who gives him an account of + the desolation which a pestilence had formerly made in his country, + and of the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + +But Oliaros,[90] and Didyme, and Tenos,[91] and Andros,[92] and +Gyaros,[93] and Peparethos, fruitful in the smooth olive,[94] do not aid +the Gnossian ships. Then Minos makes for Oenopia,[95] the kingdom of +AEacus, lying to the left. The ancients called it Oenopia, but AEacus +himself called it AEgina, from the name of his mother. The multitude +rushes forth, and desires greatly to know a man of so great celebrity. +Both Telamon,[96] and Peleus, younger than Telamon, and Phocus, the +{king's} third son, go to meet him. AEacus himself, too, {though} slow +through the infirmity of old age, goes forth, and asks him what is the +reason of his coming? The ruler of a hundred cities, being put in mind +of his fatherly sorrow {for his son}, sighs, and gives him this answer: +"I beg thee to assist arms taken up on account of my son; and be a party +in a war of affection. For his shades do I demand satisfaction." To him +the grandson of Asopus says, "Thou askest in vain, and for a thing not +to be done by my city; for, indeed, there is no land more closely allied +to the people of Cecropia. Such are {the terms of} our compact." {Minos} +goes away in sadness, and says, "This compact of thine will cost thee a +dear price;" and he thinks it more expedient to threaten war than to +wage it, and to waste his forces there prematurely. + +Even yet may the Lyctian[97] fleet be beheld from the Oenopian walls, +when an Attic ship, speeding onward with full sail, appears, and enters +the friendly harbor, which is carrying Cephalus, and together {with him} +the request of his native country. The youthful sons of AEacus recognize +Cephalus, although seen but after a long period, and give their right +hands, and lead him into the house of their father. The graceful hero, +even still retaining some traces of his former beauty, enters; and, +holding a branch of his country's olive, being the elder, he has on his +right and left hand the two younger in age, Clytus and Butes, the sons +of Pallas.[98] After their first meeting has had words suitable +{thereto}, Cephalus relates the request of the people of Cecrops, and +begs assistance, and recounts the treaties and alliances of their +forefathers; and he adds, that the subjection of the whole of Achaia is +aimed at. After the eloquence {of Cephalus} has thus promoted the cause +entrusted to him, AEacus, leaning with his left hand on the handle of his +sceptre, says-- + +"Ask not for assistance, O Athens, but take it, and consider, beyond +doubt, the resources which this island possesses, as thy own, and let +all the forces of my kingdom go {along with thee}. Strength is not +wanting. I have soldiers enough both for my defence, and for {opposing} +the enemy. Thanks to the Gods; this is a prosperous time, and one that +can excuse no refusal of mine." "Yes, {and} be it so," says +Cephalus:[99] "and I pray that thy power may increase along with thy +citizens. Indeed, as I came along just now, I received {much} pleasure, +when a number of youths, so comely and so equal in their ages, came +forward to meet me. Yet I miss many from among them, whom I once saw +when I was formerly entertained in this city." AEacus heaves a sigh, and +thus he says, with mournful voice: "A better fortune will be following a +lamentable beginning; I {only} wish I could relate this to you. I will +now tell it you without any order, that I may not be detaining you by +any long preamble.[100] They are {now} lying as bones and ashes, for +whom thou art inquiring with tenacious memory. And how great a part were +they of my resources that perished! A dreadful pestilence fell upon my +people, through the anger of the vengeful Juno, who hated a country +named[101] from her rival. While the calamity seemed natural, and the +baneful cause of so great destruction was unknown, it was opposed by the +resources of medicine. {But} the havoc exceeded {all} help, which {now} +lay baffled. At first the heaven encompassed the earth with a thick +darkness, and enclosed within its clouds a drowsy heat. And while the +Moon was four times filling her orb by joining her horns, {and}, four +times decreasing, was diminishing her full orb, the hot South winds were +blowing with their deadly blasts. It is known for a fact that the +infection came even into fountains and lakes, and that many thousands of +serpents were wandering over the uncultivated fields, and were tainting +the rivers with their venom. The violence of this sudden distemper was +first discovered by the destruction of dogs, and birds, and sheep, and +oxen, and among the wild beasts. The unfortunate ploughman wonders that +strong oxen fall down at their work, and lie stretched in the middle of +the furrow. {And} while the wool-bearing flocks utter weakly bleatings, +both their wool falls off spontaneously, and their bodies pine away. The +horse, once of high mettle, and of great fame on the course, degenerates +for the {purposes of} victory; and, forgetting his ancient honors, he +groans at the manger, doomed to perish by an inglorious distemper. The +boar remembers not to be angry, nor the hind to trust to her speed, nor +the bears to rush upon the powerful herds. + +"A faintness seizes all {animals}; both in the woods, in the fields, and +in the roads, loathsome carcases lie strewed. The air is corrupted with +the smell {of them}. I am relating strange events. The dogs, and the +ravenous birds, and the hoary wolves, touch them not; falling away, they +rot, and, by their exhalations, produce baneful effects, and spread the +contagion far and wide. With more dreadful destruction the pestilence +reaches the wretched husbandmen, and riots within the walls of the +extensive city. At first, the bowels are scorched,[102] and a redness, +and the breath drawn with difficulty, is a sign of the latent flame. The +tongue, {grown} rough, swells; and the parched mouth gapes, with its +throbbing veins; the noxious air, too, is inhaled by the breathing. {The +infected} cannot endure a bed, or any coverings; but they lay their +hardened breasts upon the earth, and their bodies are not made cool by +the ground, but the ground is made hot by their bodies. There is no +physician at hand; the cruel malady breaks out upon even those who +administer remedies; and {their own} arts become an injury to their +owners. The nearer at hand any one is, and the more faithfully he +attends on the sick, the sooner does he come in for his share of the +fatality. And when the hope of recovery is departed, and they see the +end of their malady {only} in death, they indulge their humors, and +there is no concern as to what is to their advantage; for, {indeed}, +nothing is to their advantage. All sense, too, of shame being banished, +they lie {promiscuously} close to the fountains and rivers, and deep +wells; and their thirst is not extinguished by drinking, before their +life {is}. Many, overpowered {with the disease}, are unable to arise +thence, and die amid the very water; and yet another even drinks that +{water}. So great, too, is the irksomeness for the wretched {creatures} +of their hated beds, {that} they leap out, or, if their strength forbids +them standing, they roll their bodies upon the ground, and every man +flies from his own dwelling; each one's house seems fatal to him: and +since the cause of the calamity is unknown, the place that is known is +blamed. You might see persons, half dead, wandering about the roads, as +long as they were able to stand; others, weeping and lying about on the +ground, and rolling their wearied eyes with the dying movement. They +stretch, too, their limbs towards the stars of the overhanging heavens, +breathing forth their lives here and there, where death has overtaken +them. + +"What were my feelings then? Were they not such as they ought to be, to +hate life, and to desire to be a sharer with my people? On whichever +side my eyes were turned, there was the multitude strewed {on the +earth}, just as when rotten apples fall from the moved branches, and +acorns from the shaken holm-oak. Thou seest[103] a lofty temple, +opposite {thee}, raised on high with long steps: Jupiter has it {as his +own}. Who did not offer incense at those altars in vain? how often did +the husband, while he was uttering words of entreaty for his wife, {or} +the father for his son, end his life at the altars without prevailing? +in his hand, too, was part of the frankincense found unconsumed! How +often did the bulls, when brought to the temples, while the priest was +making his supplications, and pouring the pure wine between their horns, +fall without waiting for the wound! While I myself was offering +sacrifice to Jupiter, for myself, and my country, and my three sons, the +victim sent forth dismal lowings, and suddenly falling down without any +blow, stained the knives thrust into it, with its scanty blood; the +diseased entrails, too, had lost {all} marks of truth, and the warnings +of the Gods. The baneful malady penetrated to the entrails. I have seen +the carcases lying, thrown out before the sacred doors; before the very +altars, {too}, that death might become more odious[104] {to the Gods}. +Some finish their lives with the halter, and by death dispel the +apprehension of death, and voluntarily invite approaching fate. The +bodies of the dead are not borne out with any funeral rites, according +to the custom; for the {city} gates cannot receive {the multitude of} +the processions. Either unburied they lie upon the ground, or they are +laid on the lofty pyres without the usual honors. And now there is no +distinction, and they struggle for the piles; and they are burnt on +fires that belong to others. They who should weep are wanting; and the +souls of sons, and of husbands, of old and of young, wander about +unlamented: there is not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for +the fires." + + [Footnote 90: _Oliaros._--Ver. 469. This was one of the Cyclades, + in the AEgean sea; it was colonized by the Sidonians.] + + [Footnote 91: _Tenos._--Ver. 469. This island was famous for a + temple there, sacred to Neptune.] + + [Footnote 92: _Andros._--Ver. 469. This was an island in the AEgean + Sea, near Euboea. It received its name from Andros, the son of + Anius. The Andrian slave, who gives his name to one of the + comedies of Terence, was supposed to be a native of this island.] + + [Footnote 93: _Gyaros._--Ver. 470. This was a sterile island among + the Cyclades; in later times, the Romans made it a penal + settlement for their criminals. The mice of this island were said + to be able to gnaw iron; perhaps, because they were starved by + reason of its unfruitfulness.] + + [Footnote 94: _Smooth olive._--Ver. 470. Clarke translates 'nitidae + olivae' 'the neat olive.' 'Nitidus' here means 'smooth and + shining.'] + + [Footnote 95: _Oenopia._--Ver. 473. This was the ancient name of + the isle of AEgina, in the Saronic Gulf, famous as being the native + place of the family of the AEacidae. It obtained its later name from + AEgina, the daughter of Asopus, and the mother of AEacus, whom + Jupiter carried thither.] + + [Footnote 96: _Telamon._--Ver. 476. Telamon, Peleus, and Phocus, + were the three sons of AEacus.] + + [Footnote 97: _Lyctian._--Ver. 490. Lyctus was the name of one of + the cities of Crete.] + + [Footnote 98: _Pallas._--Ver. 500. This was either Pallas the son + of Pandion, king of Athens, or of Neleus, the brother of Theseus. + This Pallas, together with his sons, was afterwards slain by + Theseus.] + + [Footnote 99: _Cephalus._--Ver. 512. He was the son of Deioneus, + or according to some writers, of Mercury and Herse, the daughter + of Cecrops.] + + [Footnote 100: _Long preamble._--Ver. 520. Clarke translates 'neu + longa ambage morer vos,' 'that I may not detain you with a + long-winded detail of it.'] + + [Footnote 101: _Country named._--Ver. 524. This was the island of + AEgina, so called from the Nymph who was carried thither by + Jupiter.] + + [Footnote 102: _Bowels are scorched._--Ver. 554. Clarke quaintly + renders the words 'viscera torrentur primo.' 'first people's + bowels are searched;' perhaps, however, the latter word is a + misprint for 'scorched.'] + + [Footnote 103: _Thou seest._--Ver. 587. As AEacus says this, he + must be supposed to point with his finger towards the temple.] + + [Footnote 104: _More odious._--Ver. 603. Dead bodies were supposed + to be particularly offensive to the Gods.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + Minos (most probably the second prince that bore that name), upon his + accession to the throne, after the death of his father, Lycastus, made + several conquests in the islands adjoining Crete, where he reigned, + and, at last, became master of those seas. The strength of his fleet + is particularly remarked by Thucydides, Apollodorus, and Diodorus + Siculus. + + The Feast of the Panathenaea being celebrated at Athens, Minos sent his + son Androgeus to it, who joined as a combatant in the games, and was + sufficiently skilful to win all the prizes. The glory which he thereby + acquired, combined with his polished manners, obtained him the + friendship of the sons of Pallas, the brother of AEgeus. This + circumstance caused AEgeus to entertain jealous feelings, the more + especially as he knew that his nephews were conspiring against him. + Being informed that Androgeus was about to take a journey to Thebes, + he caused him to be assassinated near Oenoe, a town on the confines of + Attica. Apollodorus, indeed, says that he was killed by the Bull of + Marathon, which was then making great ravages in Greece; but it is + very possible that the Athenians encouraged this belief, with the view + of screening their king from the infamy of an action so inhuman and + unjust. Diodorus Siculus and Plutarch agree in stating that AEgeus + himself caused Androgeus to be murdered. + + On hearing the news of his son's death, Minos resolved on revenge. He + ordered a strong fleet to be fitted out, and went in person to several + courts, to contract alliances, and engage other powers to assist him; + and this, with the history of the plague at AEgina, forms the subject + of the present narrative. + + +FABLE VI. [VII.614-660] + + Jupiter, at the prayer of his son AEacus, transforms the ants that are + in the hollow of an old oak into men; these, from the Greek name of + those insects, are called Myrmidons. + +"Stupefied by so great an outburst of misery, I said, 'O Jupiter! if +stories do not falsely say that thou didst come into the embraces of +AEgina, the daughter of Asopus, and thou art not ashamed, great Father, +to be the parent of myself; either restore my people to me, or else bury +me, as well, in the sepulchre.' He gave a signal by lightnings, and by +propitious thunders. I accepted {the omen}, and I said, 'I pray that +these may be happy signs of thy intentions: the omen which thou givest +me, I accept as a pledge.' By chance there was close by, an oak sacred +to Jupiter, of seed from Dodona,[105] but thinly covered with +wide-spreading boughs. Here we beheld some ants, the gatherers of corn, +in a long train, carrying a heavy burden in their little mouths, and +keeping their track in the wrinkled bark. While I was wondering at their +numbers, I said, 'Do thou, most gracious Father, give me citizens as +many in number, and replenish my empty walls.' The lofty oak trembled, +and made a noise in its boughs, moving without a breeze. My limbs +quivered, with trembling fear, and my hair stood on an end; yet I gave +kisses to the earth and to the oak, nor did I confess that I had any +hopes; {and} yet I did hope, and I cherished my own wishes in my mind. +Night came on, and sleep seized my body wearied with anxiety. Before my +eyes the same oak seemed to be present, and to bear as many branches, +and as many animals in its branches, and to be trembling with a similar +motion, and to be scattering the grain-bearing troop on the fields +below. These suddenly grew, and seemed greater and greater, and raised +themselves from the ground, and stood with their bodies upright; and +laid aside their leanness, and the {former} number of their feet, and +their sable hue, and assumed in their limbs the human shape. + +"Sleep departs. When {now} awake, I censured the vision, and complained +that there was no help for me from the Gods above. But within my palace +there was a great murmur, and I seemed to be hearing the voices of men, +to which I had now become unaccustomed. While I was supposing that +these, too, were {a part} of my dream, lo! Telamon came in haste, and, +opening the door, said, 'Father, thou wilt see things beyond thy hopes +or expectations. Do come out.' I did go out, and I beheld and recognized +such men, each in his turn, as I had seemed to behold in the vision of +my sleep. They approached, and saluted me as their king. I offered up +vows to Jupiter, and divided the city and the lands void of their former +tillers, among this new-made people, and I called them Myrmidons,[106] +and did not deprive their name {of the marks} of their origin. Thou hast +beheld their persons. Even still do they retain the manners which they +formerly had; and they are a thrifty race, patient of toil, tenacious of +what they get, and what they get they lay up. These, alike in years and +in courage, will attend thee to the war, as soon as the East wind, which +brought thee prosperously hither (for the East wind had brought him), +shall have changed to the South." + + [Footnote 105: _From Dodona._--Ver. 623. Dodona was a town of + Chaonia, in Epirus, so called from Dodone, the daughter of Jupiter + and Europa. Near it was a temple and a wood sacred to Jupiter, + which was famous for the number and magnitude of its oaks. Doves + were said to give oracular responses there, probably from the + circumstance that the female soothsayers of Thessaly were called + +peleiadai+. Some writers, however, say that the oaks had the gift + of speech, combined with that of prophesying.] + + [Footnote 106: _Myrmidons._--Ver. 654. From the Greek word + +murmex+, 'an ant;' according to this version of the story.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + This fable, perhaps, has no other foundation than the retreat of the + subjects of AEacus into woods and caverns, whence they returned, when + the contagion had ceased with which their country had been afflicted, + and when he had nearly lost all hopes of seeing them again. It is + probable that the old men were carried off by the plague, while the + young, who had more strength, resisted its power, which circumstance + would fully account for the active habits of the remaining subjects of + AEacus. Some writers, however, suppose that the Myrmidons were a + barbarous, but industrious people of Thessaly, who usually dwelt in + caves, and who were brought thence by AEacus to people his island, + which had been made desolate by a pestilence. The similarity of their + name to the Greek word +murmex+, signifying 'an ant,' most probably + gave occasion to the report that Jupiter had changed ants into men. + + +FABLE VII. [VII.661-793] + + Cephalus, having resisted the advances of Aurora, who has become + enamoured of him while hunting, returns in disguise to his wife, + Procris, to try if her affection for him is sincere. She, discovering + his suspicions, flies to the woods, and becomes a huntress, with the + determination not to see him again. Afterwards, on becoming reconciled + to him, she bestows on him a dog and a dart, which Diana had once + given her. The dog is turned into stone, while hunting a wild beast, + which Themis has sent to ravage the territories of Thebes, after the + interpretation of the riddle of the Sphinx, by Oedipus. + +In these and other narratives they passed the day. The last part of the +day was spent in feasting, and the night in sleep. The golden Sun had +{now} shed his beams, {when} the East wind was still blowing, and +detained the sails about to return. The sons of Pallas repair to +Cephalus, who was stricken in years. Cephalus and the sons of Pallas, +together {with him}, {come} to the king; but a sound sleep still +possessed the monarch. Phocus, the son of AEacus, received them at the +threshold; for Telamon and his brother were levying men for the war. +Phocus conducted the citizens of Cecrops into an inner room, and a +handsome apartment. Soon as he had sat down with them, he observed that +the grandson of AEolus[107] was holding in his hand a javelin made of an +unknown wood, the point of which was of gold. + +Having first spoken a few words in promiscuous conversation, he said, +"I am fond of the forests, and of the chase of wild beasts; still, from +what wood the shaft of the javelin, which thou art holding, is cut, +I have been for some time in doubt; certainly, if it were of wild ash, +it would be of brown color; if of cornel-wood, there would be knots in +it. Whence it comes I am ignorant, but my eyes have not looked upon a +weapon used for a javelin, more beautiful than this." One of the +Athenian brothers replied, and said, "In it, thou wilt admire its +utility, {even} more than its beauty. Whatever it is aimed at, it +strikes; chance does not guide it when thrown, and it flies back stained +with blood, no one returning it." Then, indeed, does the Nereian +youth[108] inquire into all particulars, why it was given, and whence +{it came}? who was the author of a present of so great value? What he +asks, {Cephalus} tells him; but as to what he is ashamed to tell, {and} +on what condition he received it, he is silent; and, being touched with +sorrow for the loss of his wife, he thus speaks, with tears bursting +forth: "Son of a Goddess, this weapon (who could have believed it?) +makes me weep, and long will make me do so, if the Fates shall grant me +long to live. 'Twas this that proved the destruction of me and of my +dear wife. Would that I had ever been without this present! Procris was +(if perchance {the fame of} Orithyia[109] may have more probably reached +thy ears) the sister of Orithyia, the victim of violence. If you should +choose to compare the face and the manners of the two, she was the more +worthy to be carried off. Her father Erectheus united her to me; love, +{too}, united her to me. I was pronounced happy, and {so} I was. Not +thus did it seem {good} to the Gods; or even now, perhaps, I should be +{so}. The second month was now passing, after the marriage rites, when +the saffron-colored Aurora, dispelling the darkness in the morn, beheld +me, as I was planting nets for the horned deer, from the highest summit +of the ever-blooming Hymettus,[110] and carried me off against my will. +By the permission of the Goddess, let me relate what is true; though she +is comely with her rosy face, {and} though she possesses the confines of +light, and possesses {the confines} of darkness, though she is nourished +with the draughts of nectar, {still} I loved Procris; Procris was {ever} +in my thoughts, Procris was ever on my lips. I alleged the sacred ties +of marriage, our late embraces, and our recent union, and the prior +engagements of my forsaken bed. The Goddess was provoked, and said, +'Cease thy complaints, ungrateful man; keep thy Procris; but, if my mind +is gifted with foresight, thou wilt wish that thou hadst not had her;'" +and {thus}, in anger, she sent me back to her. + +"While I was returning, and was revolving the sayings of the Goddess +within myself, there began to be apprehensions that my wife had not duly +observed the laws of wedlock. Both her beauty and her age bade me be +apprehensive of her infidelity; {yet} her virtue forbade me to believe +it. But yet, I had been absent; and besides, she, from whom I was {just} +returning, was an example of {such} criminality: but we that are in +love, apprehend all {mishaps}. I {then} endeavored to discover that, by +reason of which I must feel anguish, and by bribes to make attempts[111] +upon her chaste constancy. Aurora encouraged this apprehension, and +changed my shape, {as} I seemed {then} to perceive. I entered Athens, +the city of Pallas, unknown {to any one}, and I went into my own house. +The house itself was without fault, and gave indications of chastity, +and was in concern for the carrying off of its master. + +"Having, with difficulty, made my way to the daughter of Erectheus by +means of a thousand artifices, soon as I beheld her, I was amazed, and +was nearly abandoning my projected trial of her constancy; with +difficulty did I restrain myself from telling the truth, with difficulty +from giving her the kisses which I ought. She was in sorrow; but yet no +one could be more beautiful than she, {even} in her sadness; and she was +consuming with regret for her husband, torn from her. {Only} think, +Phocus, how great was the beauty of her, whom even sorrow did so much +become. Why should I tell how often her chaste manners repulsed {all} my +attempts? How often she said, 'I am reserved for {but} one, wherever he +is; for that one do I reserve my joys.' For whom, in his senses, would +not that trial of her fidelity have been sufficiently great? {Yet} I was +not content; and I strove to wound myself, while I was promising to give +vast sums for {but one} night, and forced her at last to waver, by +increasing the reward. {On this} I cried out, 'Lo! I, the gallant in +disguise, to my sorrow, {and} lavish in promises, to my misery, am thy +real husband; thou treacherous woman! thou art caught, {and} I the +witness.' She said nothing: only, overwhelmed with silent shame, she +fled from the house of treachery, together with her wicked husband; and +from her resentment against me, abhorring the whole race of men, she +used to wander[112] on the mountains, employed in the pursuits of Diana. +Then, a more violent flame penetrated to my bones, thus deserted. +I begged forgiveness, and owned myself in fault; and that I too might +have yielded to a similar fault, on presents being made; if presents so +large had been offered. Upon my confessing this, having first revenged +her offended modesty, she was restored to me, and passed the pleasant +years in harmony with me. She gave me, besides, as though in herself she +had given me but a small present, a dog as a gift, which when her own +Cynthia had presented to her, she had said, 'He will excel all dogs in +running.' She gave her, too, a javelin, which, as thou seest, I am +carrying in my hand. + +"Dost thou inquire what was the fortune of the other present--hear +{then}. Thou wilt be astonished at the novelty of the wondrous fact. The +son of Laius[113] had solved the verses not understood by the wit of +others before him; and the mysterious propounder lay precipitated, +forgetful of her riddle. But the genial Themis,[114] forsooth, did not +leave such things unrevenged. Immediately another plague was sent forth +against Aonian Thebes; and many of the peasants fed the savage monster, +both by the destruction of their cattle, and their own as well. We, the +neighboring youth, came together, and enclosed the extensive fields with +toils. With a light bound it leaped over the nets, and passed over the +topmost barriers of the toils that were set. The couples were taken off +the dogs, from which, as they followed, it fled, and eluded them, no +otherwise than as a winged bird. I myself, too, was requested, with +eager demands, for my {dog} Laelaps [{Tempest}]; that was the name of {my +wife's} present. For some time already had he been struggling to get +free from the couples, and strained them with his neck, as they detained +him. Scarce was he well let loose; and {yet} we could not now tell where +he was; the warm dust had the prints of his feet, {but} he himself was +snatched from our eyes. A spear does not fly swifter than he {did}, nor +pellets whirled from the twisted sling, nor the light arrow from the +Gortynian bow.[115] The top of a hill, {standing} in the middle, looks +down upon the plains below. Thither I mount, and I enjoy the sight of an +unusual chase; wherein the wild beast[116] one while seemed to be +caught, at another to elude his very bite; and it does not fly in a +direct course, and straight onward, but deceives his mouth, as he +pursues it, and returns in circles, that its enemy may not have his full +career against it. He keeps close to it, and pursues it, a match for +him; and {though} like as if he has caught it, {still} he fails to catch +it, and vainly snaps at the air. I was {now} turning to the resources of +my javelin; while my right hand was poising it, {and} while I was +attempting to insert my fingers in the thongs {of it}, I turned away my +eyes; and again I had directed them, recalled to the same spot, when, +{most} wondrous, I beheld two marble statues in the middle of the plain; +you would think the one was flying, the other barking {in pursuit}. Some +God undoubtedly, if any God {really} did attend to them, desired them +both to remain unconquered in this contest of speed." + + [Footnote 107: _AEolus._--Ver. 672. Apollodorus reckons Deioneus, + the parent of Cephalus, among the children of Apollo.] + + [Footnote 108: _Nereian youth._--Ver. 685. Phocus, who was the son + of AEacus, by Psamathe, the daughter of Nereus.] + + [Footnote 109: _Orithyia._--Ver. 695. She was the daughter of + Erectheus, king of Athens, and was carried off by Boreas, as + already stated.] + + [Footnote 110: _Hymettus._--Ver. 702. This was a mountain of + Attica, famous for its honey and its marble.] + + [Footnote 111: _To make attempts._--Ver. 721. Tzetzes informs us + that she was found by her husband in company with a young man + named Pteleon, who had made her a present of a golden wreath. + Antoninus Liberalis says, that her husband tried her fidelity by + offering her a bribe, through the medium of a slave.] + + [Footnote 112: _Used to wander._--Ver. 746. Some writers say that + she fled to Crete, on which, Diana, who was aware of the + attachment of Aurora for her husband, made her a present of a + javelin, which no person could escape; and gave her the dog + Laelaps, which no wild beast could outrun. Such is the version + given by Hyginus. But Apollodorus and Antoninus Liberalis say, + that she fled to Minos, who, prevailing over her virtue, made her + a present of the dog and the javelin. Afterwards, presenting + herself before her husband, disguised as a huntress, she gave him + proofs of the efficacy of them; and upon his requesting her to + give them to him, she exacted, as a condition, what must, + apparently, have resulted in a breach of the laws of conjugal + fidelity. On his assenting to the proposal, she discovered + herself, and afterwards made him the presents which he desired.] + + [Footnote 113: _The son of Laius._--Ver. 759. Oedipus was the son + of Laius, king of Thebes. The Sphinx was a monster, the offspring + of Typhon and Echidna, which haunted a mountain near Thebes. Oedipus + solved the riddle which it proposed for solution, on which the + monster precipitated itself from a rock. It had the face of a + woman, the wings of a bird, and the extremities of a lion.] + + [Footnote 114: _Genial Themis._--Ver. 762. Themis had a very + ancient oracle in Boeotia.] + + [Footnote 115: _Gortynian bow._--Ver. 778. Crete was called + Gortynian, from Gortys or Gortyna, one of its cities, which was + famous for the skill of its inhabitants in archery.] + + [Footnote 116: _The wild beast._--Ver. 782. Antoninus Liberalis + and Apollodorus say that this was a fox, which was called 'the + Teumesian,' from Teumesus, a mountain of Boeotia, and that the + Thebans, to appease its voracity, were wont to give it a child to + devour every month. Palaephatus says that it was not a wild beast, + but a man called Alopis.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + There were two princes of the name of Cephalus; one, the son of + Mercury and Herse, the daughter of Cecrops; the other, the son of + Deioneus, king of Phocis, and Diomeda, the daughter of Xuthus. The + first was carried off by Aurora, and went to live with her in Syria; + the second married Procris, the daughter of Erectheus, king of Athens. + Though Apollodorus seems, in the first instance, to follow this + genealogy, in his third book he confounds the actions of those two + princes. Ovid and other writers have spoken only of the son of + Deioneus, who was carried off by Aurora, and having left her, + according to them, returned to Procris. + + +FABLE VIII. [VII.794-865] + + Procris, jealous of Cephalus, in her turn, goes to the forest, which + she supposes to be the scene of his infidelity, to surprise him. + Hearing the rustling noise which she makes in the thicket, where she + lies concealed, he imagines it is a wild beast, and, hurling the + javelin, which she has formerly given to him, he kills her. + +Thus far {did he speak}; and {then} he was silent. "But," said Phocus, +"what fault is there in that javelin?" {whereupon} he thus informed him +of the demerits of the javelin. "Let my joys, Phocus, be the first +portion of my sorrowful story. These will I first relate. O son of +AEacus, I delight to remember the happy time, during which, for the first +years {after my marriage}, I was completely blessed in my wife, {and} +she was happy in her husband. A mutual kindness and social love +possessed us both. Neither would she have preferred the bed of Jupiter +before my love; nor was there any woman that could have captivated me, +not {even} if Venus herself had come. Equal flames fired the breasts {of +us both}. The Sun striking the tops of the mountains with his early +rays, I was wont generally to go with youthful ardor into the woods, to +hunt; but I neither suffered my servants, nor my horses, nor my +quick-scented hounds to go {with me}, nor the knotty nets to attend me; +I was safe with my javelin. But when my right hand was satiated with the +slaughter of wild beasts, I betook myself to the cool spots and the +shade, and the breeze which was breathing forth from the cool valleys. +The gentle breeze was sought by me, in the midst of the heat. For the +breeze was I awaiting; that was a refreshment after my toils: 'Come, +breeze,' I was wont to sing, for I remember it {full well}, 'and, most +grateful, refresh me, and enter my breast; and, as thou art wont, be +willing to assuage the heat with which I am parched.' Perhaps I may have +added ({for} so my destiny prompted me) many words of endearment, and I +may have been accustomed to say, 'Thou art my great delight; thou dost +refresh and cherish me; thou makest me to love the woods and lonely +haunts, and thy breath is ever courted by my face.' I was not aware that +some one was giving an ear, deceived by these ambiguous words; and +thinking the name of the breeze, so often called upon by me, to be that +of a Nymph, he believed some Nymph was beloved by me. + +"The rash informer of an imaginary crime immediately went to Procris, +and with his whispering tongue related what he had heard. Love is a +credulous thing. When it was told her, she fell down fainting, with +sudden grief; and coming to, after a long time, she declared that she +was wretched, and {born} to a cruel destiny; and she complained about my +constancy. Excited by a groundless charge,[117] she dreads that which, +{indeed}, is nothing; {and} fears a name without a body; and, in her +wretchedness, grieves as though about a real rival. Yet she is often in +doubt, and, in her extreme wretchedness, hopes she may be deceived, and +denies credit to the information; and unless she beholds it herself, +will not pass sentence upon the criminality of her husband. The +following light of the morning had banished the night, when I sallied +forth, and sought the woods; and being victorious in the fields, I said, +'Come, breeze, and relieve my pain;' and suddenly I seemed to hear I +know not what groans in the midst of my words; yet I said, 'Come hither, +most delightful {breeze}.' Again, the falling leaves making a gentle +noise, I thought it was a wild beast, and I discharged my flying weapon. +It was Procris; and receiving the wound in the middle of her breast, she +cried out, 'Ah, wretched me!' When the voice of my attached wife was +heard, headlong and distracted, I ran towards {that} voice. I found her +dying, and staining her scattered vestments with blood, and drawing her +own present (ah, wretched me!) from out of her wound; I lifted up her +body, dearer to me than my own, in my guilty arms, and I bound up her +cruel wounds with the garments torn from my bosom; and I endeavored to +stanch the blood, and besought her that she would not forsake me, {thus} +criminal, by her death. She, wanting strength, and now expiring, forced +herself to utter these few words: + +"'I suppliantly beseech thee, by the ties of our marriage, and by the +Gods above, and my own Gods, and if I have deserved anything well of +thee, by that {as well}, and by the cause of my death, my love even now +enduring, while I am perishing, do not allow the Nymph Aura [{breeze}] +to share with thee my marriage ties.' She {thus} spoke; and then, at +last, I perceived the mistake of the name, and informed her of it. But +what avails informing her? She sinks; and her little strength flies, +together with her blood. And so long as she can look on anything, she +gazes on me, and breathes out upon me, on my face,[118] her unhappy +life; but she seems to die free from care, and with a more contented +look." + +In tears, the hero is relating these things to them, as they weep, and, +lo! AEacus enters, with his two sons,[119] and his soldiers newly levied; +which Cephalus received, {furnished} with valorous arms. + + [Footnote 117: _Groundless charge._--Ver. 829. Possibly, Ovid may + intend to imply that her jealousy received an additional stimulus + from the similarity of the name 'Aura' to that of her former + rival, Aurora.] + + [Footnote 118: _On my face._--Ver. 861. He alludes to the + prevalent custom of catching the breath of the dying person in the + mouth.] + + [Footnote 119: _His two sons._--Ver. 864. These were Telamon and + Peleus, who had levied these troops.] + + +EXPLANATION. + + The love which Cephalus, the son of Deioneus, bore for the chase, + causing him to rise early in the morning for the enjoyment of his + sport, was the origin of the story of his love for Aurora. His wife, + Procris, as Apollodorus tells us, carried on an amour with Pteleon, + and, probably, caused that report to be spread abroad, to divert + attention from her own intrigue. Cephalus, suspecting his wife's + infidelity, she fled to the court of the second Minos, king of Crete, + who fell in love with her. Having, thereby, incurred the resentment of + Pasiphae, who adopted several methods to destroy her rival, and, among + others, spread poison in her bed, she left Crete, and returned to + Thoricus, the place of her former residence, where she was reconciled + to Cephalus, and gave him the celebrated dog and javelin mentioned by + Ovid. + + The poets tell us, that this dog was made by Vulcan, and presented by + him to Jupiter, who gave him to Europa; and that coming to the hands + of her son Minos, he presented it to Procris. The wild beast, which + ravaged the country, and was pursued by the dog of Procris, and which + some writers tell us was a monstrous fox, was probably a pirate or sea + robber; and being, perhaps, pursued by some Cretan officer of Minos, + who escorted Procris back to her country, on their vessels being + shipwrecked near some rocks, it gave occasion to the story that the + dog and the monster had been changed into stone. Indeed, Tzetzes says + distinctly, that the dog was called Cyon, and the monster, or fox, + Alopis; and he also says that Cyon was the captain who brought Procris + back from Crete. It being believed that resentment had some share in + causing the death of Procris, the court of the Areiopagus condemned + Cephalus to perpetual banishment. The island of Cephalenia, which + received its name from him, having been given to him by Amphitryon, he + retired to it, where his son Celeus afterwards succeeded him. + + + + +The Hamilton, Locke and Clark + +SERIES OF + +Interlinear Translations + +Have long been the Standard and are now the _Best Translated_ and _Most +Complete_ Series of Interlinears published. + +=12mo., well bound in Half Leather.= + +=Price reduced to $1.50 each. Postpaid to any address.= + +_Latin Interlinear Translations:_ + + VIRGIL--By Hart and Osborne. + CAESAR--By Hamilton and Clark. + HORACE--By Stirling, Nuttall and Clark. + CICERO--By Hamilton and Clark. + SALLUST--By Hamilton and Clark. + OVID--By George W. Heilig. + JUVENAL--By Hamilton and Clark. + LIVY--By Hamilton and Clark. + CORNELIUS NEPOS--By Hamilton and Underwood. + +_Greek Interlinear Translations:_ + + HOMER'S ILIAD--By Thomas Clark. + XENOPHON'S ANABASIS--By Hamilton and Clark. + GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN--By George W. Heilig. + +=S. Austin Allibone, the distinguished author, writes:= + +"There is a growing disapprobation, both in Great Britain and America, +of the disproportionate length of time devoted by the youthful student +to the acquisition of the dead languages; and therefore nothing will +tend so effectually to the preservation of the Greek and Latin grammars +as their judicious union (the fruit of an intelligent compromise) with +the Interlinear Classics." + +=DAVID McKAY, Publisher, Philadelphia,= + +Formerly published by Charles De Silver & Sons. + + + * * * * * + * * * * + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Note on the Text: + +Ovid's _Metamorphoses_, translated by Henry Thomas Riley (1816-1878, +B.A. 1840, M.A. 1859), was originally published in 1851 as part of +Bohn's Classical Library. This e-text, covering Books I-VII, uses +material from two reprints: + +George Bell (London, 1893, one volume). This edition is described on +its title page as "reprinted from the stereotype plates". These may have +been the original 1851 plates, since the entire _Classical Library_ had +been sold by Bohn to Bell & Daldy, later George Bell. + +David McKay (Philadelphia, 1899, two volumes), with introduction by +Edward Brooks. The introductory material from the Bell/Bohn edition is +absent. This edition was freshly typeset, correcting a few errors in the +Bell/Bohn edition but also introducing a number of new errors. + +The McKay edition was the "base" of the e-text. The scanned, proofread +text was computer-checked against the text of the Bell edition, and +differences were in turn checked against page images of the printed +books. Where appropriate, the text was checked against one or more +versions of the Latin original. Most differences are trivial. McKay uses +American spelling such as "honor" for "honour", and compound forms such +as "northwest" for "north-west"; punctuation is often changed, though +some apparent variations may be due to the quality of printing and +reproduction. Non-trivial differences are listed in the Errata, below. + +Note that the title page of the Bell edition lists the translator as +"Henry T. Riley, B.A.", while the McKay edition has "M.A." The sequence +of dates-- original publication 1851, Riley M.A. 1859, reprint 1893-- +supports the idea that the Bell edition is a strict facsimile. + + * * * * * + * * * * + +_Errors and Anomalies noted by transcriber_ + +Errors are grouped thematically: + significant errors and inconsistencies; + variant spellings, including name forms; + Greek; + punctuation; + line and footnote numbering. +Abbreviations in the form "II.XIV Exp" mean "Book II, Fable XIV, +Explanation" (appended to most Fables); "Syn" means Synopsis (prefaced +to each Fable). + + +_Shared errors and irregularities (present in both McKay and Bell +editions), with original text in brackets []_ + +I.XII: the light breeze spread behind her her careless locks + _read as "spread her careless locks behind her"_ + _in McKay, "her her" is printed at a line break and can easily be + mistaken for an error_ +I.XII Footnote 82, Pope quotation + _McKay reads "trembling dove" and "reached her"; other + modernizations in spelling are shared by both editions_ +I.V: the dreadful carcasses + _anomalous spelling: both editions normally use "carcase(s)"_ +II.I _and_ Footnote 16: Haemus [Hoemus] +II.I Exp: Herse, the daughter of Cecrops (Hersa) +II.III Footnote 57: 2 Kings, xx. 11 [xx. 7] +II.XIV Exp: which Hesychius calls ... [Hesychus] +III.IV Footnote 62: ... AEneid (l. 620) [l. 260] +IV.I Footnote 3: Alcathoe, Leucippe, and Aristippe + _text unchanged; may be error for "Alcithoe"_ +IV.II Footnote 39: 'Virgo victa nitore Dei.' [uitore] +V.V Footnote 60: The zone, or girdle ... was much worn + _Bell has "was much wore"; McKay has "were much worn"_ +V.VI Footnote 75: adjoining to the Elean territory [Eleon] +VI.I: the sley separates the warp + _this technical term is missing from many dictionaries_ +VI.III Footnote 47: 'brekekekekex koaex koaex.' + _text unchanged (one syllable too many)_ +VII.IV Footnote 89: the Explanation, p. 242 / p. 270 + _final paragraph of the Explanation of Fable VII.III_ +VII.V Footnote 92: The Andrian slave, who gives his name [its name] + + +_Errors or variations introduced by McKay, with original text in +brackets []. Unless otherwise noted, the Bell version was treated as +the correct form. Italics in the translation (here shown in braces {}) +are considered non-trivial because they indicate text added by the +translator, not present in the Latin original._ + +I.II Footnote 19: she was supposed to have her habitation + [habitations] +I.II Footnote 22: Ver. 64. [34] +I.III Exp: the ground became unfruitful [become] +--: as they really happened [happen] +I. VI Footnote 38: Di majorum gentium [Di imajorum] + _intended text may have been "Dii majorum"_ +I.VIII Exp: ... that the sea joined its waters + [... the sea joined in its waters] +--: the tradition here followed by Ovid [that tradition] +I.IX: {to endure} these sorrows [to {endure}] +I.X Exp: where he built a temple to Jupiter [when] +I.XII Footnotes 83, 84: Clarke [Clark] +I.XII: Thou, the same, shalt stand [shall] +I.XIII Footnote 92: mount AEta [AEtna] + _the reference is to the Greek mountain now spelled "Eta"_ +I.XIII Footnote 96: Pliny the Elder (Book iii. ch. 23) + ... Aous [Aeus] + _editions of Pliny vary; the cited passage may also be found as + iii.58 or iii.145_ +I.XIII: the wild beasts alone [beast] +I.XVI Exp: Argus was the son of Arestor [Argos] +I.XVII: Thou ... believest thy mother in all things [believes] +I.XVII Footnote 115: He was king of Ethiopia [Ethiopa] + +II.I: Ignorant what to do, he is stupefied + _McKay reads "stupei/fied" at page break_ + _Bell has "stupified" here, "stupefied" elsewhere_ +II.I Footnote 13: Thessaly [Thessalis] +II.I Footnote 18: This was a mountain [A mountain] +II.I Footnote 24: _Cithaeron._ [Cithoeron] +II.I Footnote 41: Cape Matapan [Metapan] +II.I Exp: the Greek form of it [from] +II.II: a long tract through the air [track] + _Latin: longo ... tractu_ +II.VII: Larissaean[69] Coronis [Larissaen] +II.IX: the womb of his mother [the wound] +II.XI: The son of Atlas laughed [sun] +II.XIII Syn: her sister's apartment [apartments] + _both editions consistently use "apartment"_ +II.XIV: which thou seest [seeest] + _this spelling is normal in Bell, but McKay uses "seest" elsewhere_ +II.XIV Exp: Palaephatus and Tzetzes suggest [suggests] + +III.I Footnote 1: 'Thebe,' which signified 'an ox.' [signifies] +III.II: the victorious enemy of immense size [in immense size] +III.II Exp: sows the teeth [their] +III.III Footnote 24: _Phyale._ [Phyule] +III.III: Now thou mayst tell [mayest] +III.III Footnote 39: _Poemenis._ [Parmenis] +III.III: Leucon,[46] with snow-white hair [Luecon] +--: her Cyprian brother, Harpalus,[52] [Harpaulus] +--: Lachne,[54] with a wire-haired body [white-haired] + _Bell text was substituted, but Latin simply has "hirsuta"_ +--: and Hylactor,[57] [Hylector] +III.III, Footnote 56: Ver. 224. [254] +III.V: become a woman from a man [became] + _participle: "having become"_ +III.VI: with the nearer flame did she burn + _word "did" illegible_ +III.VII: grief is taking away [has taken] + _reading "has taken" would require a metrically impossible Latin + "ademit" (long "e") for "adimit" (short "i")_ +III.VIII, Footnote 89: placed in the number of the Constellations + [the number of Constellations] +III.VIII: 'Lo! we are here,' says Opheltes, my chief mate [Ophletes] +--: this Alcimedon approved of [Alcemedon] +--: now confessing that he has offended [had offended] +III.VIII Exp: ... tore him in pieces. Pausanias, however ... + [to pieces, Pausanius] +--: The story ... is supposed by Bochart [Bochart] + +IV.I Footnote 1: ... Pausanias says that the Boeotians + [Pausanius] +IV.I Footnote 8: _Thyoneus._ [Phyoneus] +IV.I: the grass wet with rime [went] +--: they determine, in the silent night [determined] +--: The arrangement suits them [arrangements] +--: the most unhappy cause and companion [anhappy] +IV.I Footnote 22: _The lead decaying._ + _footnote marker missing_ +IV.II Syn: the intrigue between Mars and Venus [betwen] +IV.II: nor {yet} Clytie [not] +IV.II Footnote 37: Abas, Acrisius, Danae, Perseus [Danae, Persus] +IV.II: with her twirling spindle [with twirling spindle] +IV.V Footnote 48: (laborabat) ... 'auxiliares.' + [(laborat) ... 'auxiliaries.'] +IV.VII: And what madness can do [what madness man can do] + _"madness" is the grammatical subject: "quidque furor valeat"_ +IV.VII Footnote 57: These were the Furies [furies] +IV.VII Footnote 63: Tisiphone importuna [importune] +IV.VII Exp: by whom he had Helle and Phryxus [Phrysus] +IV.VIII Exp: Bochart says [Bochard] + _last letter of "Bochart" illegible in Bell_ +IV.X: Soon as the descendant of Abas beheld her [So soon as] + _Bell wording adopted for consistency_ +--: When he has lighted {on the ground} + _"on the ground" not italicized_ +IV.X Footnote 84: praepetes [praeptes] +IV.X: on the silent plain [on the salient plain] + _"salient" is clearly wrong, but "silent plain" is also an odd + translation of "vacuo ... arvo"_ +IV.X Exp: more common than it had been before [more common that] + +V.I: both by his merits and his words [its merits] +V.I Footnote 7: _Syene._ ... (Book i. Ep. 5, l. 79) + _text reads "Book i. Ep. i. 79"; in the Bell printing the letter + "l" is damaged and could be misread as "i"_ +V.I: thou, both her uncle and her betrothed [though, both] +V.I Footnote 8: a swingeing bowl [swinging] +V.I: the middle of the neck {of Pettalus} [Pattalus] +V.II Footnote 32: Ver. 302. [303] +V.III Footnote 43: pressed down by Lilyboeum [Lilybaeum] +V.IV: both her mother and her companions,[48] [and companions] +V.IV Footnote 50: _The Palici._ [Palaci] +V.IV Footnote 51: Dionysus [Dionysius] + _the names "Bacchius" and "Bacchus" in the same footnote are each + correct as printed_ +V.IV Footnote 57: Cinnus [Cinus] +V.IV Footnote 61: tunc denique raptam Scisset [raptum] + _Bell also has "tum" for "tunc"; both words are valid_ +V.IV Exp: the Isis of the Egyptians [the Isis of Egyptians] +--: the following circumstance: [circumstances:] +V.V Syn: Ceres proceeds in a fruitless search [the fruitless] +--: The Sirens have wings [rings] +V.V: it is {a mark of} affection [a {mark of}] +V.V: Footnote 67: The Greek name of a lizard being +askalabos+ + [a lizard askalabos] +V.VI: Erymanthus and Elis [Eyramanthus] +--: Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Arethusa! + _text reads "Ho, Arethusa! Ho, Ar-/thusa!" at line break_ +V.VI Exp: the oracle of Delphi [at Delphi] +V.VII: entrusted {to him} [to {him}] +V.VII Exp: which signified either 'a winged dragon,' or 'a ship fastened + with iron nails or bolts.' [signifies ... nails and bolts] +--: explainer of the mysteries of Eleusis [Eleusi] + +VI.I Footnote 3: the purple [purples] +VI.I Exp: unless we should prefer [he] +--: St. Augustine [Augustin] +--: calling their attention to agricultural pursuits [agricultual] +--: had himself taken the figure + _text has "the // the" at page break_ +--: numerous in the interior of Africa [is the] +VI.II: what {I wish} may fall upon herself [what I {wish}] +--: their wonted exercise {of riding} [of {riding}] +VI.III: her suckling breasts [sucking] +VI.IV: after he had drawn his clothes from his shoulder towards his + breast [shoulders] + _The Latin reads "... umeroque suas a pectore [or: ad pectora] + postquam / deduxit [or: diduxit] vestes ebur ostendisse sinistro". It + is possible to construct a Latin variation that would translate as + "from his shoulders", but editorial or typographic error is a much + likelier explanation._ +VI.IV Exp: Livy and Quintus Curtius [Quintius] +--: Marsyas may have been rash enough [Maryas] +VI.V: beyond what is becoming [his] +VI.VI: forced {from her} [{from} her] +--: from excess of affection [from the excess] +VI.VII Footnote 73: and in the Art of Love [and the Art ...] + +VII.I: {is wont} to increase [is {wont}] +VII.II: a counterfeited quarrel [counterfeit] +--: the guards together with their king [with the king] + _Latin "rege suo"_ +--: they turn away their eyes [they, turning away their eyes] + _Latin "oculosque reflectunt"_ +VII.III Footnote 62: ... This was not Thessalian Tempe + _"w" in "was" invisible_ +VII.III Footnote 69: who was said to have lived there + [who was to have] +VII.III Exp: the young princess perished in the greatest misery + _text has "in / in" at line break_ +--: the account of the women of Cos being changed [accounts] +VII.IV Footnote 75: dragged from Tartarus by Hercules [Herculea] +VII.IV Footnote 86: Anaphe [Anophe] +VII.V Syn: the island of AEgina [islands] +VII.V: the grandson of Asopus says, "Thou askest in vain [asketh] +--: the souls of sons, and of husbands [the souls of the sons] +VII.VI Exp: gave occasion to the report [of the report] +VII.VII Syn: discovering his suspicions [suspicion] +VII.VII: {standing} in the middle [{standiny}] +VII.VIII Exp: as Apollodorus tells us [tell] + + +_Corrections made by McKay, with Bell/Bohn text shown in brackets_ + +III.VI Exp: phenomenon (_two occurrences_) + _Bell spells "phoenomenon" (error for "phaenomenon")_ +IV.IV Exp: beloved by Smilax [Simlax] +IV.V heading: + _Bell misprints "Fable IV"_ +IV.VII Exp: Learchus and Melicerta [Melacerta] +V.I Footnote 17: _Now deceived._ [How deceived] + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VI.II Exp: Valerius Flaccus relates the sorrow of Clytie [Clyte] +VI.VI Exp: the ancients thereby portrayed [pourtrayed] +VI.VII Footnote 74: _The Ciconians._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ +VII.II Footnote 40: _And his hair._ + _footnote marker missing in Bell_ + + +_Variations_ + +The readings listed here are "wrong" in the sense that they are +different from what is found in the Bell/Bohn text, but they are +acceptable translations of the Latin. The Bell text is shown in +brackets. + +III.II: The Earth, too, scraped with the scales [his scales] +--: nor engage thyself in civil war [a civil war] +--: the youths ... beat with throbbing breast [breasts] +III.III: to bathe her virgin limbs in clear water [the clear water] +III.VIII: in vain try to restrain him [strive] +--: I made observations with my eyes [observation] +IV.I: the Sun, with its rays [his rays] +IV.VII: foam formed in the hollowed deep [hallowed] + _The Latin has at least three variant readings: "in medio ... + profundo", "immenso ... profundo" and "dio profundo". Riley's + translation must have been based on the "dio" (long "i" reading._ +IV.X: the name both of her country and herself + [... of the country and of herself] +V.IV: grasp {in your hand} [{in your hands}] + _the Latin has only the verb "prendere" (grasp)_ +V.VI: thy darts enclosed in a quiver [the quiver] +VI.III: oft to sit on the bank of the pool [often] +VI.V: delay will be tedious to me, and [to me. And] +VI.VI: she prepared for a horrible deed [horrid] +VII.II: to go far thence [afar] + + +_Unusual or Inconsistent Spellings and Name Forms_ + +Dieresis is unpredictable in both editions; forms such as "Phaeton", +"Ocyrrhoee" and "Danaee" are common, and have been silently corrected. +Since the ligatures "ae" and "oe" are used consistently, dieresis can be +assumed even when not explicitly indicated. + +_Unless otherwise noted, comments apply to both texts._ + +III.VIII Footnote 92: the buccanier Morgan +IV.VIII Exp: they beheld stedfastly +V.II, VI.V: villany + +Caeus, Calisto, Lilyboeus, Phyale, Phryxus, Progne + _these forms are used consistently; the original forms are Coeus + (+Koios+), Callisto (+Kallisto+), Lilybaeus (+Lilubaios+), Phiale + (+Phiale+), Phrixus (+Phrixos+), Procne (+Prokne+). Note that in the + main text, the name "Callisto" is never used, probably on metrical + grounds._ +Damasicthon, Erectheus _and similar_ + _spellings in "-cth-" used consistently in place of "-chth-"). +Achaea/Achaia; Ethiopia/AEthiopia; Phocea/Phocaea; Proserpine/Proserpina + _both forms occur, with McKay text following Bell in all cases_ + + +_Greek_ + +_Most errors in Greek words can be attributed to a typesetter who did +not know Greek. Errors and omissions in diacritical marks have been +silently corrected; only the more significant errors are listed._ + +I.VII Footnote 47: +en te era naiein+ [+hira naiein+ (McKay)] +II.XII Footnote 84: +dexai+ [+dezai+ (McKay)] +II.XIV Exp: +Hellotis+ + _both texts read +Ellotis+ with smooth breathing_ +III.III Footnote 50: +thoos+ + _both texts read +thous+_ +III.IV Exp: +Panbasileia+ [+Panbasigeia+ (McKay)] +III.VI Footnote 68: +Leirion+ [+Leioion+ (McKay)] +III.VIII Footnote 86: +akoites+ + _McKay reads +hakoites+ with rough breathing; both have misplaced + accent_ +III.VIII Footnote 87: +olenai+ + _both texts read +olenai+; McKay has initial accent for breathing + mark_ +IV.I Footnote 5: +Euoi Bakche, o Iakche, Io Bakche, Ouoi saboi+ + _text given as printed; exact form (with consistent capitalization) + is probably +Euoi Bakche, O Iakche, Io Bakche, Ouoi sabai+_ +IV.I Footnote 6: +luein+ [+kuei+ (McKay)] +V.II Footnote 31: +chaire, chaire+ [+chaire, chsire+ (McKay)] +VII.VI Footnote 105: +peleiadai+ + _text unchanged, but intended form is probably +peleiades+_ +VII.VI Exp: +murmex+ [+murmes+ (McKay)] + + +_Punctuation_ + +_The McKay (Philadelphia) edition sometimes uses double quotes where the +Bell (London) edition used single quotes. These are not individually +noted; neither is variation between colons and semicolons, and random +use of commas. Invisible punctuation at line-end has been supplied from +Bell._ + +_Shared errors and irregularities in punctuation_ + +IV.VII Footnote 69: _Guiltless granddaughter._ + _both print "grand-daughter" with anomalous hyphen_ +VI.III: 'Young man, there is no mountain Divinity for this altar.... + _This embedded single quote was apparently abandoned by the editor; + each double quote for the remainder of the Fable should be accompanied + by a single quote._ + +I.XII Footnote 80: quod amor non est / medicabilis herbis.' +IV.I: our words to our loving ears.' +IV.IV: I will entertain your minds with a pleasing novelty." +IV.X: {if} preserved by my valor." +IV.X: those snakes which she {thus} produced." +V.II: oft have the Gods above entered more humble cottages.' +V.II: Let the Nymphs decide the contest." + _close quote missing in all_ + +_Punctuation errors introduced in McKay edition_ + +[Verso of title page] Sherman & Co., Philadelphia + _period invisible_ +[General Introduction] about, ninety miles from Rome + _here and elsewhere, commas are as in the original_ +I.VI Exp: for it repenteth me that I have made them.'" [made them'] + _Bell omits quotes for Biblical citation_ +III.III: Thoues,[50] [Thoues,[50],] +IV.II: and he, no longer delaying [and, he,] +--: 'I am he .... thou art pleasing to me.' ['I am .... to me."] +IV.VII: with newly formed wings? [wings!] +V.VI: Why art thou, Arethusa, a sacred spring?' + _missing close quote_ +V.VI Exp: a mere fable; [fable!] +VI.II: she says, "What madness is this + _missing open quote_ +--: exult and triumph, my victorious enemy. But why victorious? + [enemy, But why v'ctorious?] +VI.III: hold out their little arms from my bosom' + _missing close quote_ +VII.IV Exp: Egyptian notions on the future state of man. [of man,] +VII.V Syn: the surprising manner in which it had been re-peopled. + _invisible hyphen_ +VII.V: says Cephalus:[99] "and I pray + _missing open quote_ +--: not room sufficient for the tombs, nor trees for the fires." + _missing close quote_ +VII.VI: shall have changed to the South." + _missing close quote_ + + +_Footnote Numbers_ + +_Errors in McKay edition_ + +Bk. I, ll. 516-531 (Fable I.XII) + Footnotes on this page were printed as 66-69 instead of 76-79 + (e-text note numbers 78-81); other pages were not affected. +Bk. IV, note 17*. + The footnote tag was numbered as a second 17; the note itself was + numbered the first of two 18. + +_Adjustments_ + +In the original text-- both editions-- footnote numbers began from 1 in +each Book, and started over when the count passed 99. Almost all Books +had duplications in the sequence, usually in the form "17*". In this +e-text, footnotes have been renumbered consecutively within each Book, +without duplication; Books I and VII continue past 100. + + Interpolations: + Bk. I: 51*, 67* + Bk. II: 4*, 71* + Bk. III: 72*, 88* + Bk. IV: 17*, 37*, 77* + Bk. V: 46*, 76* + Bk. VI: (no change from original sequence) + Bk. VII: 4*, 73*, 2* (second series) + + +_Line Numbers (printed as page headers)_ + +Line numbers in the McKay edition were generally correct, although +different from those in Bell due to changes in pagination. Some book +numbers in the McKay edition were misprinted: + + [II. 550-564] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 605-632] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 632-651] _printed as Bk. XIV_ + [II. 652-675] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [II. 676-693] _printed as Bk. XV_ + [IV. 233-237] _printed as Bk. I_ + [V. 95-123] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 123-151] _printed as Bk. IV_ + [V. 350-373] _printed as Bk. 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